The majority of administrative and personal data at Drake comes from a central application, called Banner, or more commonly known as DUSIS (Drake University Shared Information System). Banner contains student, faculty, and staff information around financial aid, human resources, and registration. It connects with most campus systems including Blackboard, Webprint, and Drake Card.

The technology that our current version of Banner is built on is being phased out. In December 2018, it will no longer be supported. Because of the central role of Banner, Drake needs to upgrade to the latest version, Banner 9, which will be a multi-year project.

A project team has been formed that includes representatives from ITS, Office of Admission, Office of the Registrar, Financial Aid, Human Resources, Business and Finance, and Institutional Research. The team is coordinating efforts with other administrative and academic areas to ensure that the upgrade goes smoothly.

Over the next year, the project team will be working behind the scenes, along with our business partner Ellucian, Banner’s parent company. During this time, the preparation work of testing, creating training plans, and technical development, will not directly affect campus. All systems that connect to Banner will continue operating normally throughout this phase of the project.

The Banner project team will update campus regularly, with targeted communications to regular Banner users. Additional communication channels are being developed to allow more transparency into the process. Watch OnCampus for further information in the coming months.

—Keren Fiorenza, ITS

ITS is piloting a new self-service laptop kiosk for students, faculty, and staff. The kiosk is located in Meredith Hall. If you are a current student, faculty, or staff member, you can check out one of 14 MacBook laptops to use for free for up to four hours at a time. All laptops are loaded with software, including Microsoft Office programs, SPSS, and Panopto.

For additional information and instructions on how to check out a laptop, please see the knowledge base article, “Using the Self-Service Laptop Kiosk (How-to).”

—Carla Herling, ITS

Join ITS staff for a new program, Tech Tuesdays, on the second Tuesday of each month. All sessions will include a Q&A session (and cookies!).

Each month we’ll have a different topic designed to provide you with resources to use technology more efficiently in your job, and in your life. Feel free to sign up for one session, or all. Attendance at Tech Tuesdays will count toward BUILD credit.

All sessions will be held in the Dial Center large conference room from 2 to 2:50 p.m.

Dates and topics:

• Tuesday, Oct. 10: Passwords, Passphrases, and Online Safety
• Tuesday, Nov. 14: Better Working through Technology
• Tuesday, Dec. 12: Internet Search Best Practices

Sign up today at https://itstechtuesdays.eventbrite.com.

— Carla Herling, ITS

There’s a new addition to the lobby of Meredith Hall: Drake ITS is piloting a self-service laptop kiosk. If you are a student, faculty, or staff member, you can borrow one of 14 Macbook Pro laptops for up to four hours for free. Laptops are available to check out during building hours, Monday through Friday from 7 a.m. to 9:30 p.m., Saturdays from 7:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m., and Sundays from 7:30 a.m. to 9 p.m. Please stop by and take advantage of this new service.

— Carla Herling, ITS

In the June 27 edition of OnCampus, I provided an overview of several ongoing ITS initiatives designed to keep Drake in compliance with regulations and enhance security of confidential information. This week, I’m sharing additional information about one of our key initiatives, Security Information Event Monitoring (SIEM).

SIEM is a technical term for an early warning system. ITS configures it to collect log information from campus servers and other locations where confidential information is stored and accessed. It establishes a baseline of standard behavior, such as how and when these locations are normally accessed, and will alert ITS when any anomalies in behavior or activity occur. This allows ITS to further investigate to determine if an individual computer or any data has been compromised by an attacker.

This tool is a crucial component in helping to detect the early steps in a cyber attack, such as reconnaissance, lateral movement, or remote actions. It also aids in forensic investigation to determine the extent of any previous breaches.

Drake’s computing environment is under constant attack, making systems like the SIEM a valuable detection method. The charts below show Drake’s current vulnerability levels and why we are adding SIEM to help protect our computing environment.

Phishing/spam:
Cyber attacks starting with a phishing email make up almost 40 percent of successful data breach incidents. This chart showing the total volume of email received in June illustrates that 77 percent of the email sent to individuals with a drake.edu email address that month was malicious!

Reputation filtering
Internet traffic—information that is transmitted to and from our computers when we visit websites—can contain malicious information without us even realizing it. This chart shows attempts to connect to campus systems in the month of June.

Do you have any questions or concerns? Contact informationsecurity@drake.edu and let us know. And watch OnCampus for more information about how ITS is working to keep Drake’s data safe.

—Peter Lundstedt, Information Security Manager

ITS has been making significant progress on this summer’s wireless upgrade project. The core network equipment that supports the wireless environment has been installed, configured, and tested. In addition, contractors have been working on the wiring needed to increase the number of campus access points. Wiring work is complete in all residence halls and many academic buildings.

All wiring is scheduled to be completed by the end of July. Installation of new and replacement access points will begin the week of July 11, starting in the residence halls. ITS staff and contractors are working together to finish the installation of all access points prior to the start of the fall semester while continuing to avoid impacting summer campus activities.

Progress updates will be provided in future issues of OnCampus as well as on the ITS Major Projects page.

—Carla Herling, ITS Communications Manager