DCSMT Meeting Minutes -October 18, 2002

October 18, 2002

Members
Troy Bacon (AVP Finance and Business Affairs and Controller), Craig Berry (School of Visual Arts), Ginger Boone (University Union), Allen Bradley (Computing Center), Sandy Burke (Computing Center), Tim Christian (College of Arts and Sciences), Chu Chuah (School of Community Service), Wil Clark (UNT System Center @ Dallas), Jim Curry (Microcomputer Maintenance/Classroom Support Services), Cyndie Harris (Physical Plant), Mike Hatch (College of Business Administration), Pamiela Hight (Libraries), Elizabeth Hinkle-Turner (Student Computing Committee, Computing Center), Paul Hons (College of Education), Abraham John (VP Student Development), Kirk Kelly (Housing), Brenda Kirk (Computing Center), Maurice Leatherbury (Chair, Sr. Director of Academic Computing and Asst. to the AVP Computing and Communications Services), Mike Maner (Computing Center), Gary Mathews (School of Library and Information Science), Ramu Muthiah (School of Community Service), Dallas Newell (Registrar's Office), Bruce Pollock (ABN LAN Mgmt), Chris Strauss (Computing Center), Mike Wright (Computing Center), Roy Zumwalt (Texas Academy of Math and Science)

Members Present
Craig Berry (School of Visual Arts), Ginger Boone (University Union), Tim Christian (College of Arts and Sciences), Wil Clark (UNT System Center @ Dallas), Jim Curry (Microcomputer Maintenance/Classroom Support Services), Pamiela Hight (Libraries), Elizabeth Hinkle-Turner (Student Computing Committee, Computing Center), Paul Hons (College of Education), Kirk Kelly (Housing), Maurice Leatherbury (Chair, Sr. Director of Academic Computing and Asst. to the AVP Computing and Communications Services), Burton Lee (College of Music), Mike Maner (Computing Center), Gary Mathews (School of Library and Information Science), Chris Strauss (Computing Center), Mike Wright (Computing Center)

Guests
Richard Anderson (Computing Center), Philip Baczewski (Computing Center), Travis Brown (Computing Center), Brendan Carroll (ABN LAN Mgmt), Daren Dugan (Computing Center), Joseph Hasan (ProDirections), Krysta Kaye( Libraries), Patrick McLeod (Computing Center), Jason Myre (Computing Center), Craig Terrell (Computing Center), Scott Windham (Computing Center), David Wright (College of Education)

Minutes
Minutes from September 20, 2002 were approved with changes at the November 15, 2002 meeting.

Subcommittee Reports

Student Computing Committee
Elizabeth Hinkle-Turner reported that the Student Computing Committee has not met.

ProDirections Training and Certification
Joseph Hasan, a representative of ProDirections, discussed technical training courses and certification options for MCSE and other certifications. Mr. Hasan indicated that security is the biggest and most popular course (SANS GIAC). Partial courses are also available for those who are interested. Normal course pricing ranges from $5,000-$7,000 per person (pricing for UNT).

Palm, WinCE Device Support and Purchases
Paul Hons reported problems with a PocketPC device that altered GroupWise appointment listings for a department head. Should DCSMT standardize on a particular model? Brendan Carroll will chair a subcommittee to investigate and review more widespread use of PDA technology on campus, and will also review trends in support issues related to PDA and hybrid devices. Maurice mentioned UNT may adopt a policy wherein people will buy their own cell phones for work use and then get reimbursed for UNT-related expenses. This may impact the mobile PDA purchases..

Computing Center Re-organization
Maurice announced that tentative plans (pending upper level approval) have been made to change the organizational structure of the Computing Center in order to provide better coordination. Maurice will take on Datacommunications, Telecommunications and Campus Wide Network areas . A Director of Communications will be hired to manage Datacommunications and Telecommunications. The UNIX Support Group is now managed by Chris Cofer and will handle enterprise issues, web director, and load balancing. Bahram Paiani, postmaster, now works with Campus Wide Networks. Philip Baczewski adds the following to his area of management: the Helpdesk, Remedy, and Documentation Services. Philip will also assist with handling more ACS issues. In the mainframe areas, some EIS project groups will be managed by John Hooper (Project Management, DataWarehousing, Training, etc.).

Security Issues
In response to the increased number of security incidents that have occurred, Rich Anderson requested that machines which have been hacked be preserved in their current state, i.e. do not remove the computer from the network or turn it off until a member of the security team can collect vital live information. This process only takes a few minutes. Security incidents can be assigned to CC security in Remedy.

Rich recommends purchasing Secure IIS for systems that are running IIS. Individual costs begin at $1,000. A site license would run at $500 per copy. Plans are to block Microsoft networking ports at the border soon. Blocking the ports may reduce the number of incidents involving systems running IIS.

Securing Lab Machines
Maurice asked DCSMT to discuss the practicality of installing a product on motherboards that requires a special tool before it can be removed. The goal of the tool would be to secure the entire machine. DCSMT decided that physical CPU security measures are not needed at this time.

Windows OS Licensing and Used MMS Machines
Several issues have risen regarding retail and OEM licenses for Windows operating systems. Machines on campus have been purchased with both of these licenses. OEM licenses can only be sold with new machines and they travel with the machine. Many machines have been sold on campus and given away without the OEM license. A standard must be put in place to sell or give away the OEM license when machines are sold. This issue will be addressed in more detail in the near future.

Old Business
None.

New Business
None.

Status Reports
Jim Curry reported that he is catching up on the backlog. Deliveries should be made by the end of the month.

Tim Christian reported that a compromise occurred in CAS. Scans on affected machines found password cracking tools.

Philip Baczewski reported that the Apple contract has been signed. The Mac OS 10.2 purchase order may be ready next week. We are still in negotiations with SPSS.

Travis Brown reported that he is testing virus scanning on mailhost. He is testing spam tagging.

Jason Myre reported that GroupWise services will be switched to Netware 6. Three new GroupWise servers have been placed into production.

Daren Dugan reported that Netware 6 is available. Let Daren know if you need it.

Elizabeth Hinkle-Turner reported that new licensing codes for SPSS are available on Gauss and on the StatApps volume.

Craig Berry reported that there are problems with configurations of lab machines which have lead to security incidents. Craig also reported that the stolen SOVA lab machines were recovered from the Police department.

Brendan Carroll reported that the HP product manual is very useful. It includes information about printers, toner cartridges, etc. The manual is available from your HP representative. "Print Advantage" (notifies HP technicians of problems with printers and also notifies vendors when your toner is running low) is now being installed on new printers. Brendan is able to clone or ghost machines running Mac OS X.

Mike Maner announced that the core router will be upgraded tonight; there have been problems with power supplies shutting down the UPS; and CR is replacing defective hardware and inserting the firewall (not yet configured) and Packet Shaper onto the network.

Scott Windham requested that any issues or anomalies that arise from the upgrade be reported tonight if possible.

Rich Anderson reported that Chris added a security alert option to the "Urgency" list in Remedy. This addition will provide extensive information about security issues and how to work around them.

Mike Wright reported that all of the CDs for sale at the bookstore are now coming from Microsoft. They include the home version of XP which is not what is in use on campus- users may have problems when they change their hardware.