IT News

According to Carl Asti, Director of IT-University Media Services, UD pays licensing fees to ASCAP (The American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers), BMI (Broadcast Music Inc.) and SESAC (Society of European Stage Authors and Composers) for limited rights to use protected media. “Composers, performers and authors pay ASCAP, BMI and SESAC to protect their rights. When UD, a radio station, a local bar or a cover band pays the license fees, the copyright holders receive royalties,” Asti said.

UD's agreements allow the use of ASCAP, BMI or SESAC music for official University purposes.

The University of Delaware has arranged for student, faculty and staff use of many copyrighted resources. In addition, there are several resources you can use to teach yourself more about using copyrighted material.

During October—National Cyber Security Awareness Month—University of Delaware Information Technologies (IT) is reminding the University community of the importance of following good computer security practices.

“One of the most important things for everyone at UD to remember is that we all have confidential information we need to protect,” Scott Sweren, UD's IT-Information Security Officer, said.

“Individuals need to be concerned not only about their personal, non-public information (PNPI), but also about other people's PNPI they hold. Specifically, as employees of the University, faculty and staff have a responsibility to protect PNPI in accordance with University policy,” he said.

Beginning in 2001, EDUCAUSE, the National Cyber Security Alliance (NCSA), and other national organizations joined together to identify October as National Cyber Security Awareness Month (NCSAM). Again this year, the University of Delaware is joining in the annual effort to promote cyber security information to the campus community.

“During October 2009, we'll remind the University community how important it is for everyone to protect their computers, the information we store on our computers, and our network,” Scott Sweren, UD's IT-Information Security Officer, said.

IT-Academic Technology Services (IT-ATS) has published a list of options to help faculty reduce a possible disruption to their fall courses. In the event of an extended interruption of classes, these choices provide a certain level of teaching continuity in an online environment and an opportunity to stay in touch with students. Throughout the summer, the University of Delaware's Communicable Disease Working Group explored how a potential campus outbreak of H1N1 influenza could seriously impact teaching and learning, particularly for classes taught in a traditional face-to-face setting.

The latest edition of the IT Activity Report is now available at www.udel.edu/IT-activity.

The University hosted a safety information venue in the Perkins Student Center on Sept. 9 for the incoming class of 2013: "13 Tips for Safety on Campus." Although the session was directed primarily at freshmen, all students were welcome. Staff members and student employees of IT-CS&S participated by answering questions about different facets of computer security.

The week of August 24, IT’s Information Security Office and IT-CS&S hosted a comprehensive information security class for governmental agencies, institutions, and organizations in the greater Wilmington area.

University of Delaware faculty and staff are being provided a unique opportunity to participate in an interactive Web conference with colleagues on campus and across the country. The EDUCAUSE Learning Initiative 2009 Online Fall Focus Session, "Flattening the Classroom: Building Collaborative Learning Environments," will be held from noon to 5 p.m., Wednesday, Sept. 23, and Thursday, Sept. 24, with the UD event in Room 011 of Smith Hall. This is an EDUCAUSE Learning Initiative online interactive event hosted in Adobe Connect and cosponsored locally by the UD Sakai group and IT/Academic Technology Services. According to EDUCAUSE, “This virtual event will be much more than just a 'usual' online seminar. You'll exchange ideas and collaborate interactively with the ELI community -- all without leaving your campus."

Over 1,200 new students asked for help setting up their computers, printers, TVs, and other devices on Sat. and Sun., Aug. 29 and 30. A group of 40 IT staff members and 20 IT student employees walked, biked, and drove around campus during Move-in Days, helping students join our high-speed campus network--UDelNet. This year, we used a consistent color scheme (blue 'Tech Help' t-shirts and signs) to make sure students could find the computing sites our staff were using as headquarters and could easily identify someone in their residence hall who could provide Tech Help.

Who hasn't received an e-mail message saying that your "bank" needs you to authenticate your account information or risk having your access shut off immediately? Or e-mail requiring you to provide your password for your University e-mail account? These e-mail messages are bogus and are called "phishing scams." Phishing is a criminal activity that uses electronic means to attempt to acquire private information such as credit card numbers, passwords, and Social Security Numbers by pretending to be an authentic organization. Many of these messages purport to be from popular social web sites (e.g., Facebook and MySpace), online payment companies (e.g., PayPal), online banks (e.g., Wilmington Trust, Bank of America, Emigrant Direct), and Internet Server Providers (e.g., Yahoo, AOL).