UMBC OIT Newsletter: Fall 2002

OIT Newsletter
Fall 2002

KUDOS TO . . .

Noelle Marie Caddeo

The Caddeo & Patnaude Families
OIT's 2002 UMBC Service Awardees
Rob Banz
Andy Johnston
John Fritz & Bill Shewbridge
Jack Suess
Bill Hamilton
Danielle St. Cyr

CONTACTS

Newsletter
OIT

NEWS

Survey Results Suggest Students Have Adequate Computer Access

When UMBC adopted its Assured Access to Computing Initiative last fall, a primary goal was to lower the barrier to machine access and ownership. To help, the campus arranged for "best price" deals with Dell and Apple, and set up an online loan application with the State Employees Credit Union (SECU).

However, for students who could not afford a computer, a pilot leasing program was created using older machines removed from OIT computing labs. The cost to students was $25 per semester. Working with the Office of Financial Aid, OIT contacted students with the greatest financial need, based on an estimated family contribution (EFC) of "$0" and eligibility for maximum Pell grants, loans and other federal and state funds.

Of the 852 students eligible for the leasing program, only 72 participated in the program. Surprized by the low numbers, OIT surveyed the participants and non-participants in spring 2002. More than 91 percent of the non-participants said they already owned a computer, and nearly 80 percent of the participants said they have adequate access, either through their own computer or someone else's.

Given the high rate of student ownership, ever decreasing cost of a new computer, general availability of public computing labs, and significant "hidden" costs associated with the pilot leasing program (e.g., inventory storage, repairs, upgrades, accounting, etc.), OIT is still exploring if a leasing program is needed or sustainable. For more information on the survey results and methodology, contact Mike Carlin, director of Infrastructure and Support Services at 410.455.2578 or mikec@umbc.edu.

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New Buildings, Efficient Scheduling Should Improve Classroom Technology

Artist's rendering of the IT Engineering
Building. More info. & web cam.

Five years ago, it was not uncommon to see someone pushing an audio/visual cart from one class to another. But now you almost have to run for cover. In 1997 OIT's A/V Services unit delivered around 1,000 laptops and data projectors. But last year, deliveries increased to 3,500 laptops, and nearly 6,000 data projectors. That doesn't include deliveries for VCRs, overhead projectors, or scheduled use of instructional labs, distance learning facilitities or media duplication services, all of which are
projected to increase this year. In short, classroom technology is in high demand, but it's been challenging to keep pace with staffing and resources to support it.

Artist's rendering of the Public Policy Building.
More info. & web cam.

Fortunately, the new IT Engineering and Public Policy Buildings will provide nine general classroms and three lecture halls, all with integrated A/V support. In addition, OIT is working with the Registrar's Office to
implement Resource 25, a classroom and facilities management tool used by most colleges and universities. While Resource 25 doesn't have it now, A/V Services is working with Academic Services to add its database of classroom facilities including attributes such as size, ethernet ports, built-in projection.

"If a course frequently requires A/V support but typically meets in a classroom with no fixed A/V facilities, it's inefficient to keep running carts back and forth for each class period," says Victor Aulestia, OIT's director of Classroom Technology. "Instead, we should try to find permanent space that meets the course's technology needs. The new space and more efficient scheduling should help us find that solution."

For more information, contact Victor Aulestia at 410.455.3209 or aulestia@umbc.edu, or visit the A/V Services web site.

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OIT Releases RedHat Linux Distribution

OIT recently released a version of the RedHat 7.3 Linux distribution, modified to fit the unique needs of UMBC Linux users both on and off campus. Optimally configured to run a client PC (as opposed to a server), UMBC Redhat Linux includes features that have made Redhat a stable and popular choice for Linux users worldwide (such as RPM package management) with extensive customizations designed to easily mesh with campus computing services. Specifically, the UMBC Redhat Linux Distribution includes:

Current updates and patches (as of Redhat 7.3 release date).
Enhanced default security settings
Integration with UMBC's AFS file system
Support for LAN/PPP networking from both on and off campus

OIT will use several channels to ensure that its version of Redhat Linux is readily available to members of the campus community interested in running an open source, free-of-charge operating system. The entire package (approx. 700 Megabytes) may be downloaded from an anonymous FTP server and "burned" to an appropriately sized, writable CD. Additionally, copies of the single-CD distribution may be checked out for 24-hours from the OIT Helpdesk, located in room 020 of the ECS building (x53838). Detailed documentation and download information for the UMBC Redhat Linux Distribution may be found at (http://www.umbc.edu/oit/sans/core/umbc-redhat).

