Jove and E-mail System Problems

The Jove UNIX system was victimized by Internet-based hacking activity shortly before the beginning of the fall semester. In order to secure the system it was necessary to reinstall system programs which were corrupted as a result of the breach of security. This process led to an unfortunate sequence of events that resulted in the loss of some data on Jove. Part of these events included memory bank and controller hardware failures on the Jove system which took three days for Sun Service to fully resolve, and which resulted in an incorrect disk controller configuration. Because of additional problems with our backup software system, files or mail folders in Jove home directories which were updated or saved between August 2 and August 17, 1997 were not backed up. It is not possible, therefore, for us to restore new files or changes made in files during that time frame.

Personal Account Security

This breach of security reemphasizes the need to maintain your personal account security at the highest level possible by using a secure password (especially one which is not a word found in a dictionary or a name), and by following the UNT policy which forbids sharing of your account with anyone else regardless of the circumstance. While any Internet-connected system is vulnerable to compromise, we have taken steps to limit unauthorized access to Jove and other systems. Each individual user can help by following our usage policies and reporting any suspicious activity by sending E-mail to helpdesk@unt.edu or by calling 565-2324. Additionally, we are taking steps to ensure that our backup process will reliably provide maximal recovery of data should it be required. Academic Computing Services is sorry for any inconvenience caused by this down time. You can be sure that we are taking all steps possible to lessen the likelihood of future security breaches and to hold accountable those responsible for this latest incident. Applicable policies may be found at: www.unt.edu/ACSUNIX/policies/general.html

Recurring Hardware Problems

Hardware problems have continued to plague Jove, culminating with the replacement of the entire System Board in early October. Since that time, things have been running smoothly and we hope that these problems will become a thing of the past. Up-to-date information about UNT's central UNIX systems can be found on the Internet Services and UNIX Host System News page (http://people.unt.edu/cgi-bin/sysnews_0.cgi). This page can also be accessed from the UNT Internet Service Account Management Page (http://people.unt.edu/manage/).

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