DOIT Newsletter - Spring 2020

Special COVID-19 Edition 

A Message from the Vice President / Chief Information Officer

The COVID-19 pandemic is an unprecedented event for our campus, our nation, and the world at large. Despite the changes we are all experiencing, our mission remains the same.

As we continue to work from home, we want to highlight campus technology services available to the campus community and incoming technology enhancement projects.

Stay safe and well.

Min Yao, Ph.D.
Vice President & Chief Information Officer

Technology Services Available During COVID-19

  • The campus has established a website to provide the latest COVID-19 updates and planning and prevention. Please be sure to visit it regularly for updates.
  • A campus Academic Continuity website has been created with important information about conducting classes remotely this semester.
  • A partnership between DoIT and the Division of Student Affairs has developed a program to loan Chromebooks to students during the COVID crisis.
  • Our IT Help website has been updated with Technology Tips for Working Remotely with information about:
    • How students can use the university’s Student Virtual Labs (SVL)
    • How to use Remote Access (Global Protect VPN) to your desktop files and other campus file storage
    • How to use Zoom Video Conferencing (more about Zoom below)
    • Available Office 365 Applications (i.e., Word, Excel, PowerPoint) in the cloud
    • Available OneDrive for storing and sharing documents in the cloud
    • SharePoint Online for faculty and staff team collaboration in the cloud
    • How to remotely access your campus Voice Mail
    • Available Internet Service Provider (ISP) Options from the City of Long Beach’s Digital Inclusion Initiative
  • DoIT and the Chancellor’s Office have configured their email environments to allow for sharing free and busy times between the two organizations. This configuration makes it easier to schedule meetings that include individuals from both locations.
  • During the COVID-19 crisis, DoIT has aggressively improved various campus wireless network services such as migrating wireless access points at BeachSide Housing to new cluster controllers to provide better performance and redundancy. In addition, over 200 wireless access points have been upgraded across eleven buildings including EN2, EN3, EN4, MHB, EED, CLA, ED2, FO2, FO3, CBA and PH1. The outdoor wireless network coverage on campus can be viewed on our smart campus map.

New and Enhanced Security Features of Zoom Video Conferencing

Zoom is an important tool for conducting virtual meetings as we work and learn remotely during COVID-19. In response to security concerns, Zoom 5.0 has been released to address the following areas:

  1. Report a User Feature: Hosts can report a user in their meeting who is misusing the Zoom platform. Zoom’s Trust & Safety team would review the report and take appropriate action.
  2. Leaving/Ending Meeting Enhancements: Hosts can clearly decide between ending or leaving a meeting and have the option to delegate to a new host with host privileges.
  3. Waiting Room Enabled by Default: By default, hosts can now turn on Waiting Rooms while their meeting is already in progress.
  4. Passwords and Password Complexity: By default, meeting passwords require complexity (length, alphanumeric, and special characters)
  5. Setting to Allow Sharing of Cloud Recordings: Account owners and admins can enable or disable shared cloud recordings to prevent users from sharing their cloud recordings.
  6. Recording Security: All cloud recordings are encrypted with complex passwords on by default.
  7. Minimum Password Length of 6 Characters for Meeting and Shared Recording Passwords: The minimum password length for both meeting and shared recording passwords will now be 6 characters.
  8. Profile Picture Control: Hosts can disable the ability for participants to show their profile picture and also prevent them from changing it in a meeting.

Please use the following links to update to Zoom version 5.0. Please note, files will be downloaded by your default web browser. You will then have to click on the file (which may be available at the bottom of your browser window) to begin the quick installation.

  1. Windows: http://zoom.us/client/latest/ZoomInstaller.exe
  2. Mac: http://zoom.us/client/latest/zoomusInstaller.pkg

Staying Safe from Phishing Email and Online Scams

As the COVID-19 situation continues to develop, there have been reports of increased cybercriminal activity. This activity takes advantage of the COVID-19 situation to create phishing email campaigns, scams, and fraudulent activities delivered by social media channels, email, texts, phone calls, and other means. Phishing email is the number one way to trick you into open malicious attachments or go to unsafe and fraudulent web sites in the hopes that you will reveal sensitive information, download malware, or provide account credentials.

As a reminder, you can always forward questionable email to alert@csulb.edu for help ensuring it is legitimate.  In addition, we encourage everyone to remain vigilant and consider these Tips for Avoiding Cybersecurity Attacks.

Virtual Tours of Campus

As part of our continuous effort to implement Smart Campus Initiative, the Division of IT and the Division of University Relations & Development are jointly developing virtual tours of the campus with the College of Business as a pilot implementation partner. As an illustration, virtual tours of the Japanese Garden and Student Recreation & Wellness Center (SRWC) are available on the Tours tab of our smart map.

New Chatbot for Technology Help Desk

The Technology Help Desk is a one-stop location for the campus community to seek technology assistance. The Division of IT is pleased to announce the launch of an automatic assistant - a chatbot for our Technology Help Desk. The chatbot is available 24 x 7 on the Technology Help Desk website.

MyBeach Intranet

To provide a secure way to share information within the campus community, the Division of IT will soon launch an intranet - MyBeach, with the College of Education as the pilot implementation partner. MyBeach will be available through the campus’ Single Sign-On service and will provide the campus community with a one-stop, Web-based service for securely sharing files, including business forms, administrative guidelines, and other organizational documents as well as campus internal announcements such as open enrollment medical insurance.

Improved Email Collaboration

Currently, student email and employee email are handled with two separate email systems. This situation has been a barrier for faculty and students to share files on OneDrive, chat in Microsoft Teams, and create email groups. The Division of IT will address this issue by merging the two email systems into one in late summer. Stay tuned for the date of the merger.

Division of IT Contact Information

Office of CIO - CSULB-CIO@csulb.edu

DoIT Service Management - DoIT-ServiceManagement@csulb.edu

Questionable Email - alert@csulb.edu