Thursday, June 26, 2009

Attention Banner Users

Please do not download Internet Explorer 8 on your computer! It does not work with Banner, and SCT/Sunbuard has not given us a date as to when IE8 will be compatible with Banner.

If you have any questions, please call CIT at 7670 or email at cit@hope.edu.

posted by Pauline Rozeboom at 2:50 PM 

Tuesday, May 19, 2009

Three Hour Tour

Just sit right back and you'll hear a tale....

Our three hour tour of campus technology projects and innovation departs from Port Haworth at 9 a.m. We can't wait to hear more about all of the great things happening with students and faculty!

Can't make it for the trip? Follow us on Twitter @hope3hourtour . Bon Voyage!

posted by Rebecca Robrahn at 5:19 AM 

Tuesday, April 21, 2009

Additional Computer Outages

Tuesday, April 21, 2:21am: Access to Banner and associated services (KnowHope Plus, SHARP, JobStop, RDBLite) has been restored. No data was lost as a result of this outage. Please contact the CIT Help Desk (x7670 or cit@hope.edu) with questions.

Monday, April 20, 7:57pm: CIT is currently diagnosing ongoing problems with the College's Banner database. As a result Banner, KnowHope Plus, SHARP, JobStop, and RDBLite are currently not available. We do not yet have an estimate of when service will be restored.

It does not appear that this situation is the result of outside parties trying to access the system.

Updates will be posted here as they are available.

posted by Jeff Pestun at 2:21 AM 

Monday, April 20, 2009

Cause of Friday's Computer Outages

The server outages of this past Friday appear to have been caused a foreign "hacker" group. Research shows that their goal is to deface the system by replacing the home page (in this case the KnowHope Plus login screen) with an announcement of their existence as well as a brief political statement.

This type of action is commonly referred to as "defacing" - the Internet equivalent of graffiti. Following anti-tagging (graffiti) strategies, we're not posting their name in order to avoid publicizing their exploits (this is the type of attention they seek). Although they did not succeed in that effort, the attempts were substantial enough to render the system inoperable. Their attacks appear to be random - there's no indication that Hope College was specifically targeted.

It's important to note that the targeted system is NOT one that houses the Banner database. It provides formatted screens into which that data is inserted. However when the link between the targeted system and the Banner data was broken, the database was thrown into an unstable state. That instability is what eventually caused Friday's data entry to become inaccessible.

posted by Jeff Pestun at 10:58 AM 

Sunday, April 19, 2009

Important News About Friday's Computer Outages

Starting mid-day Friday, April 17, malicious external computers attacked several of our servers. As you are likely aware, Banner and many of its associated services (primarily KnowHope Plus, JobStop, SHARP, RDBLite) were unavailable for most of Friday afternoon. Many CIT staff worked late into Saturday morning to stop the problem and restore the affected systems to operation. In doing so, they also involved our external support providers in an attempt to use as many experts as possible to minimize the impact of this attack, which is amongst the worst we've ever seen.

As the staff got the Banner database and all associated services running, it was clear that the crash of the database had damaged data to the point where it could not be considered reliable. It was therefore necessary to restore the systems from the previous night's backup. As a result, any data entry or modifications performed after 2:00am on Friday (4/17) are not in the system. Any data entry done in Banner on Friday, April 17, will need to be re-done. This includes data entered via KnowHope Plus, JobStop, SHARP, and RDBLite.

We are confident that no data was stolen; instead this was an attack to bring the systems down. Crashing the systems corrupted the data and that is why we needed to discard it and go to the backups.

Moodle, e-mail, network file services, academic lab software, and most other services were unaffected.

It is unlikely students will be need to take action or re-enter data, with one exception: Any student employees who entered work time information on Friday, April 17 will have to resubmit that information via KnowHope Plus.

We are sending specific e-mails to groups of staff who we know lost work from Friday--this general announcement is to let the rest of campus know what has happened. Unless you receive one of these specific e-mails, you can assume your work has been protected. However, feel free to contact the CIT Help Desk if you have suspicions or questions. Additionally, CIT will be holding a public Question and Answer session about this matter at 10:00am on Monday, April 20, in the Maas Conference Room.

We sincerely apologize for the inconvenience and extra work this has caused.

posted by Jeff Pestun at 7:13 PM 

Tuesday, March 24, 2009

Email problems resolved

Google has indicated that the problems with 1HOPE email should now be resolved. Please log out of your email account and reboot your computer to ensure that the fix has been applied.

If you previously selected 'older version' to access your email you should now be able to switch back to the 'newer version' using the link in the upper right hand corner of the 1HOPE screen.

If you continue to experience problems, please contact the CIT Help Desk (x7670 or cit@hope.edu).

posted by Jeff Pestun at 4:09 PM 

Problems with 1HOPE email

CIT has received several reports regarding problems with 1HOPE email. The most common issue involves being stuck on "Loading" when trying to click on a message. We're currently working with Google (the College's email provider) to resolve this. As a temporary workaround, please use the 'older version' of 1HOPE. The 'older version' can be accessed by selecting the link in the upper right hand corner of the 1HOPE screen.

Updates will be posted here as they are available.

posted by Jeff Pestun at 8:45 AM 

Wednesday, January 14, 2009

Students: Need help with your computer?

Students, if you need help getting your computer connected, removing viruses, or using wireless, bring your computer to a ConnectHope Troubleshooting Fair. A technician will sit down with you and work through the problem (free of charge!). All Fairs are held in the CIT Office, located in Durfee Hall near the President's House:

Mondays = 2:00 pm - 4:00 pm

Tuesdays = 9:00am - 11:00am
Wednesdays = 2:00 pm - 4:00 pm

Thursdays = 9:00am - 11:00am
Fridays = 2:00 pm - 4:00 pm

If you use a laptop, all you need to bring is the computer and power supply. If you use a desktop, just bring the tower (CPU). Note that you are required to stay with your PC while it's being worked on.

If you need more immediate assistance or help with things like reinstalling Windows or repairing hardware, we've negotiated reduced rates for Hope students/faculty/staff at several local computer repair shops. For more information and examples of the discounts, look here.

posted by Jeff Pestun at 3:25 PM 

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