ITS Technology Roundtable 6/6/23 Notes

Attendance:

• 45 remote attendees
• ~15 in-person attendees

ITS Department Changes

• Tim Wrye’s role named as CIO as of July 1
• Infrastructure becomes IT Infrastructure and Systems Administration
  • Director position now open to applications: https://www.schooljobs.com/careers/highline/jobs/4071059/director-of-it-infrastructure-and-system-administration
• Pat Daniels’ role named as Deputy CIO as of July 1
  • ctcLink PMO becomes Business and Data Analysis
  • Dawn Saunders to report to Pat as of June 1 
• Customer Service becomes Technology Support Services (Theresa Duhart)
  • Theresa’s role move to Director level position as of July 1st

‘Patch Wednesdays’

• Started this back in April 2023.  Campus-wide updates from 11pm-5am, which may force reboots.  Save and close anything you are working on at the end of day Wednesday.

Microsoft Teams Phones migration over summer 2023

• Moving away from desktop phones to ‘soft phones’ using Teams, which can be used on the computer or your cell phone. 
• A much more modern solution, portable, saves money, and replaces aging phone equipment
• Desktop phones will still be available where required.
• Related hardware, such as different kinds of headsets, will be available.

“Report Message” Button in Outlook

• Report all suspicious emails using the button in Outlook or sending it to Help Desk.
• The button automatically notifies ITS and Microsoft.
• A timely response is key. By reporting as soon as you can, it gives ITS the opportunity for a quick response.

2022-23 Security Awareness Training 

• This program involved web-based training, including 3 quizzes, 1 test, and 10 Email Security Drills.
• 1352 Drills were reported via the “Report Now” button or being sent to the Help Desk.
• After the third email drill, we saw a great reduction in drill failures and a significant increase in reporting habits.
• In combination with the email security drills, the feedback survey at the end of the training indicates that our institution greatly benefited from the training.
• ITS received feedback in a Help Desk ticket: “The online trainings were what stopped this attack. Thanks for all the trainings”.

Cybersecurity Tabletop Exercise (5/17/2023)

• Attended by most of the Washington State Community and Technical Colleges
• Walkthrough example of a realistic scenario
• Operational effects and risks
• Importance of policies, procedures, and good planning
• Take Away:
  • Tighten involvement between IT Incident Response and Highline Institutional Emergency Responses Planning groups
  • Increase frequency of rehearsals of incident response and recovery tasks

Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA)

• Last line of defense of your Highline account
  • No longer a “best practice” but a “must do” for risky systems and data. Regulatory standards and insurance is going to require this.
  • MFA provides an extra layer of security.
  • Even if a hacker guesses or figures out your password, they will then also need to complete MFA before they can login as you.
• Reduces financial, data, privacy, and security risks.
• Current Strategy:
  • ctcLink to use MFA as of June 30
  • Aviso, VPN, and some other applications already using MFA with Okta.
  • Email/0365 require MFA for:
    • Accounts with administrative access
    • Accounts with specific identified risks
• Future Strategy:
  • OKTA MFA for all email users

Classrooms/Labs Update

• Engineering Lab moving from 30-212 to 16-161
  • All Arts and Design will be in Building 16
• There will be a new standard computer classroom setup for Building 30-212
• Technology upgrade for Buildings 21, 23, and 29, in collaboration with Academic Affairs
  • Building 21’s workout center will be remodeled into classrooms
  • Building 29 has 15 classrooms being upgraded (first major upgrade since that building was built)
  • Technology upgrades include better presentation equipment, cameras (some HD as needed), mics (some will have mic arrays, which pick up on voices across the classrooms, making it easier for remote students to participate), some will have 65” touch panels, High Flex equipment, 3 CIS Rooms with Wacom tablets
  • Improved teaching equipment, such as simple connections for laptops that work with the projectors, doc cams, etc
• Future project:  Building 7 upgrade to technology

Campus Technology Deployments

• Windows 11
  • Microsoft announced the end of life for Windows 10.  Must upgrade by October 14, 2024.
  • ITS to begin deployments of Windows 11 on new PC desktop replacements of faculty and staff beginning July 1, 2023.
  • All eligible devices of faculty or staff will be provided an upgrade to Windows 11 by September 2024 through scheduled upgrades.
  • Classrooms and Labs will be upgraded to Windows 11 during Winter Break December 2023 for use in Winter 2024 Quarter.
  • Sometimes operating systems take time to fully work with all classroom settings and curriculum, including certain applications and equipment, so it is standard process not to adopt it immediately. 
• Office 365
  • ITS is in the planning stages of upgrading Highline-managed Windows computers of faculty and staff.
  • Campus classrooms and labs were upgraded by Winter 2023 Quarter.
  • With Office 365, you always have the latest version of Office applications and accessibility features on your computer, automatically updating to the newest features and security upgrades as they are rolled out.
  • During June-July 2023, faculty and staff may choose to become early adopters and test Microsoft 365 by submitting a ticket to the HelpDesk
  • Will be installed on new replacement devices along with Windows 11 beginning July 2023, dependent on hardware requirements
  • Goal:  Deploy Office 365 by the end of 2023
  • If there are persons or offices that need to stay on a desktop version of Office for business reporting processes, ITS will work with them to use Office 2021.

Feedback Notes

• Question about Snipping Tool not working on Windows 11, but other users not having problems. Answer: HelpDesk is here to help you!
• Question about Print Screen hotkey on laptop not working.  Answer: Sometimes other function keys override original functions, talk to HelpDesk for more concrete help
• AppsAnywhere: Library students have been having issues, slow to log on, causing frustration. Are there improvements planned?
  • AppsAnywhere is the common ground for all applications to be launched, a modern standardized platform
  • ITS is always trying to improve performance, like adding memory in 2022 and upgrading infrastructure, upgrading computers over time across campus
  • VDI infrastructure hardware is due to be upgraded, but due to the amount of other, older systems being focused on this year, it will likely not happen until next year.
  • HelpDesk can show users how to customize it for them, reducing clutter and improving performance
• Clarification question on the Microsoft issue lately that ITS emailed about
  • Microsoft infrastructure having issues beyond Highline College’s control
  • Having widespread though somewhat random effects
    • Web versions of applications are the primary sources of problems
  • Upgrades are in progress, and Microsoft is sending out regular updates while they resolve the issue
• Comment on the Security Training Phishing Exercises:  Like being targeted by the FBI in a sting operation.