by Scott Clark | Dec 17, 2021 | Faculty
ITS Help Desk hours for the winter break between semesters – Monday, December 20 through Friday, January 14, will be as follows:
Mondays – Fridays from 9:00 a.m. – 4:00 p.m.
Closed for campus shutdown Friday December 24 – Monday January 3
On Tuesday January 18, we will commence regular hours:
Monday – Thursday from 8:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m.
Friday 8:00 a.m. – 4:30 p.m.
If you have any questions, contact the Help Desk in Horan O’Donnell, Room 016, by Email helpdesk@canisius.edu or call Ext. 8340
To create a help desk ticket please visit http://helpdesk.canisius.edu
Submitted by: Scott Clark, director, User Services/ITS
by Scott Clark | Nov 15, 2021 | Faculty
It is always best to separate work from your home life. How you live on the internet is no different. On this note, the College strongly recommends that you do not mix your work and personal communications and online accounts. In accordance with newly adapted Canisius “Acceptable Usage Policy”, we recommend that you do not use your Canisius Email (ending @canisius.edu) for personal communications, or as the Email address connected to various personal accounts, unrelated to your work at Canisius College, on the internet.
Please review your campus email use and take this time to establish an external Email address (such as a free Google Mail or “gmail” account) if you have not already done so. Use this external Email address for any accounts unrelated to Canisius College, such as social media, personal finance, shopping, and so on. Share your personal, external Email address with your family and friends and ask them to contact you there for non-work related matters.
Free Email services such as Google’s Gmail often have a mobile app for your phone, so you can maintain your two Email addresses in separate apps, for convenience. By maintaining a personal email address separate from your professional Canisius College address, you enhance the security, privacy, and organization of both spheres of your online life.
Below is a good article on the subject.
https://lifehacker.com/how-to-separate-your-work-and-personal-life-on-your-dev-1824208389
You can sign up for your free Gmail account here
https://accounts.google.com/signup/v2/webcreateaccount?flowName=GlifWebSignIn&flowEntry=SignUp
The College’s Acceptable Use Policy and other technology related policies can be found here:
https://wiki.canisius.edu/display/HR/Volume+II%3A+2.4+Information+Technology+Policies
As always if you have any questions, concerns or comments please contact the ITS Help Desk at 888-8340, email to helpdesk@canisius.edu or visit http://helpdesk.canisius.edu
Submitted by: Scott Clark, director, User Services/ITS
by Scott Clark | Nov 15, 2021 | Faculty
We just wanted to share a reminder of how to access the ITS Help Desk and some of the services offered. The Help Desk can assist you with any technology questions or concerns related to campus operations including account problems, cell phones, Email, printing, computer issues, VPN, MFA, etc… If we cannot help we should be able to point you in the direction of who can assist you.
Hours of operation are 8:00 a.m – 5:00 p.m. Monday – Thursday and 8:00 a.m. – 4:30 p.m. Fridays during the semester. Between semesters and summers the hours may vary. They are always announced via The Dome whenever they are changed.
To reach the Help Desk please call 716-888-8340 from off campus or x8340 on campus. We are available to answer calls during business hours. After hours and weekends you can leave a voice mail message and we will respond the next business day. We also encourage you to Email the Help Desk at helpdesk@canisius.edu. You can do this at any time of the day. This will automatically generate a trouble ticket in our system and we will be in touch the next business day. You can also visit us on the web at http://helpdesk.canisius.edu and enter a trouble ticket at any time.
For basic questions we do have information provided on the web at http://www.canisius.edu/its. There is also lots of campus information available in the College’s wiki pages at http://wiki.canisius.edu including a section devoted to ITS assistance.
Specific information about printers and copiers can be found in the Wiki located here:
https://wiki.canisius.edu/display/PACC/Departmental+Printing+FAQ
We do not troubleshoot, repair and fix personally owned computer but can advise on options for your home service as time allows. If you are working remotely, you should be doing so with campus owned hardware. Contact us if you need help with working from home.
As always, if you have any questions, concerns or comments please contact the Help Desk. We are always happy to assist you.
Submitted by: Scott Clark, director, User Services/ITS
by Scott Clark | Oct 27, 2021 | Faculty
In order to increase security, Canisius will be requiring all adjunct faculty to set up multi-factor authentication (MFA) for their accounts. MFA adds a simple to use layer of protection to your login process that will greatly enhance the security of your accounts. This requirement takes effect January 18th, 2022. Failure to set up MFA by this date may result in being locked out of your account. The setup is easy to complete and available in the Canisius portal now, under “My Applications”, “Multifactor Authentication (MFA) Config”. After enrolling in MFA, your password will expire every 365 days instead of every 180 days.
Instructions are available here: https://wiki.canisius.edu/x/Zy_8BQ
Users are strongly encouraged to set up more than one method of authentication. Please do not set up the challenge questions only.
Advanced users can also use a digital authenticator app such as Google Authenticator, Microsoft Authenticator, LastPass Authenticator and others. This is NOT required but is available as an alternative authentication method. Instructions are available here: https://youtu.be/8FgVuQdjz5M
Support: The Canisius Help Desk is available for any questions or problems you may encounter. For assistance, stop by the Help Desk in Horan O’Donnell Room 016, call 888-8340 or Email helpdesk@canisius.edu
Additional information:
What is Multi-factor Authentication (MFA) and why is it going to be required?
Multi-factor authentication (MFA) is defined as a security mechanism that requires an individual to provide two or more credentials in order to authenticate their identity. In IT, these credentials take the form of passwords, hardware tokens, numerical codes, biometrics, time, and location. Canisius will be using challenge questions and numerical codes that can be sent to alternate email addresses and texted to cell phones. An encrypted external authenticator application may also be used.
One example that we all encounter is when you log into your online banking portal and you’re given a code on your cell phone to be able to log into the online accounts. Everyone should understand the need to protect our financial and student data from those who wish to do bad things with it. We see daily headlines in the news about companies that have had data breaches. It’s just a fact of life now in the 21st century and our digital age. There are bad actors everywhere on the internet and users often are “tricked” into revealing their credentials. MFA helps to protect the college from these situations and keeps these intruders out of our systems.
By requiring our community to use MFA, our accounts and the data we access about students, college financials and other confidential information will be more secure and less likely to be obtained by others.
Submitted by: Scott Clark director of users, ITS
by Scott Clark | Sep 29, 2021 | Faculty
The deadline for all full-time faculty and staff to set up multi-factor authentication is fast approaching on October 1.
Please review the original posts here if you have any questions:
Multi-factor Authentication Requirement Coming October 1
Submitted by: Scott Clark, director, User Services/ITS
