Technology Advisory Group

Robyn Dickinson sent out the note below in regards to the academic webserver on Monday. If you have active webpages or content on the server that you need access to, please remove it and/or contact TAG immediately. We will do our best to help you find a new home for your data. Since the server has been a target for malicious attacks, your data is already at risk! If you do not do anything, you will lose access to anything stored on that server. If you have any questions, please contact your tag representative or email tag-members@royallists.scranton.edu.

Thanks for your prompt attention!

Previously, you received a notice from our division that we had planned to decommission the public facing server academic.scranton.edu in the summer of 2012. In the past, this server housed web pages for the University’s academic departments, related organizations, and individual faculty. Academic administration and department pages have now been converted into the University’s web content management system (CMS). What remains are primarily individual faculty web pages and a few other organizations; we have identified each of you as still having active web pages residing on this server.
Recent vulnerability scans of this server have identified multiple weaknesses in the operating system. Due to these vulnerabilities, this server has become the target for attacks from foreign countries seeking to access our enterprise computer systems. I am writing to alert you that we will now be taking steps to remove public facing access to this server as of June 15, 2013. This means that after June 15, you will only be able to access the web pages that remain on this server from within our own network on campus. On August 15, 2013 the server will be retired and you will no longer be able to access any of its content.

Faculty members should watch for additional information about this transition coming from the Faculty Technology Advisory Committee (TAG) and can send questions to TAG-members@scranton.edu If you would like assistance moving your web pages into the University’s web Content Management System (CMS), please contact Aileen McHale from the Center for Teaching and Learning Excellence (CTLE) at aileen.mchale@scranton.edu. Training for staff and faculty on how to use the web CMS is also available through IT Services by contacting Jack Williams, our IT Training Specialist, at jack.williams@scranton.edu to sign up for a class.

I appreciate your attention to this matter,