On August 1st, we will be removing the default Oracle Java install on CAT supported Windows desktops. We are taking this action in order to maintain the security of CAT supported desktop Windows systems. Due to recent changes to licensing from Oracle, we are no longer able to freely install newer, patched versions of the [...]
During the Windows Server downtime on Friday night (7/12/2019), the server that provides some minor Windows applications to desktops will be migrated to new hardware. Users on CAT supported Tier 1/2 systems should not notice any changes. If you have made any manual mappings to a server called \\FROST, you will need to update them [...]
Starting in Summer Term 2019, the subsidized print quota and rates for buying additional capacity are changing for printers in MCECS student labs. This is driven by a need to reduce paper/media consumption and better reflect our actual costs for providing the service. The new rates are: BW single sided - $0.08 BW double sided [...]
A “highly critical” ranked security patch has been released for Mozilla Firefox. We are releasing this patch to CAT supported Tier 1/2 systems. Since this patch does not reboot your system, please make sure that you have restarted Firefox as soon as possible so that the patch is installed. We recommend that Tier 3 users [...]
In early Summer 2019, we will be transitioning our web servers to the latest long term support release of Ubuntu Linux (18.04 aka Bionic Beaver). If you have web code or applications (especially those using PHP) on “user” websites hosted under: http://web.cecs.pdx.edu/~yourusername you may be affected by some of these changes. We have set up [...]
With the Memorial Day weekend under way, many PSU users seem to be the targets of a recent series of phishing scams. Users claiming to be people you know at PSU may be approaching you with emergency solicitations for money or other resources. As always, be careful about responding to suspicious emails, even from people [...]
SFTP users, The host used to access files in your N: drive with SFTP is changing to winsftp.cecs.pdx.edu. (It used to be khensu.cecs.pdx.edu but we’re moving this service away from the file server.) For users who may be interested, SFTP is a mechanism that is available for remotely transferring files to and from your Windows [...]
Starting on May 15th, 2019, the behavior of Microsoft supplied Windows Updates will change on all CAT supported Windows systems. During “patch week”, updates will be released on Wednesday evening. From that time and throughout Thursday, desktop users may see this popup. To run the update at your convenience, visit the Software Center, go to [...]
For people who run websites on CAT infrastructure: We are updating the configurations that try to identify and prevent certain network attacks to our web servers. We have been running this new configuration for a few weeks in “passive” mode to fix any obvious false positives. We will now be switching these changes to active [...]
On December 27th, 2018, we switched CAT managed Linux workstations in our major computer labs to use an authentication/encryption system called Kerberos when accessing your files. This change is designed to significantly enhance the security of our file servers as they interact with these workstations. While most general users of these systems should not notice [...]