April 2020

Academic Continuity, April 2020, By the Numbers

Clark and Academic Continuity: The Numbers


In the last two weeks, we have transformed much of how we teach, learn, and work. We wanted to share some interesting numbers around how our community has made this change.

During the week of March 23rd, the Clark Community…

  • Participated in over 2,600 unique online meetings totaling over 13,500 person-hours (a two hour meeting with five people would be 10 person-hours)
  • Read over 20% more email than an average spring semester week
  • Increased the utilization of Moodle over 50%
  • Added over 500 videos to Panopto and viewed almost 2,000 hours of video
  • Increased the utilization of our VPN over 600% across 400 unique daily users

Across the globe, we’ve seen Zoom grow from 10 million daily meeting participants in December to over 200 million today. Microsoft Teams saw in a growth rate of over 500% worldwide virtually overnight.

Finally, all of us in ITS would like to thank you for your continued focus on information security, as well as your patience and willingness to adapt to new processes and technology in this unprecedented time. Our rapid adoption of products like Zoom and Teams, as well as adapting how we all learn, teach, and work was only possible with our shared commitment to doing whatever was needed to make it happen.

We have not only adapted to our world today, but we’re learning new things we’ll carry forward well after the history of COVID-19 is written.

April 2020, Zoom

Zoom in the News

In this time of social distancing, the world has gotten a rapid introduction to Zoom meetings. Zoom has also gotten a rapid introduction to the world. Their daily use has increased from 10 million meeting participants to over 200 million, and with that, everyone has experienced some growing pains.

You may have seen in the news recently there have been some technical, abuse, and privacy concerns with Zoom. Eric Yuan, Zoom CEO, has addressed some of these concerns in a message to users.

We’d like to share our thoughts on these as well as provide some tips around securing your Zoom meetings, the main take-aways being:

  • Update your application to reduce vulnerabilities
  • Choose your meeting settings to reduce the likelihood of Zoom-bombing
  • Make choices to protect your personal information

Vulnerabilities

Vulnerabilities in an application aren’t unique to Zoom, and our advice, as with any application, is to keep your software up-to-date.

Zoom-bombing

There have been reports of “Zoom-bombing” where uninvited participants join your meeting.

Protect your Meeting Links

You can’t Zoom-bomb if you can’t join the meeting, so the first step is protecting access to your meeting link. We suggest you post the link to your course meetings in your Moodle course where only your participants have access to them. You should not post links to your meetings to public websites or social media.

Also, rarely use your personal Zoom Room. Your PMI (Personal Meeting Room ID) never changes, so anyone you’ve ever shared that link with can join any meeting in your Zoom Room at anytime. By default, when you setup a new meeting it does not use your PMI.

Know your Meeting Settings

Zoom offers a range of settings for each meeting to help you make your sessions more secure.

All meetings created on or after 4/6/2020 have a password added to them by default. This will make someone guessing the link to your meeting much more difficult. Participants will use the link for your meeting just as they did before the password add (the password is  automatically embedded in the link). Still be mindful of how you distribute the link to your meeting.

You can add a password to an existing meeting. Once a password is added to a meeting, you should redistribute the modified link or distribute the password to your attendees. Click here for more information about adding a password to scheduled meetings.

You can use the Waiting Room feature. This feature doesn’t let anyone join the meeting unless you explicitly grant them access using the Participants panel. Click here for more information on the Waiting Room.

Finally, some other things you can do to minimize the risk of Zoom-bombing:

    • Set your meeting to mute all participants when they join
    • Set your meeting to not allow participants to unmute their own microphone
    • Lock the meeting once all attendees have arrived. This will prevent anyone else from joining the meeting (including late students)

The settings for your meetings can be managed at https://zoom.us/profile/setting and once in a meeting, you can control the participants microphones, lock the meeting, or forcibly remove people from the meeting, using the Participants panel.

Privacy

There have been privacy concerns around who Zoom shares data with, including Facebook and LinkedIn. Zoom has updated their app and changed their policies around data sharing, so be sure to apply Zoom app updates on your computer or mobile device.

If you have privacy concerns around using the full Zoom application, you can choose to use the Zoom web app, which only requires a web browser. Click here for information on how to join a Zoom meeting using the web app.

If your meeting only requires audio, you can also join from a traditional telephone by dialing in.

