I.      Announcements

  • Security Services Project Update:  

Multi-Factor Authentication:  As of July 1, 2016 all Duke University employees must use multi-factor authentication (MFA) when logging into Duke@Work.  Visit https://idms-mfa.oit.duke.edu to set up MFA.

Dukeblue Secure Wireless:  The campaign to move everyone on campus over to Dukeblue, Duke’s new encrypted secure wireless network, is continuing with the current focus on departments and academic groups. Local IT groups have been trained and can provide support if there are any problems connecting or have other issues with the service. 

Managed Computers:  The initiative to ensure that Duke owned computers are being patched and are using up-to-date applications is moving forward and is on track to be in place by July 1. 

  •  Approval of Minutes: The ITAC minutes from the March 24th ITAC Meeting were approved.

 

II.     Agenda Items

4:05- 4:30 – SISS Redesign Check-in, Kathy Bader, John Campbell (15 minute presentation, 10 minute discussion)

What it is:  ACES/STORM portal redesign:  A new web interface for the common student and faculty views of our student information system has been designed based on feedback from faculty and student users of the current system.  Kathy and her team will review progress to date, including the launch of ACES BETA to students.

Why it’s relevant: Faculty and student users of the student information system have expressed numerous frustrations in recent years; new features in the base program afford Duke the opportunity to develop a new front-end to the most commonly used aspects of the systems to improve the user experience.  Kathy and her team will focus on the student beta testers’ experience during the recent registration window, and further plans for both the faculty and student views.

ACES/Storm Redesign Update:  We are close to having the student portion of the ACES/Storm portal redesign finalized.  A diverse group of 160 students representing different class, major, gender and financial aid status was given the opportunity to register for classes using the new portal.  The students provided important feedback on the look and feel of the portal and provided feedback on what is important to see based on the time of year.   

Next Steps:  Next, we will be focusing on the faculty component of the portal.  We hope to have a faculty focus group in place during the first summer session.  The new target date for the release of the student component of the new portal is July after freshman registration. 

Demonstration of Student Component:  John Campbell gave an overview of the redesigned student component of the portal.  Student feedback was an integral part of the redesign.  They answered questions such as what they typically do when they go into ACES, what they find difficult, and what they would like to see changed.  The resulting redesign offers a modern looking interface with improved navigation.  Some of the improvements are listed below.

    • Student ID is located at the top of the portal no matter which page is active.
    • Weekly calendar is located on the first page. 
    • Pop-up modal windows, tabs and a functioning back button improve navigation.
    • Email can be sent to faculty directly from the schedule, even when there are multiple faculty for a class.

Demonstration of Faculty/Advisor Component: John gave a demonstration of a preliminary design of the faculty/advisor component.  Many of the improvements in functionality of the student component are being carried over to the faculty and advisors component.  Some of the improvements are listed below.

    • Navigation between functions/roles and advisor types will be easier.
    • A search box will make finding and filtering information easier.
    • Important information such as academic program and plan, expected graduation term, courses, grades and book bag will be displayed on one page.
    • Pop-up modal windows, tabs and a functioning back button will improve navigation.
    • The info button will have student picture, name and ID at the top of popup modal windows. 
    • The term, course, title, unit, test grades and credits will be in one spot on a popup modal window.
    • Sorting will be easier.
    • Granting permissions will be easier with improved workflow.

Questions and Discussion

Question:  Would new windows or fly-out windows be better than pop-up modals when trying to drill deeper into student information? 

Answer:  We will be evaluating this as we proceed with development.

Question:  Will the new portal work on tablets?

Answer:  Yes.  The student component is working on tablets. 

 

4:30 – 4:50 – Phishing & Account Compromise Defense, Debbie Deyulia, Jeremy Hopkins (10 minute presentation, 10 minute discussion) 

What it is: Every month Duke receives millions of email messages, many of which are deleted or quarantined before ever getting to the intended recipient, due to the message being fraudulent or malicious in some way.  Even with the large volume deleted, we still see daily occurrences of messages successfully targeting Duke faculty, staff and students.  Phishing attacks that get through can result in compromised accounts, ransomware, or the execution of fraudulent wire transfers. 

Why it’s relevant:   Duke is adding new protections that more fully mitigate risk associated with malicious URLs and attachments in email.  Debbie and Jeremy will discuss the new services we plan to offer, along with the communication plan and roll out to the Duke community.

Update:  Duke University and Duke Health have been using a new email protection service which was fully deployed on January 1st that guards against viruses and spam and helps to protect Duke’s reputation.  The service has been performing very well.  However, the increase in targeted attacks using malicious URLs and attachments is resulting in an increased prevalence in compromised accounts and compromised machines.  Ransomware, software designed to block access to a computer until a sum of money is paid, is only the latest example of this threat. 

Combined with awareness campaigns, which while providing much needed education on the email threat have also appeared to have reached the extent of their effectiveness, Duke will be supplementing the current email protection service to include a more in-depth real-time analysis of URLs and attachments to more quickly remove possible malware threats. URL defense – scans and rewrites all email URLs and blocks malicious links.

Next Steps:  The rollout of the expanded email phishing and malware service is planned for June 1.  It will be communicated via Duke Today, knowledge articles, and communication campaigns targeting student and IT groups.

4:50- 5:00 – Addressing Student Concerns Process, John Board (5 minute presentation/5 minute discussion)

What it is:   Each year ITAC Student Representatives present their perspective on the state of IT at Duke. 

Why it’s relevant:  As has been our practice in recent years, we will briefly discuss the review process OIT will follow over the summer to investigate and address the student concerns, with a full response to the group to follow in the fall.

At the March 24th ITAC meeting, a summary of the results of the 2016 undergraduate perspective on the state of IT was presented.  At today’s ITAC meeting, John Board gave a brief update on the progress that has been made to address the students’ concerns.

WiFi:  Recommendations to improve WiFi have been addressed.

Communications:  John said we are going to improve communications to our customers, especially to incoming freshman.

A more detailed response is being worked on and will be provided to the students. 

5:00-5:30 – Celebration