Author: tgale@ufl.edu

What To Do When You Get a New Device

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Did you get a new laptop or smartphone over the winter break? You’ve invested in a new device so take the time to ensure it is cyber-secure and prepared for your campus life needs. Here are three steps to prioritize before you spend your life on that new device:

  1. Whether you plan on donating or reselling your old device, before doing so, back up all data into a secure cloud or drive to keep it safe and private, so it’s available when needed. According to Wired, you should wipe all of your old device’s data by factory-resetting your device (an option in your device’s settings options) to safeguard your information from falling into the wrong hands.  
  2. Set up the new device for use with DUO to approve GatorLink logins. Also, configure your device to eduroam to have the fastest internet available on campus. 
  3. When creating a password or PIN for your new device, don’t even think about using ‘1-2-3-4’ or ‘2-5-8-0’, Gators! If possible, avoid saving personal login info and payment details because if you do, cyber criminals can easily steal these if they hack into the device.

Visit https://security.ufl.edu/protect-yourself/protect-my/mobile-device/ for more tips on keeping your devices and information secure.  

FY23 Contributions Report Theme: Securing UF

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Each year, Vice President and CIO Elias Eldayrie shares UFIT’s progress made towards Our Purpose. Our Legacy. The University of Florida Strategic Plan for IT: 2020-2025. The progress is reported in the annual publication known as the Contributions Report. The 12-page publication for fiscal year (FY) 2023 is available online in two formats:

Optimized for Printing

Optimized for Online Reading/Screen Viewing

Securing UF’s network and UF data is the theme threaded throughout the content sections of the FY23 Contributions Report. Some of the security-based content featured include a section dedicated to achieving HITRUST certification for HiPerGator and a list of new IT security policies approved in FY23. Additionally, VP Eldayrie reports on the progress made towards each of the strategic plan’s six goals.

Anyone with questions about the 2022-2023 Contributions Report is welcome to contact UFIT Communications.

Use of Mass Email Platforms Changing

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Sending bulk emails through third-party email marketing platforms (e.g., Mailchimp, Constant Contact, Brevo) will require UF departments to act before February 1, 2024.

Google and Yahoo recently announced new email authentication and spam-prevention policies.  Beginning February 1, 2024, both email providers will begin blocking and aggressively filtering incoming email traffic that doesn’t meet domain authentication and procedural requirements.

What does this mean for UF?

Many UF administrative divisions, colleges, and units use third-party apps to keep stakeholders informed. This is often done with a visually attractive newsletter or e-Card format. Third-party apps are also used to send bulk emails for surveys, ticket sales and event announcements, and appointment reminders.  Any unit using an email marketing program to send mass marketing emails to the UF community or to externally-focused stakeholders need to refer to the vendor’s documentation on domain authentication (or DKIM) and work with UFIT to complete the domain authentication process prior to Feb. 1.  The steps required to comply with Google’s and Yahoo’s new policies on domain authentication vary by the bulk-mail application used.

If you are using an app (such as Constant Contact or a Microsoft Mail-Merge plug-in) where you type in a personal or a college/department.ufl.edu, address as the “From” address, then you will need to verify that domain authentication is in place to meet Google’s and Yahoo’s new requirements.  Otherwise, intended recipients whose emails end with gmail.com, googlemail.com, or yahoo.com may not receive what you send. Again, refer to the vendor’s documentation on domain authentication (or DKIM) and work with UFIT to complete the domain authentication process before you begin creating that next issue of your newsletter or developing a new survey. For additional assistance in clarifying steps about bulk email, submit a myIT ticket to the Help Desk and UFIT will provide expert consultation.

Please refer to the Google and Yahoo announcements for detailed technical information about authentication requirements. While acknowledging that bulk mail applications are popular because they enable staff to design and deploy visually beautiful emails, issues about deploying mass emails within the university community can easily be overcome by creating a UF listserv. Visit https://lists.ufl.edu/ and use the “Request creation of a new mailing list” link to create a new list. It is also recommended that applications used to create content and store UF email addresses be pre-approved for use. Faculty and staff can check what mass mailing applications are approved for university use on the Fast Path Solutions website.