FEATURE

This is one of several pictures taken by OIT Help Desk Consultant Vergil Bushnell during the blackout. Other shots are available on his "blackout" web site.

The Long, Dark Day: OIT Staff Respond to 10/18 Campus Blackout
By Vergil Bushnell

On October 18, UMBC suffered a sudden, campus-wide electrical blackout. While most of the campus slept, OIT personnel swung into action. John Freelander and James Funaoka, working the graveyard shift at OIT's Helpdesk (located in room 020 of the ECS building), grabbed flashlights from a supply closet and dialed their way down a telephone tree of system administrators and essential personnel. Freelander and Funaoka locked ECS computer labs while alarm circuits throughout the facility consumed the last of their battery power and shrieking "like an air raid," according to Freelander.

Funaoka estimated about 15 students were working in the ECS labs when the building -- and most of the computers in it -- went black. "Students came over and asked what was going on," he recalled. "We explained to them the situation." Funaoka, who had originally intended to spend the early morning hours cleaning out his cubicle, described an orderly reaction to a potentially chaotic situation. "I was concerned that students might panic and that workstations might be stolen. Some students were concerned about their data ...no panic, though."

Following instructions phoned in from system administrators, the two consultants threw the main switch to the server room's pair of power conditioners to prevent sudden spikes of power from physically damaging equipment.

Mark Cather (head of OIT's Physical Networks division) was woken by an automated page from UMBC's Netsaint server monitoring system before hearing sirens on Frederick Rd and receiving a call from Funaoka. Before heading in, Cather checked with UMBC's boiler room "to see if it was something I could fix, or bigger."

Cather and a handful of OIT system adminstrators trickled into the ECS server room. Although most ECS facilities (such as the Helpdesk) were dark, a generator inside the University Center output enough current to power the emergency lights in room 012. Cather immediately began to switch off non-essential devices such as modems to save wattage. As a result, one hour and ten minutes of backup power remained for critical web & network services such as DHCP (Dynamic Host Control Protocol) and DNS (Domain Name Service).

Fortified by several timely deliveries of Dunkin' Donuts and coffee, OIT staff managed to safely shut down a "significant portion of AFS fileservers" before the backup power ran out according to OIT system administrator Tim Craig. "Otherwise, data corruption could have occured if servers weren't shut down cleanly," Craig explained. Most machines were shut down and brought back up with minimal difficulty. The primary Kerberos server, however, a dedicated Silicon Graphics workstation described by OIT's Randy Philipp as "the heart of the authentication system at UMBC" didn't fare so well. "The hard drive had to be swapped out into a new machine," Philipp recalled. Thorough post-blackout assessments revealed that the 12-hour outage had damaged several Ethernet switches used in ECS computer labs.

For Tim Craig and others, the power outage offered an unanticipated chance to squeeze in several hours of sundry, but ordinarily disruptive chores including "cleaning up cables under the floor," and "pulling up unused extension cords -- things I really wouldn't have been doing with power, for fear of pulling the wrong cord.

Blackout Provides Dry Run for Disaster Recovery Plans

Currently, OIT maintains an elaborately intertwined system of procedures and technological countermeasures to soften the impact of potentially catastrophic incidents, electrical and otherwise. Isolated or localized equipment failures (a burnt-out ResNet router, or an unpingable server, for example) may be caught by specialized monitoring software such as Intermapper and Netsaint. The server room in ECS 012 is equipped with a Sensaphone system, which dials system administrators in the event of potentially catastrophic conditions ranging from temperature fluctuations to brownouts. Although most OIT staff members agreed that the October 18 blackout was handled effectively, OIT plans to upgrade from numerous small UPS (Uninterupptable Power Supply) devices to a single, centralized "room-sized UPS which will service all the equipment in the server room using the existing main power distribution," according to Mike Carlin, OIT's Director of Infrastructure & Support Services. Carlin explained that OIT equipment will be connected to a diesel generator to be located in the new Information Technology building in the coming Spring. In the event of a power disruption, the planned UPS will power servers until the generator (with an estimated running time of 48 hours) switches on.

