There's a critical vulnerability which affects unpatched DNS (Domain Name System) implementations. As a result, if your computer is configured to use a DNS server which is vulnerable, when you access an Internet resource (website, email, IM, etc.) you could be connected to a service controlled by an attacker instead of the intended service.

For your personal computers, it's likely that the DNS server you use is controlled by your ISP. To check if the DNS server used by your personal computer is vulnerable, visit DoxPara and click "Check My DNS".

Computers connected to the VCU network use DNS servers operated by VCU. Patching of VCU's DNS servers is complete.

Posted by at 8:51 AM | Permalink

Blackboard Maintenance - Friday, July 25, 2008 – 4pm to midnight. Blackboard Maintenance is the second and fourth Friday of the month.

If unforeseen circumstances cause the system to be down past midnight updates will be posted to the Blackboard system announcement blog at:

http://blog.vcu.edu/blackboard/

Regards,
The Blackboard Team

For further assistance contact:
Technology Services Help Desk Contact Information
Phone: 828-2227
Email: blackboard@vcu.edu
Help ticket: http://www.ts.vcu.edu/helpdesk/
Blackboard FAQ: http://faq.vcu.edu/ts/

Bb Training/Instructional Assistance
http://www.pubinfo.vcu.edu/training/it/search.asp (enter Keyword: Blackboard)
Center for Teaching Excellence - http://www.vcu.edu/cte/

Posted by at 11:29 AM | Permalink

Faculty Staff email servers Aspens are now available. Work continues on Vram7c - 12c. They should be available within the next hour. User can connect using their alternate vramimap7.vcu.edu - vramimap12.vcu.edu server via IMAP, or automatically via the web.

Posted by at 2:51 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Email Services is working with staff at the University Computer Center to resolve connectivity to email servers Aspens and VRAM 7c - 12c. Users can connect to their alternate servers, oak.vcu.edu, oak2.vcu.edu, oak3.vcu.edu, oak4.vcu.edu, or vramimap7c-12c.vcu.edu, or automatically via the internet. This alert will be updated regularly until resolution.

Posted by at 12:55 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Blackboard up again -- 11:55 AM - Sunday, July 20th

Posted by at 11:57 AM | Permalink

Email Services is working to resolve issues with Vram7c, Vram9c and Vram11c. Students may connect to imap via Vramimap7.vcu.edu, Vramimap9.vcu.edu and Vramimap11.vcu.edu. Please contact Help Desk at 828-2227 for further assistance.

Posted by at 11:38 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

We apologize for this sudden inconvenience. Blackboard will be taken down again for continued maintenance of storage devices. We will post to Blackboard Alerts again once the Blackboard application is up.

Thank you!
Blackboard staff

Posted by at 11:25 AM | Permalink

The application is back up on all Blackboard servers as of 10 AM, Sunday, July 20th. We apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused. Thank you!

Blackboard Staff

Posted by at 10:34 AM | Permalink

Members of the VCU community are reporting that they have received emails with a subject of "UPGRADE YOUR EMAIL ACCOUNT!!!". These messages claim to be from the "vcu.edu web Team" and ask the recipient to email their "Email ID" and "Password". VCU's Technology Services staff will never ask you to email your password. Per VCU's Password Standard:

Passwords must be kept secret and must not be shared.

and

Passwords must not be inserted into email messages or other forms of electronic communication...

If you receive this email, or one like it, please delete it and do not respond to it.

Posted by at 10:46 AM | Permalink

The VCU Computer Center will be performing maintenance on the central server storage network on Sunday, July 20, from 8 a.m. until 10 a.m. This will affect the availability of some systems such as Blackboard and ImageNow during this maintenance window. Please contact the Technology Services Help Desk should you experience any problems or for any questions at 828-2227.

Posted by at 8:00 AM | Permalink

Scheduled maintenance will be performed on the E-mail system Saturday, July 19, between 8:00 a.m. and 12:00 p.m. During this maintenance window, access to e-mail may be unavailable on your primary server. Access to your e-mail via your alternate server should be available automatically when accessing through VCU Mail Anywhere, or via your alternate server using an IMAP connection or the Notes client.

Posted by at 5:34 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Blackboard servers will be taken down Sunday, July 20th from 8am to 10am.
The Central storage server will be down for two hours for required maintenance.
The system will be shutdown after Saturday backups complete, 8am Sunday morning.

Posted by at 12:35 PM | Permalink

The myVCU portal will be down for maintenance from 6:30am to 7:30am on Friday, July 11th, 2008.

Posted by at 2:26 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

On Sunday, July 13, 2008, from 10:00 a.m. to approximately 10:30 a.m., the UCC will be performing maintenance on the ImageNow server. ImageNow will not be available during this scheduled maintenance window.

Posted by at 1:09 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Server maintenance will occur on all LANDesk servers between 6 am and 7am on Sunday, July 13. All services should be restored by 7am.

Posted by at 11:25 AM | Permalink

The IT Professionals Technical Forum is Thursday, July 10th at 10:30 a.m. The two sites are Cabell B35 and Sanger B1-020. We look forward to seeing you there. The agenda for this month's meeting follows:

- Welcome
- Labstats and pGina, the alternative login to the eID Authenticator
- Virgina Virtual Computing Lab Project
- Questions

Posted by at 2:40 PM | Permalink