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New warning banner for your email

Tuesday, February 4th, 2020

The nature of cyber-attacks is always evolving and Information Technology, with the help of staff and students, has to do everything within our power to try and prevent them.

In an attempt to tighten cyber security on campus, we will soon provide a new warning which can identify the origin of an email. By establishing the origin of email, it’s easier to protect against cyber security risks such as malware, spoofing and phishing. 

From now on, every time you receive email from outside campus a yellow banner will be displayed at the top of your email:

Click for a larger image

 

Click for a larger version

When staff or students receive a potentially dangerous email which seems to have been sent from a colleague with a sun.ac.za address, they will immediately be able to see that it is, in fact, not from their colleague, but from an address outside the university.

Just keep in mind that the banner does not indicate that the email is necessarily a security risk, but that the possibility exists and that you need to be extra careful when responding to it.

We will continuously assess the effectiveness of this decision and reconsider if necessary. For any additional enquiries, please send an email to help@sun.ac.za.

Important information for users of the central administration system

Monday, February 3rd, 2020

As many of you are aware, the current central administration system, which also includes TERATERM, has reached the end of its lifecycle and will next year be replaced by SUNFin, a modern, centralised, cloud-based finance platform. (More on SUNFin here)

The system was developed in 1989 and can no longer be adequately maintained and upgraded. In the meantime, Information Technology has to keep it functioning optimally for the next few months and you can help us achieve this by doing a few simple things:

  1. If possible, don’t open too many multiple sessions. This might overload the system and cause other users to be denied access. 
  2. If you’ve finished working for the day, don’t just close the screen by clicking on the red X. Please log off entirely by selecting PF12 and then choose option Afteken. (see below image 1)
  3. If you’ve finished with a programme and you won’t be using it for at least ten minutes, use PF12 to sign off. You can keep the TeraTerm main menu (see below image 2) open in case you need to work again.
  4. If you know there will be loadshedding, PF12 and sign off from the system. Otherwise your session will stay live.

 

 
Image 1  
 
Image 2  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Adobe licences update

Friday, November 29th, 2019

Users of Adobe Acrobat software may have noticed a pop-up notification stating that their licence will be expiring at the end of November.

This is an administration issue on Adobe’s side and can easily be rectified for you to continue working seamlessly. If you don’t update your licence, you will no longer be able to read or edit pdf documents with the Adobe Acrobat software.

To prevent this from happening, you can do one of the following:

  • Open the following link. You will be prompted to enter your username & password and the licenceupdate.exe file will, depending on your browser, either ask you to run/save or download automatically.
    1. If your browser prompts you to run/save, click run. You might get a notification that Windows considers the file to be unsafe, but you can click more info and click run anyway. Notices will pop up on your screen. In each instance, just click on Yes. The command window will display the new date when Acrobat will expire. Click any key to close the command window.
    2. If your browser automatically downloaded the file, browse to your download folder and double click the licenceupdate.exe file. Follow the steps described above.
  • If you can’t successfully execute the instructions above, please log a request with the subject “Update Adobe licence” on the ICT Partner Portal. Keep in mind that this option will mean a delay in response time. 

 

 

Eduroam Visitor Access (eVA)

Wednesday, November 6th, 2019

eVA (eduroam Visitor Access) is a new service which enables higher education and research institute visitors to access the secure and trusted eduroam Wi-Fi network. As additional identity management tool, eVA is a platform where visitors who only need temporary internet access can be registered in a simple and secure manner. 

What is it? 

eVA provides a mechanism that allows authorised staff at eduroam participating institutions to sponsor a visitor and issue temporary credentials to that person for a defined period. Designated eVA admin can determine who is eligible to sponsor visitors, and how long those visitors may gain access.

How does it work?

If you are interested in using eVA to register your department’s visitors, please log a request on the ICT Partner Portal. To simplify matters, this could typically be the same contact person as for SUNid and only one person per department or division.

Note that your line manager has to approve your request before we can assign you rights. Approval can also be done on the ITC Partner Portal.

What are the benefits?

  •  No other, additional registration, for example SUNid, is necessary to use this service.
  • Ease of use. Manuals and instructions are available online.
  • Visitor rights can be managed and limited.
  • Access expires automatically after the selected set date.
  • Records can be tracked and audited.

More information on eVA.

Internet outage: Feedback

Friday, October 4th, 2019

Early on Thursday morning we were notified by our internet provider, TENET, that there has been a break in internet connection between UWC and SUN. This caused an internet outage on the entire SU network for most of the morning.

Technicians were immediately dispatched to the site and after investigating, established that the infrastructure has been vandalised and the fibre cable cut. Maintenance then proceeded to replace the damaged equipment and restore connectivity. Unfortunately both primary and secondary links were compromised and also had to repair the backup link.

We apologise for the inconvenience and appreciate your patience. During incidents such as these please remember to follow our Twitter feed where we will post regular updates.

 

 

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