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FROM THE CIO

Jack Suess

UMBC Takes A Leading Role in Higher Ed Cyber Security

Surprisingly to most people, security was not one of the original design goals when the Internet was created. In February, 1999 what is called a distributed denial of service (DdoS) was done from a variety of sites, mostly higher education institutions, that took down services like Yahoo and Ebay. While there had been numerous security problems in the years before that, people did not understand how easily electronic commerce could be impeded. Since those attacks, a number of other computer system attacks have occurred against private companies and government systems.

As a consequence of the Internet becoming a key resource for information and commerce, securing cyberspace has become one of our key national goals. On September 18th, Richard Clark of the Office of Homeland Security released the draft plan for securing cyberspace. This plan focuses on 13 key industries and groups, of which one is higher education. The plan calls for universities to step up in a number of concrete ways:

Developing courses in computer security and preparing more students for careers in the field of computer security;
Conducting new research in computer science that is focused on enhancing computer security; and
Collaborating with other to develop best practices and making network and computer security a priority on campus, thereby lessening the number of incidents originating from higher education.

UMBC is active in all fronts. In terms of the first two points UMBC is a Center for Information Security and Assurance (CISA). There are 36 centers nationally that are selected by the federal government through competitive review. Dr. Alan Sherman, Associate Professor of CSEE, is the director of the CISA at UMBC (http://www.cisa.umbc.edu). Working closely with IFSM and OIT the center is focused on increasing the number of students interested in computer security and expanding research in computer security.

In terms of working to improve network and computer security on campus, two of the leading IT organizations within higher education, Internet2 and Educause, have created a security task force to develop strategies for institutions. This effort is funded by a NSF grant. I have been active in this steering committee and have participated in two of the four NSF workshops.

It is clear from the discussions that I have participated in that UMBC is developing or has implemented most of the best practices being identified. This year our agenda for improving security at UMBC is focused on the following goals:

By December 02, update the administrative disaster recovery plan to encompass all critical systems in OIT – including academic systems such as Blackboard, GL, and AFS.
By June 03, in collaboration with functional departments, create contingency plans appropriate for the scenario that a fire would occur in the computer room requiring 60 days to bring computer room back up.
Deploy a remote access security solution that can be used for wireless and off-campus access.
By December 02, develop measurable strategies to insure that all students have virus protection installed on their computer before connecting to the network.
Implement virus and spam checking on our central email servers.
Create a service for faculty workstations that faculty can sign up for that will perform weekly security scans for known vulnerabilities.
Implement a firewall solution for the dorm networks.
Develop plans for a campus firewall that will safeguard machines that should not be directly accessible from off-campus.
Create a UMBC Linux distribution for deployment on campus
Eliminate the use of non-encrypted passwords by replacing telnet with SSH, ftp with ftp over SSH, and SSL-based IMAP authentication.

As we move forward with these initiatives we want to make certain that we balance security with privacy and academic freedom. In that regard, OIT has been working closely with the Faculty Senate Computer Policy Committee and the IT Steering committee to make certain that we keep these initiatives in balance.

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Internet2 – Priority Networking for Research

Sending an email to a colleague, working collaboratively on research with faculty at other campuses, accessing databases or resources located at other universities – all of these are everyday occurrences for many faculty and all are greatly facilitated through UMBC’s participation in Internet2.

Internet2 was founded in 1996 as a way for leading research universities to develop a national data network that would provide researchers with the bandwidth and quality required for their research. UMBC joined in 1997, and we have a 155 megabit connection to Internet2 through the Mid-Atlantic Gigapop, located in College Park. As a result, faculty connecting to NASA, or CalTech, or Princeton bypass the regular internet used for surfing the web and can get information much faster than would otherwise be the case. One of the most interesting ways that Internet2 has been used on campus is with streaming media technology in the Arts. A inter-disciplinary group of faculty have created the Streaming Media Umbrella group. To date, UMBC has done a number of collaborative performances with other Internet2 members.

