ITS created device purchasing and equipment loan programs, which provide our community with suitable equipment that meets published requirements and eases the financial burden for departments, units, and colleges.  

Students: ITS created a comprehensive technology training course designed for students by students.  Previously, we could rely on students receiving in-person assistance through Orientation and from the Technology Support Center. With a large number of students attending classes remotely, we could not expect this same type of interaction. Also, the emphasis shifted to new types of services, such as videoconferencing. We created this course, using a combination of text, links to Knowledge Base articles, and short videos, to provide information about device requirements, essential IT systems (e.g., HuskyCT, Student Admin, G Suite), security best practices, and services that support online teaching, learning, and working.   

Instructors: ITS partnered with the Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning (CETL) to develop “Tech Check” to help address at-home challenges that impede instructors’ interactions with students.  Through this support service, instructors can schedule virtual one-on-one meetings with ITS staff who will assess workstations, audiovisual equipment, network speeds, and other aspects of home IT infrastructure and will make recommendations to improve performance.  

A key role of enterprise IT is identifying security risks and protecting our community from them as much as practical.  We implemented solutions to better protect personal as well as institutional data and educational initiatives tailored to individuals. 

Two-factor authentication (2FA) significantly increases protection to the login process by requiring individuals to verify their identities using both their UConn credentials and an enrolled device. ITS expanded this protection on the following services:  

• PeopleSoft accounts that have privileged access to student data 
• ITS-provisioned Remote Desktop Gateway (RDG) to better secure remote connectivity to campus 

Umbrella DNS 

ITS implemented a Domain Name System (DNS) filtering product, Cisco Umbrella, to enhance protection against web-based threats. Cisco Umbrella is a flexible cloud-delivered security framework that provides protection against threats on the internet, such as malware, phishing, and ransomware.  Umbrella DNS filtering adds a layer of defense by managing and preventing access to names identified as dangerous.   

ITS has been identifying UConn email addresses that have been exposed through an external breach, passwords that are compromised, or passwords that are clearly at risk.  The we communicate directly with individuals whose institutional accounts have been identified as vulnerable and help them remediate the issue. 

Phishing Education 

Phishing continues to be a threat to individuals at the University and introduces risk to the whole network. Although ITS maintains training materials on how to identify and deal with phishing messages, we added a more direct approach this year that provided us with data to better guide educational campaigns and exposed constituents to simulated phishing campaigns based on real-life examples. Faculty and staff began receiving quarterly mock phishing messages that mimicked frequently seen attacks.  If they clicked on a link in the message, they would navigate to a webpage that provides immediate feedback and additional information.  

With the need for improved security wherever we may be working, ITS has begun to deploy new software on endpoints that helps to identify potential attacks as they happen based on known Indicators of Compromise (IOC’s). Different from traditional anti-virus programs which primarily look to match signatures, EDR looks at system behavior to alert, reducing the processing load on the computer, and providing better insight into the activity that triggered the alert. 

myUConn is the official UConn mobile application that connects our community to a collection of information and services which enhance campus life and online experiences.  In concert with University Communications, ITS modified the app to update the interface and enable capabilities for on- and off-site engagement. These new features included: 

• Personals, which allow you to select a role at the University (commuter student, residential student, faculty and staff, or visitor) that best fits you.  This feature gives the University a channel in the app for communicating critical information, and once this is set, you will see audience-specific content and can receive targeted notifications.   
• New modules, such as Back to School and Campus Tour, that provided pertinent information to the campus re-opening and virtual view of UConn.  

ITS maintains the IT Status page (itstatus.uconn.edu) to communicate information about planned and unplanned outages, service disruptions, and other community impacting situations.  Content on this page is fed from our ticketing and change management system.  This allows the page to reflect the status of an issue, from identification through resolution.  We have updated the design to better display announcements and streamlined the internal workflow.  These changes will allow the community to more easily locate relevant information and ITS to more effectively maintain timely and accurate status.