Good morning! 

Wireless Network Challenges 

Today I am writing to you with some important updates from TSS. If you were on campus this weekend you may have experienced some wireless network connectivity issues. TSS is working on it and has escalated the issue up to the K-20 Education Network engineers to assist with efforts to remedy the situation. 

As of this morning, we are still experiencing network connectivity issues, please work with your supervisor to make temporary alternate working arrangements off-campus as needed until the current issue has been resolved.  

Ransomware Restoration Efforts 

I am also writing to share some positive updates with you about our ransomware efforts. TSS has been working diligently all summer to continue with our ransomware efforts and they have made some great strides.  A huge thank you to everyone in TSS for all of their incredibly hard work. 

TSS is continuing to reconnect areas of campus to the wired network. The starting focus is classrooms, labs, and instructional areas. Most classroom labs have been reconnected and are online (all labs/smart classrooms in 1100, 1300, 1400, 1800, 2200, 2300, five labs in 2000 are connected; remaining five smart classrooms by end of today). Today and next week, the focus will be on the spaces in the Cedar building (HSAMCC), Tesla, finishing up 2000 and 2900. The following week (10/23-10/27) will focus on the 5000 building, primarily on the testing center. There have been some minor disruptions to the rollout of the wired network due to several factors including: discovery of rouge devices, network equipment failures, issues with building controls and fiber connectivity, misconfigurations, and shifts for server deployments to support classrooms, labs, and instructional areas. 

Student Password Reset 

There is a new tool for the Fall ‘23 quarter for assisting students to reset their passwords for email (@go.shoreline.edu) and network accounts (Microsoft): Student Password Reset Request – Formstack 

Teams Phone System Update

TSS is continuing to roll out the Teams Phone system as we receive porting services from the phone carriers. There is an article with instructions on using the Teams Phone system and setting up voicemail at the following link: Article – How to use Microsoft Teams … (shoreline.edu) 

QR Code Scam 

Quick reminder: TSS has received a significant number of reports of spam emails requesting a user to scan a QR code. The TSS department does not send out emails requesting a scan of QR codes. Please do not scan these emails and disregard these types of requests. 

That’s all for now. We will keep you posted as new updates become avaialble.

Cat 

IMPORTANT MESSAGE FROM TSS:

Dear Campus Community,

We have received a notification from the SBCTC regarding an ongoing phishing campaign.  This campaign uses a QR code which is intended to lure an individual into using their mobile device to scan and navigate to a malicious URL. We wanted to bring this to everyone’s attention to be aware of this ongoing scam attempt.  If you receive any email resembling the example below (emails may have small differences), please DO NOT scan the QR code and delete the email immediately. 

Thank you,

Jason Brandon- Executive Director of TSS

TECHNICAL DETAILS:

Sender:           AUTHENTICATION NOTIFICATION <noreply@correosprepago.es> 

Subject:          Final Warning: Authentication Support for [Agency Name]

QR Code:       Contains multiple different URLs

Example Email:

Happy Friday! 

I just want to say thank you again for the amazing turnout at the MLB event this morning.  It was great to see so many Shoreline folks showing your support! 

Ok, I promise this is the lastl I will be sending you today. I know you’re heartbroken, but don’t worry I’ll have more e-mails for you next week I’m sure. 😉 

Today I have some updates to share from TSS about the restoration process as well as important information regarding the Seattle City Light power outage on Monday night. 

Seattle City Light Power Outage 

Due to the announced power outage being performed by Seattle City Light, TSS will need to prepare the campus network equipment for this event.  We will be bringing the campus network (including Wi-Fi) offline on Monday (7/10) evening beginning at 6:00pm and restoring network connectivity the next morning (7/11) at 6:30am.  We are asking all users to please save all your documents and perform a “shutdown” of your PC before leaving the office on Monday evening.  We thank you for your cooperation and understanding. 

Restoration Updates 

• Check printing is now fully tested and restored at Shoreline! 
• We have reached the point in the restoration process to start recreating servers. We now have servers that are active on the Shoreline network. To be clear, the servers are active, but TSS is still testing to ensure reliability and stability, however this is a major milestone in the process to total restoration. 
• We are soon approaching the phase of the restoration process to start reconnecting PCs to the wired network within the next 2-3 weeks. At that time, TSS will use the requirements spreadsheets provided by each department and will meet with key individuals to reconnect desktops as each area’s wired network comes back online.  
• The TSS department is now live on the Teams Phone app. We are thoroughly testing this in various scenarios in preparation to rollout campus wide.  Once we have completed this process, we will begin rollout by area. There are some considerations that everyone should know about once this is implemented.  When each area comes online with the Teams phone system, abbreviated extension dialing will be disabled. This will mean if you are calling from another method other than Teams, you will need to dial the complete 10-digit number instead of the 4-digit extension.  As we bring areas online, numbers will be updated and communicated to the rest of campus. 

I hope you all get a chance to enjoy some fun in the sun this weekend! See you on Monday! 

Cat 

Good afternoon!

Did you know that today is National Peanut Butter Cookie Day?  I think I just gave you a built-in reason to leave your desks and find a cookie. You’re welcome. Unless of course you are allergic to peanuts, then you should definitely NOT celebrate, and instead can enjoy National Falafel Day or National Jerky Day which are coincidentally also today.  However, if you eat all three of those things at once then you might find yourself celebrating National Call Your Doctor Day which is tomorrow.  It’s true!  I swear, you just can’t make this stuff up. Come to think of it, I probably could…but what would be the fun in that? 😉

Ok, on with the actual updates I have for you from TSS.  Please read carefully.

Listserv

The Listserv service that was destroyed in the ransomware incident has been reenabled. The open faculty distribution list has tested successfully, however since this is an open opt-in list, anyone needing to be a part of this list will need to go through the opt-in process again to repopulate.  This service will be published for use this week and more information will be coming soon about how to opt-in.

Accounts Payable (AP) Check Printing

Due to the ransomware incident, we have been receiving outside assistance with check printing in the AP department.  We are happy to announce the check printing capabilities for the AP department will be restored by the beginning of next week.

Desktop File Recovery Process Update

The desktop file recovery process has seen some significant progress.  We are now at a point where we can shift to dealing with full departments to make sure we don’t miss anyone who did not put in a TSS ticket. Departments may receive a message from TSS requesting a list of employees to make sure we do not skip over anyone.

To view the status of your file recovery request please view it here:File Recovery Status.xlsx

Desktop Restoration

The next phase of desktop restoration is ready to begin.  We will be going over departmental technology needs that were supplied to TSS last month.  More to come on this soon.

• Important RE: Apple (Mac) Desktops: With regard to the desktop restoration phase, anyone with a Mac desktop in their office should begin preparations for TSS to reimage their machine sometime this summer. We are asking for all Mac desktop users to power on their machine, connect to the Wi-Fi and save off any files they wish to keep to their Microsoft OneDrive location or an external drive.  We want to make sure everyone saves their documents before their device is reimaged.
  • THIS IS ONLY FOR MAC DECKTOP USERS.  IF YOU DO NOT HAVE A MAC, DO NOT TURN ON YOUR DESKTOP UNTIL INSTRUCTED!

Phone System Update

The Teams phones project is moving along, and we will start porting phone numbers next week.  We will be starting with the TSS department and working our way through all departments after thorough testing.  Expect more news on this soon!

Network Restoration

The restoration project has reached a point where we are ready to begin rebuilding servers on the network.  The network foundation work is complete, server restoration will be starting this week. This step in the process is critical and once complete, we will be able to start the work to reestablish databases and connections to other systems.

That’s all for now. Enjoy your evening!

Cat