It’s my pleasure to welcome you to (or back to) campus as we begin another academic year. I’d like to begin by reminding you that, due to summer flooding, the IT Support Center, normally located in the lower level of Carnegie, has temporarily moved to the second floor of Collier Scripps. It will remain there through most, if not all, of the fall semester, returning to Carnegie before spring semester.

It’s never pleasant to start the new academic year with an information security threat, but for the second year in a row, Drake has been the target of a sophisticated Labor Day phishing attack. Over a period of three days, attackers were able to trick several individuals into entering their username and password in fake sites that resembled the myDrake portal.

The ITS team detected the phishing attack early and was able to intervene quickly to minimize its impacts. Based on what we know today, no personal or sensitive information was compromised or stolen. We will continue to investigate the attack and take additional action if necessary.

These thieves continuously improve the sophistication of their attacks. As you engage in the important work that you do here as students, faculty, and staff, please remain vigilant and carefully examine every email message before clicking any links or entering personal information into web pages accessed from those links.

Please continue to keep in mind the following tips:

• Slow down and look carefully. Watch for misspellings, poor grammar, or other obvious errors.
• Check the source of the message. Ask yourself if the sender makes sense given the content.
• Watch where you click. Hover over the link and examine the destination before clicking.
• Be wary of attachments. If you don’t know the sender, don’t open an attachment.
• Don’t give out your password.

When in doubt, report it. Learn how to report suspicious messages.

Drake will continue to make security improvements because these attacks aren’t going to stop and we need to use all available tools to help us protect both our own personal information and the rest of the sensitive and personal data that Drake manages.

On a more positive note, ITS is bringing some exciting new resources to the Drake community.

The new myDrake portal is here and is rapidly becoming the go-to site for access to the University’s resources. As part of the myDrake project, blueView, Drake’s current portal, will no longer be available as of Sept. 20. If you haven’t yet used myDrake, give it a try. Not sure how to get started? Visit the how-to guides.

Take some time to browse the list of upcoming Tech Tuesday sessions and join us for any topics of interest. Tech Tuesdays are one-hour information and learning sessions on a variety of IT topics for users of all levels and interests. Attendees have reported that the sessions are engaging, informative, and beneficial. Please let Carla Herling know of any topics you would like to see covered at future sessions.

Finally, we are excited to offer you the opportunity to listen in on our weekly project update meetings. These 30-minute project update meetings are held every two weeks, in which ITS staff review the status of active projects. View a list of upcoming dates. Anyone can join the Blackboard Collaborate web conference. Find detailed instructions. You can also connect by phone at 571-392-7650 using PIN# 9060694541.

On a personal note, I’m grateful for the continuing opportunity to serve the students, faculty, and staff of Drake University. I’m reminded every day of the strong commitments we make to each other, demonstrating how we live our new core values, and I believe sincerely that, together, we do transform lives and strengthen communities. Thank you for all that you do to make Drake special.

Chris Gill, ITS