UF Strategic Investment Will Advance Research Software Engineering and Enable Leading-edge Data Modeling 

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The University of Florida will soon have a software developer group to assist principal investigators and research teams, thanks to a $2-million award from UF President Ben Sasse’s strategic funding initiative. 

The Research Software Engineers to Enhance/Scale Computer Research project will enlist a group of individuals to use existing infrastructure like HiPerGator to work directly with researchers on their projects. These research software engineers (RSEs) will be skilled at technically advanced tasks, including creating scientific software, developing complex workflows involving data management and curation, and offering advice on research productivity and reproducibility.  

“The creation of a new research software engineering team will further advance UF as a research powerhouse,” Sasse said. “It’s great for UF and great for Florida. Bolstering HiPerGator’s capabilities helps us attract the best researchers, graduate students, and entrepreneurial minds to the state.” 

Forming the RSE team will enable a broader scale of computational research while enhancing UF’s profile and reputation. Having research software engineers positioned across campus and based in the central Research Computing department will be highly valuable to faculty throughout UF (considering not every department or lab has staff members that can develop the advanced programming needed for today’s supercomputing environment). 

UF Vice President and Chief Information Officer Elias Eldayrie is ecstatic to elevate support for UF’s research community. 

“This investment from the university will reap benefits for many years. The kind of research software engineers we will hire is a recruiting edge to attract and support the best minds in the academy,” Eldayrie said. “This level of research support is cutting-edge now but will become mandatory to attract and retain the best, in just a few years.”   

Eldayrie added that the work performed by the research software engineers will be done in the most effective way possible, freeing up students, faculty, and postdoctoral candidates to be more efficient with their time. 

UFIT’s Research Computing (RC) department empowers research and discovery at the university. UFIT-RC provides a rich services and resources ecosystem, including designing and running HiPerGator, the University of Florida supercomputer, complete with advanced AI capabilities. UFIT-RC offers training, support, and consulting, and enables HiPerGator access for faculty from other Florida universities and within the Southeastern Conference. More information about the services and resources provided are available on https://rc.ufl.edu/ or by contacting UFIT-RC Senior Director Erik Deumens. 

What Your Primary Affiliation Means for Digital Access at UF

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The University of Florida’s large and diverse population is comprised of students, faculty, and staff. But there are many other primary roles (known as ‘affiliations’) in our Gator community, and everyone’s affiliation determines what digital services they are entitled to access. Some of these additional primary UF affiliations include emeritus faculty member, consultant, community members who use UF libraries, authorized vendors, and newly admitted students not yet enrolled.

UFIT has an updated webpage showing which affiliations can use the following provisioned services.

UF Email Eligible365 LicenseDropboxGooglePower BI ProZoomVPNEduroam

UFIT maintains the list of primary affiliations for the university. Anyone with questions about their affiliation or the assigned affiliation of a new hire or former employee is encouraged to chat with their department security administrator (DSA).

Request Your Spring 2024 Course Shells

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Faculty can now request their courses in ONE.UF. (Faculty or staff requesting on behalf of an instructor must still use the established process in myUFL.) Course auto-creation for the Spring 2024 term will begin on Wednesday, Jan. 3, 2024, at 12:00 p.m.  Any course not requested or marked “exclude from Canvas” will be created on that date. Instructors who would like sections combined into one shell will need to make their request prior to Jan. 3. Any course section added to the Student Information System after the auto-creation date will still require a course shell request.

Instructors cannot use their Canvas courses (via Announcements or Inbox) to communicate with students prior to the start date of the course and the course being published. Instructors who want to communicate with students prior to the first day of the Spring 2024 term can use the Class Rolls feature in ONE.UF. Full course rosters will load into e-Learning after the Jan. 3 auto-creation date.

