April 3, 2012
Written by Joel Pease
As the April 15th federal tax filing deadline approaches, be alert for “phishing” e-mails that claim to be from the IRS. Your tax return is an incredibly valuable source of information for identity thieves and other cybercriminals, and there have been several e-mail scams in the past that have attempted to target people’s tax return information. It is important to remember that the IRS will never ask for your tax information in an unsolicited e-mail. If you receive an e-mail claiming to be from the IRS, delete it without clicking on any links, opening any attachments, or replying to it with any information. For more information on tax e-mail scams, read this page from the IRS. Although it was written in 2008, the information it contains is still relevant to keeping you safe from this and many other e-mail phishing scams.
November 16, 2011
Written by admin
With the holidays right around the corner, many of us will shop online for gifts. Whether you use Firefox, Safari, Internet Explorer (IE), or another browser to make your purchases, it’s important to guard against cyber attacks that could harvest personal information. The November OUCH! Security Awareness Newsletter (SANS) highlights ways to protect your browser from these attacks. Two of the most important steps you can take are to update your browser and to avoid browser plug ins from untrusted or unknown sites.
November 9, 2011
Written by admin
In this age of “there’s an app for that,” it can still be difficult to find free quality educational materials online. Where do you turn if you want a lesson plan on probability for 6th to 8th graders? A map on the Lewis and Clark expedition for 3rd to 5th graders? Or a podcast on revisions in the periodic table for 6th to 12 graders?
Look no further than Thinkfinity which offers standards-based lesson plans, interactives, worksheets, podcasts, videos, and other resources for free. Thinkfinity is a partnership between the Verizon Foundation and nine educational and literacy organizations including National Geographic Education, readwritethink, ArtsEdge, and EDSITEment. Scroll down the Thinkfinity home page to view all the content partners. Thinkfinity’s state partner in Delaware is the Delaware Center for Educational Technology.
Content, aimed toward students in grades K-12, is searchable by key word or by state standards including Common Core State Standards. In addition, Thinkfinity offers content for home and after school use and professional development opportunities for educators such as online courses and webinars.
October 26, 2011
Written by admin
Information Technologies (IT) recently published recommendations on cloud storage. What is cloud storage? In a nutshell, it is commercially-available online file storage that makes it convenient to upload, share, and access files from any computer. If you use or are considering using Google Apps, Dropbox, iCloud, Box, or any other cloud storage solution, please read these recommendations. As always, if you have any questions, write to OET.
October 12, 2011
Written by Joanne Jennings
The Office of Educational Technology has obtained a college-wide site license for Kidspiration and Inspiration, visual concept-mapping software, thanks to Inspiration Software. Faculty, staff, and students may access the software on the computers in the Education Resource Center, 012 WHL, and in OET’s 007 PRS computer lab.
Kidspiration, created for K-5 students, develops critical thinking skills while strengthening reading and writing skills. With Inspiration, students in grades 6-12, communicate concepts visually, brainstorm ideas, organize and outline their thoughts, and create presenations. Various education classes within the College of Education and Human Development use the software.
October 12, 2011
Written by Joanne Jennings
If you experience unexplained browser crashes, one of the first steps to solve the problem is to look for and uninstall any toolbars. Multiple toolbars may cause conflicts that lead browsers to unexpectedly quit. Uninstalling one toolbar at a time will allow you to see where the problem resides.Â
Ways to uninstall toolbars vary depending on the toolbar or browser or both. A quick Google search will usually point you in the right direction, or if you have any questions, write to OET.
May 3, 2011
Written by George Mulford
From today’s SANS NewsBites Vol. 13 Num. 35
–Malware Targets Macs
(May 2, 2011)
Malware targeting Mac OS X has been detected, though it is not widespread. Those spreading the malware are exploiting users’ interest in late breaking news about Bin Laden’s death. MacDefender claims to be security software and tries to trick users into paying up to US $80 for what amounts to useless software. This marks the first time that rogue antivirus software has targeted Mac users. The program generates a stream of messages on users’ computers that malware has been detected on their machines, and urges them to download security software. Safari users who have selected the “open ‘safe’ files after downloading” setting will have the malware installed immediately upon visiting one of the malicious pages. In other cases, for users to become infected, they have to open a ZIP file and manually install the malware. There
is a legitimate software developer with the same name as the malware; they are not in any way connected.
[Editor's Comment (Northcutt): As a public safety announcement, please warn your people not to open any mail messages with attachments that claim to have video, pictures etc of Bin Laden, the Navy Seal team, Amazing Grace at Ground Zero, the wife that was a human shield etc. This doesn't only apply to Macs, PCs, iPhones, Androids, just do not do it. I will bet the botnets add a million compromised systems from people clicking on this one.]
March 1, 2011
Written by George Mulford
From SANS NewsBites Vol 13 Num 17, 3/1/2011
–Trojan Modified to Target Macs
(February 25 & 28, 2011)
A Trojan horse program that targets Windows machines has been modified to infect Macs. The malware can force a shutdown of infected computers, run arbitrary shell commands and add text to desktops. It can also generate pop-up dialog boxes that request the computer’s Administrator Password. The malware, known as BlackHole RAT, generates a message upon reboot that informs the user that the machine is infected, and notes that while it is currently under development, there will be additional features in the future. It is based on the darkComet Trojan for Windows.
http://www.scmagazineus.com/blackhole-malware-in-beta-aims-for-mac-users/article/197199/
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2011/02/28/mac_trojan_backdoor/
http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9211659/Hacker_writes_easy_to_use_Mac_Trojan?taxonomyId=17
February 28, 2011
Written by George Mulford
The Adobe Acrobat document linked below is from the February 2011 edition of OUCH!, the monthly security wrap-up from the SANS institute. It’s wonderfully clear without being dumbed down. Recommended reading!
George
OUCH-201102_en
November 6, 2010
Written by Joanne Jennings
As recently reported in UDaily, strong passwords prevent identity theft and protect your information. A strong password is one that is not easily guessed, contains a variety of characters, and is long. Experts disagree on the optimal password length; Microsoft recommends 14 or more characters and Apple recommends eight characters.
Strong passwords do not have to be difficult to remember though. They can be a phrase that is meaningful to you such as “iliveonmainst”. Due to it’s length, this password would take some time to break, but it would be even stronger if you substituted special characters and numbers for the letters, (e.g., i!1ve0nma1n5t).
If you access your files on the OET network, you may have four passwords to remember, depending on how your computer is configured: a UDelNet ID password, a PIN, an OET user account, and your computer’s password. Since user names are often publicly available, it is important to use strong passwords and not to share any of these passwords with anyone. Information Technologies (IT) and OET will never ask you for your password through e-mail. If you receive an e-mail message requesting your password, do not respond and delete it.
If you are curious whether your passwords are strong, try Microsoft’s Password Checker. If your passwords are weak or of medium strength, you should change them immediately.