In terms of OIT involvement in Internet2 we have been very active members in the Internet2 Middleware initiative since January 2000. In fact, Rob Banz of OIT has had part of his salary paid by Internet2 so that he could work on the National Middleware Initiative being led by Internet2. Middleware is arcane and in this case focuses on how people authenticate and our authorized to use various network resources. One of the benefits that UMBC got from this participation is the development of our LDAP directory, which facilitated our online account creation, integration of Blackboard, and allows your UMBC account to be used for a number of self-service applications. In addition to Rob Banz, Mark Cather and Damian Doyle have participated in the networking engineering groups and Jack Suess has been very active in the Internet 2 Middleware project as well.

We see this involvement as being strategic for UMBC because the NSF is funding the Internet2 Middleware initiative to be the basis for how researchers collaborate and share resources in the future. Ultimately, we anticipate that this middleware technology will be used broadly in the library community for access to external content publishers.

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FYI

Karin Readel

TLT Brown Bag: Students Tend to Overestimate Their Technology Skills

How do students' technology skills influence what a teacher can do in a course? How do you even assess technology skills? During the November 18 Teaching, Learning & Technology Brown Bag workshop, Science 100 Instructor Karin Readel shared results of a survey she's designed and administered to 638 students from Fall 2001 through Fall 2002.

Among her conclusions:

Students tend to rank themselves as intermediate computer users, but overestimate their skills.
- 25 percent don’t know what operating system (OS) is running on their computers;
- 32 percent don’t know how to convert a file to the universal rich text format (RTF);
- 45 percent don’t know how to scan for viruses;
- 6 percent don’t know what Word Processing program they use;
Approximately 60 percent of students had used Blackboard before
- More upperclassmen vs. freshmen
- There seems to be a correlation between student computer ability and satisfaction with Blackboard.

In addition to assessing technical skills to work collaboratively on group web projects, Readel surveyed her broad range of students because her experience wasn't matching perceptions of other faculty. "I'm always hearing faculty say today's students are technologically advanced," says Readel who has taught at UMBC for four years."However, I was spending more class and personal time on skills I would have thought intermediate computer users should know. Maybe there's more technology available to students than in the past, but we shouldn't always assume they've mastered it."

The Teaching, Learning and Technology (TLT) Brown Bag workshops are sponsored jointly by the Faculty Development Center and Office of Information Technology. For more information, including an archive of past workshops, visit http://www.umbc.edu/brownbag.

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Degree Navigation Version 2.0 Released

Do you need to check a student's transcript but don't have his or her Social Security Number (SSN)? Name Search is just one of the new features of Degree Navigation version 2.0 now available in myUMBC for faculty and advisors.

For information about upcoming training sessions or demonstrations, contact Eric Lampe, director of Academic Services at 410.455.4934 or elampe@umbc.edu.

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Fighting SPAM – Reclaiming Your Inbox

On an average day UMBC processes about 300,000 incoming messages, with almost half of these being SPAM, which is also known as “Unwanted Commercial Email” or UCE.. A challenge in fighting SPAM campuswide is that one person's legitimate email message might very well be considered SPAM by another person. Another challenge is that people who send out this SPAM take countermeasures to make it much harder to identify their mail as SPAM. Those sending this SPAM out send these messages do it from hundreds of anonymous email accounts and often forge the sender’s name and subject. As such, to identify email you have to look at the message body of every incoming message. Starting last spring OIT took action to re-engineer our central mail servers with the goal of roviding some way of identifying SPAM. We purchased three new Sun servers for central mail processing and installed a software package called Spam-Assassin that uses heuristics to identify SPAM. These heuristics look for phrases such as “Make money fast” or other common terms often found in messages we would classify as SPAM. For each rule it encounters the software develops a “score”, a higher score means the message is more likely to be SPAM. The danger in using a tool like this is that it is very possible for some messages to be identified as SPAM that are legitimate. If the message is automatically deleted or rejected then we are blocking legitimate communication.

Internally within OIT we have been using this for the past two months with good success. We are now developing a web-based interface that will be accessible through myUMBC that people can use to configure this for your account. We expect to have this web interface up by January 2003.

--Jack Suess

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Tune Into 12/10 Internet2 "Megaconference" in ECS 025

UMBC is now registered to participate in Internet2 MegaconferenceIV to be held December 10. This will be a worldwide interactive videoconference with 150-200 sites participating. This event is free and open to the campus community, and will be held in ECS 023. For more information, see the conference web site or contact Paul Iwancio at 410.455.3822 or iwancio@umbc.edu.

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