As seen in recent headlines, institutionally targeted ransomware attacks are on the rise. The initial entry for these attackers seem to use many of the same techniques that we have seen in the past so it is becoming very important, as frequent computer users, to keep our guard up. This is particularly important for faculty, [...]
The Solidworks for Students offering is currently unavailable for new activations (or renewals). The vendor has changed their licensing scheme and we are working on departmental guidance for how this product may be provided to MCECS students in the future. If you need to use Solidworks, the production version is available in many of our [...]
During the break between Spring and Summer terms of 2021, we will be performing an operating system upgrade of the server that supports web pages in: https://web.cecs.pdx.edu/~user This change will happen on Wednesday, June 16th, 2021. If you have any web content on this server that uses PHP or any other programming/scripting code, we strongly [...]
In recent weeks, we have had reports of these newer phishing variants landing in MCECS users’ mailboxes. 1) The “I want to talk to you about a student” query The email appears to come from another university and the sender usually has an email address that doesn’t match the originating university. It asks to schedule [...]
OIT has decommissioned myfiles.pdx.edu, the web-based access mechanism to their file server resources. If you are trying to access the file server resources tied to your campus-wide Odin account, you will need to connect to the VPN and use operating system dependent file access methods. From Windows: https://portlandstate.atlassian.net/servicedesk/customer/portal/2/article/44717005 From Mac: https://portlandstate.atlassian.net/servicedesk/customer/portal/2/article/44716965 Another option to access [...]
Recently, web site maintainers in MCECS have been receiving phishing emails disguised as complaints about the misuse of copyrighted images on their sites. The emails are often submitted through a contact form or to published contact email addresses. They often have a title that looks like: You have no legal rights to use my images [...]
If you actively make use of IPv6 routing over the MCECS OpenVPN, this may affect you. Otherwise, please ignore. On Thursday, November 12, 2020, our OpenVPN servers will stop setting IPv6 addresses and advertising IPv6 routes. We are making this change due to issues some users have experienced with unusual IPv6 conditions on their home [...]
At long last, Adobe is ending support for the old Flash web browser plugin. This means that the Flash plugin will soon be removed from web browsers on CAT supported systems. After the plugin is gone, any websites you visit that still use Flash will no longer render properly on the affected web browser. Adobe’s [...]
Greetings from the Computer Action Team! Fall 2020 is going to be a remotely-accessed experience for most MCECS users. Whether you’re a student, faculty, or staff, you can learn more about your MCECS account by following this link: https://cat.pdx.edu/users/getting-help/ We have built a resource that catalogs many of the most commonly asked questions we encountered [...]
Logins to most CAT supported Linux systems are moving to a different underlying authentication system (known as “kerberos”). Here are the potential side effects of that change. 1) Login using password This is the most common method used for logging in. With a few exceptions, users will not notice any change. If you are unable [...]