The e-Learning Support group offers one-on-one consultations to help prepare your course for the upcoming term. Instructors can schedule a consult on the http://go.ufl.edu/CanvasHelp page. Consultations will be conducted via Zoom. Please email or call (352-392-4357) the e-Learning Support group with any Canvas questions you have, or if you need assistance requesting your course shells for Spring 2024.

Phishing vs. Spam

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Most of us receive phishing and spam email daily. Phishing emails are intentionally deceptive and designed to scam personal information by impersonating known organizations, people, or companies. Spam emails are unsolicited junk emails that contain commercial or sometimes misleading information and are sent frequently, even from legitimate company or organizational email addresses.

Unlike emails sent legitimately from companies or organizations, phishing attempts often begin with impersonal greetings, such as “Dear Client,” instead of addressing you by name. They also frequently contain grammar or spelling errors and urge you to click on a malware-infected link. Always hover your mouse over a link to see if it leads to the intended site or use the URL Decoder on mail.ufl.edu. Spam emails don’t have as many defining characteristics, but they are usually advertisements sent frequently to alert recipients of sales, or that urge you to do something, like completing a survey or visiting a website.

You should always report phishing emails received in your UF GatorMail email. Also, you may be able to cut down on the amount of spam you receive by unsubscribing from company and organizational marketing emails. Students, faculty, and staff can use the Phish Alert Button in their GatorMail to report phishing attempts. For spam emails, unsubscribe from all of the sender’s communications by looking for an “Unsubscribe” link at the bottom of the email (usually in small text) of each spam message received.

Learn more about email safety: https://security.ufl.edu/resources/email-safety/.

Learn to Use SPSS & Sample Power 3

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An instructor-led SPSS & Sample Power 3 course will be offered in Spring 2024. The course, a free offering from UF Information Technology (UFIT), is open to all faculty, postdoctoral candidates, graduate students, and staff that have completed at least one graduate-level statistics course.

To register, visit UFIT’s training website and type ‘SPSS’ in the Search by Keyword box. The Spring 2024 course dates are January 16 to March 15, 2024. The course is comprised of seven modules. Participants will learn to:

● Navigate the SPSS & Sample Power interface
● Create and import datasets
● Conduct exploratory data analysis
● Create different types of charts
● Transform data
● Perform inferential statistics for the mean, proportion, and categorical variables
● Carry out bivariate linear regression, correlation, and multiple linear regression
● Perform analysis of variances, analysis of covariance, and logistic regression
● Conduct Power Analysis for each statistical test

Anyone with questions about UFIT’s SPSS & Sample Power 3 course is welcome to contact the course’s trainer, Dr. Jose Silva-Lugo.

Use the Break Periods to Develop Your Professional Skills

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Take advantage of the upcoming holiday breaks to build your professional skills using LinkedIn Learning and UFApps.

Students can access more than 21,000 courses on LinkedIn Learning for FREE with their GatorLink credentials. What do you need to learn that will make you stand out from other applicants for that job or internship? You can take a database fundamentals course, advanced Excel, learn Python or Adobe Creative Cloud and more, from the comfort of your couch or while flying home!

https://elearning.ufl.edu/supported-services/linkedin-learning/

UFIT also provides UFApps, enabling access to 130+ applications you can use to build proficiency in professional-level tools, such as MATLAB, Autodesk, and SPSS. Your experience with these applications can be valuable additions to your resume and job applications. Go to https://info.apps.ufl.edu/ and click “Login to UFApps” on the top right to get started.

It’s never too early to get started on your professional development, Gators! Enjoy these free opportunities while you can, because software applications are expensive and a LinkedIn Learning account will cost you more than $20/month after graduation. If you need assistance accessing the free version of LinkedIn Learning or downloading the receiver to use UFApps, call (352-392-HELP) or visit (132 Hub, across from Starbucks) the UFIT Help Desk.