{"id":707,"date":"2010-11-17T09:04:14","date_gmt":"2010-11-17T14:04:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sites.scranton.edu\/tag\/"},"modified":"2010-11-17T09:04:14","modified_gmt":"2010-11-17T14:04:14","slug":"faculty-computers-and-equipment","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/sites.scranton.edu\/tag\/faq\/faculty-computers-and-equipment\/","title":{"rendered":"Faculty Computers and Equipment"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Some faculty noted in the <a href=\"http:\/\/sites.scranton.edu\/tag\/2010\/09\/28\/2010-faculty-questionnaire-results\/\" target=\"_blank\">survey<\/a> comments that <em>\u201cbetter  procedures for dealing with faculty computers that have viruses  (notification of problem, providing time to back up files, given a  loaner computer when the infected computer is taken away, timely return  of cleaned computer\u201d<\/em> are needed.<\/p>\n<p>During  the first six months of 2010, academia was the business sector most  impacted by malware. \u00a0Colleges and  universities are a favored target because of our complex, distributed,  and diverse environment.<\/p>\n<p>In  order to comply with laws designed to protect individuals\u2019 information,  <a href=\"http:\/\/matrix.scranton.edu\/pir\/index.shtml\" target=\"_blank\">IR<\/a> is often required to immediately remove an infected PC (or other  device) from the University network. \u00a0Before it can be returned, IR has  to perform extensive scanning and investigation of the PC\u2019s hard drive,  making sure that no personally identifiable information (PII) was  removed by the attacker(s). \u00a0\u00a0This is really time consuming &#8211; at one  point during Summer 2010, <a href=\"http:\/\/matrix.scranton.edu\/pir\/its\/index.shtml\" target=\"_blank\">IT Services<\/a> had a backlog of  over 20 infected devices.<\/p>\n<p>IR is aware of the hardship this creates for faculty members and has  worked with the Information Security Office to streamline the process.  \u00a0The investigative process has been split from the cleaning and  rebuilding process to speed things up. \u00a0Users are now getting a cleaned  system back within 24 \u2013 48 hours. \u00a0And, as a result of this  streamlining, faculty members are notified about what\u2019s happening, and  they have the opportunity to get a loaner system.<\/p>\n<p>The  best thing that faculty can do, though, is to avoid storing personally  identifiable information (PII) like Social Security numbers, birth  dates, or financial account information on our hard drives &#8211; so that if  your machine does ever get infected, it will be returned to you much  faster. The best place to safely store PII is on Royal Drive.<\/p>\n<p>Other concerns about faculty equipment included <em>\u201creplacing desktops with laptops\u201d<\/em> and <em>\u201cexpanding the available computer options.\u201d<\/em><span> <\/span> Faculty equipment is selected and purchased through what\u2019s called the  <strong>Central Microcomputer Budgeting Process<\/strong>. \u00a0Each fall, department chairs  are provided with a current departmental microcomputer inventory. \u00a0The  chairs are asked to review the adequacy of the existing hardware in  light of each faculty member\u2019s job responsibilities and desire to work  with technology, and then recommend upgrades for the next fiscal year.  \u00a0Given the high volume of requests, not all of these requests can be  satisfied. \u00a0IR evaluates the departmental reviews and approves as many  upgrades as financially possible. \u00a0On average, 300 microcomputers are  replaced every year.<\/p>\n<p>The  budgeting process for the next fiscal year is currently underway, so<strong> if  you need a computer upgrade, you should contact your department chair  as soon as possible<\/strong> (the forms are due back to IR by December 13), and keep in mind that you can ask to switch from  Windows to Mac, or from a desktop to a laptop.<\/p>\n<p>Back to <a href=\"http:\/\/sites.scranton.edu\/tag\/2010\/11\/17\/response-to-survey-comments-top-faculty-concerns\/\" target=\"_self\">Top Faculty Concerns<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Some faculty noted in the survey comments that \u201cbetter procedures for dealing with faculty computers that have viruses (notification of problem, providing time to back up files, given a loaner computer when the infected computer is taken away, timely return of cleaned computer\u201d are needed. During the first six months of 2010, academia was the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":80,"featured_media":0,"parent":8,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-707","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.scranton.edu\/tag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/707","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.scranton.edu\/tag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.scranton.edu\/tag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.scranton.edu\/tag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/80"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.scranton.edu\/tag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=707"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sites.scranton.edu\/tag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/707\/revisions"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.scranton.edu\/tag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/8"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.scranton.edu\/tag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=707"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}