GERGA – FHSCUA

Printing is still slow at GERGA.

On the 13th of January, Information Technology will begin the process of moving the entire Tygerberg Campus over to plug into the SANREN metropolitan fibreoptic network. (South African National Research Network) during this move there will be some instability on the network and timeouts might occur. Currently the Tygerberg Campus is connected to the Main Campus via a shared microwave link that runs at 66Mbits. The new SANREN fibreoptic network ruins at an astounding 1Gbit (that is more than 10 times faster)

There will most certainly be period of instability as the transfer from one net to another is done, so please exercise a bit of patience. I asure you the wait and the few hours of inconvenience will be worth it!

There is a media release that has some interesting information.

GERGA’s mailing lists are online. Please take note of the appropriate addresses: (There are some guidelines to abide by.)

The Complete list…

ISPA names and shames South Africa’s biggest spammers and email address resellers in their Hall of Shame.

The South African Internet Service Providers’ Association (ISPA) updated their “Spam Hall of Shame” recently, naming and shaming the country’s spammers and e-mail address resellers.

Until recently it was mainly the embarrassment of appearing on this list which made it a deterrent to spammers, but an announcement by a local firm that it is using this data in fighting spam changes the game.

Pinpoint SecureMail said that they are integrating the Internet Service Providers’ Association (ISPA) Hall of Shame anti-spam watchlist in their e-mail protection software. According to Yossi Hasson, managing director of Pinpoint SecureMail development company SYNAQ, this means that all companies listed on the ISPA spam Hall of Shame are immediately given an extra weighting on SYNAQ’s spam algorithms and are quarantined.

In the first three weeks following the ISPA Hall of Shame integration into Pinpoint SecureMail, SYNAQ identified and blocked 146,926 spam messages sent out by companies included in the list.

The latest spammers and email address resellers listed in ISPA’s spam hall of shame are as follows…

From MyBroadband.co.za

The problem with USB flashdisks is that they are easily infected with virusses and spyware! USB Flashdisks are popular with almost every student and personnel out there because they offer a compact storage solution for carting around work projects, personal documents and files

Because these drives are so popular and generally get used to move data between multiple systems frequently, they are also a prime target for attackers as means to get infections spread around with you doing most of the work for them.

Virusses that  target USB Flashdisks are usually designed so that they do not affect your computer directly, but once an external drive or other storage based device is plugged in, the virus goes to work and transfers malicious code to the device without you even knowing that it is taking place – now your flashdisk has become the attackers tool!

Flashdisk virusses can be used to steal your personal information, sensitive documents, allow external access to the infected system, or even spread an annoying virus to the university network via network shares – the possibilities are limitless.

So what can you do about protecting yourself against such activity?

Panda Security have released a small tool to immunise your USB flashdisks against most common malware infections.

It is called USB Vaccine and can be downloaded here: (intranet access only)

Also available on the Internet here:

Although there are thousands of computer viruses discovered each year, there are still some that only exist in the imaginations of the public and the press.

Below is a link to a comprehensive list of viruses that DO NOT EXIST, despite rumor of their creation and distribution. You will need your NXInetkey to be open to access the page.

Please ignore any messages received regarding the supposed “viruses” or “promotional gimmicks” listed above and do not pass on any messages about them. They all contain bogus information, and are intended only to frighten or confuse users. Do not forward or pass these messages on as it only serves to further propagate them. There are better things to do with your time than forward on hoax messages.

No this is not a romantic tiff between a boy and a girl, but an obscure problem with the university network and the way the GERGA computers log in and get access to the network space (your student drive) and the Safecom printing system.

So your password is not the problem!

The old GERGA website, in its current incarnation, has been with us for close to 6 years now. It is time to move on and do something different. Keeping a traditional website up to date and working is a full time job and we simply do not have the time to maintain the website as we would like to. We decided to look at a more dynamic blog-based website that would be able to “look after itself”, and built a calendar into it that would show our bookings, when GERGA  is closed for exams, maintenance etc. The site is very new and very prone to errors and mistakes! I hope you will be patient as we develop it.

I am amazed at the ingenuity and slyness of the criminal mind.
The mail below is NOT from Stellenbosch University’s Information Technology and is a direct phishing attack by criminals who know a lot about the university, and have disguised their attack very cleverly, and are attacking the university network directly.
Please do not respond to the e-mail below, and please if you have already clicked on the link and gone to the site, contact IT Help Desk immediately to try to undo the damage!
If you are not sure about if a mail is legitimate or not, ask the IT HelpDesk or even your local computer geek, they will be able to help you.
The scam message is below. I have already altered the details to prevent the attack from being launched from this TYGNOOD mail

The use of cellphones in CUAs (Computer User Areas – RGAs in Afrikaans) is strictly prohibited! Information Technology after lengthy consideration and debate with all roleplayers have decided to ban the use of cellphones within CUAs and other high-risk areas.