Final Words

As with most technologies, Zoom is not perfect. There are positive and negative aspects of using it, just as there are risks involved with having a conversation with anyone in the world. We believe the advantages of being able to share knowledge and maintain personal connections at this time, combined with some techniques to help manage the technology, outweigh the risks.

We will continue to monitor the technology landscape around all the tools we rely on, evaluate the risk of using them, and provide changes or guidance around them.

April 2020, Data Privacy and Security

Information Security in a COVID World

ITS wanted to take a minute as we’re all adjusting to the waves of changes coming our way, and remind everyone that certain people around the world are trying to take advantage of the situation we find ourselves in and our innate desire to help others. Now is the right time to ensure we’re vigilant about protecting ourselves.

There are reports of people getting email and phone calls about fraudulent charities and even people walking door-to-door claiming to be the CDC doing research. There has been an international increase in the typical methods of phishing and impersonating other users as well as targeted cyberattacks on infrastructure. ITS continues to monitor these threats and asks for your help.

  • Double check your email. If you get a message that appears to be from a member of the Clark community, but doesn’t look like it really came from that person, be extra cautious (Clark faculty and staff should look for the [EXT] tag in the subject – this means the message originated from outside Clark’s mail environment). It’s worth thinking twice before taking any action, opening any attachments, or clicking any links. It’s best at this time to use your Clark email for business communications (as opposed to a personal email account). While email approvals aren’t legally binding for formal contracts, it adds an additional layer of verification that the email communication is authentic.

 

  • Watch for phone calls too. As we’ve evolved over the past weeks to a more mobile workforce, if you get a phone call claiming to be from someone at Clark asking you to do something that may seem odd (like buy gift cards), Caller ID is not a fool-proof way to validate who you’re talking to. Reach out to the person another way; send them an email to their Clark account or call them back on a number you already know for them. You may also get calls claiming to be from companies, like Microsoft or Apple, who have detected a problem with your computer and need you to do things on it. These are not legitimate calls and you should not take any action the caller suggests. If you have computing questions, you can reach out to the Help Desk at helpdesk@clarku.edu or 508-793-7745.

 

  • Think twice, click once (or never). Most malware infections require us to do something – open an attachment, click on a link, download a file. We have protections installed in your Clark email account to help remove most malicious attachments before they get to your inbox. Another great layer of protection is to make sure the attachment or link comes from someone you’re familiar with and you’d be expecting to get it from in the context of your conversation. As we grow the tools we use, these links could come in different ways. For example, as we use Zoom and Microsoft Teams more, users can post a link in the chat asking people to click on it. These may be malicious links, so be aware of clicking on links not only in email, but in other applications as well.

The compassion and thoughtfulness of our community is truly overwhelming and we hope these small tips will not only help to ensure the protection of our shared computer and information resources, but your personal information and resources too.

Finally, all of us in ITS would like to thank you for your focus on information security, as well as your patience and willingness to adapt to new processes and technology in this unprecedented time.

Academic Continuity, April 2020, Zoom

Online Meetings: Troubleshooting your Connection


With many people joining Zoom and Teams sessions over recent weeks, we’ve had questions about how to best ensure a clear, consistent connection.

Poor connections can impact your, and your participants’ experience in many ways – from stuttering video, to audio falling in and out, to freezing screens.

While every session, every connection and every device is different, there are some things that you can try if you’re regularly experiencing connection issues.

Before the Session

  • If you’re using a desktop or laptop, connect your device directly to your router with a network cable. This will help keep your connection stable, reliable and less patchy than WiFi.
  • If you are using a mobile device, or can’t connect directly to your router, try to move around your home to find a spot with a stronger connection. The general rule is the closer you are to your router, the stronger the connection. Additionally, some architectural features can cause some areas in your home to have a weaker connection
  • Consider what else is streaming on your internet. Close any applications that you don’t need during your session. If others in your house are using the internet ask them to refrain from streaming content during that time (Netflix, music, etc)
  • If you’re having audio issues in many sessions, be sure to run through a test prior to meetings to ensure you have the best setup possible.

During the Session

April 2020

Help Desk Hours


Even though we’re off-campus, the ITS Help Desk is here to help. Call us at 508-793-7745 or email us at helpdesk@clarku.edu.

  • Monday – Thursday: 8am to 8pm
  • Friday: 8am to 5pm
  • Saturday & Sunday: 12pm to 5pm