internet

IT Services update for week of May 13, 2013

Critical Services (Banner, Moodle, Wireless, Internet, Telephony)

One of our commercial internet providers had a problem yesterday morning at about 1:00am, and our systems automatically and seamlessly failed over to our backup provider.  Service was returned to our primary provided at about 4:00pm.  There was no indication that any of our clients was impacted through these transitions.

The graphs below show our traffic being switched to the secondary provider (bottom), and then back to our primary connections (top and middle.)

cyberaoutagemay2013-2

All other critical services functioning normally.

Canada-wide Science Fair

IT Services was heavily involved in supporting the Canada-wide Science Fair that was hosted on campus over the past week.  We deployed a high-density wireless network in the gymnasium area, and provided wireless access to delegates who were staying in our student residences as well.  We saw over 20,000 accesses of the wireless network on Wednesday alone.  We also provided a number of workstations and printers for use of the judges.

All reports from CWSF organizers indicate that everything went very smoothly, and all the technology performed exactly as expected.

Wireless access points installed on CWSF booths:

wifitree

Computers installed for delegate and judge use:

workstations

Cyber Security – A community effort

Kevin Vadnais, Information Security Analyst, was asked to present on cyber safety to two community groups in November and early December.  A parent preschool group in Coaldale, and the Lethbridge Breakfast Club were brought up to speed on cyber safety and identity protection.

kevin vadnais1 nov30 2012

“They asked me to explain some of the things that would help them become more savvy about internet threats, and to protect their own personal information online.”

Vadnais demonstrated how easily someone can become a victim of identity theft. Within minutes of conducting internet queries and piecing together seemingly unrelated bits of information about one of the audience members, Vadnais had the full name, birthdate, parents’ names, parents’ address, parents’ phone number, along with their children’s information. This eye-opening video shows a similar example.

For more details about Vadnais’ presentations, see the article published by the Lethbridge Herald.

If you have questions about the University’s cyber security program, or would like advice on how to be cyber safe, contact the Solutions Centre at  help@uleth.ca or 403-329-2490.