This Week in LIS - 5 December 2008

Submitted by bartch02 on December 5, 2008 - 10:30am
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Headline of the Week: Phishing and Norse Key Security

Yesterday, LIS again reminded the campus community about the dangers of sharing account information via email, as well as the fact that LIS staff will never ask for passwords via email at any time. This is a message we regularly try to reinforce with the community and with the increased sophistication of phishing attempts, it gets more difficult to make it clear. Each round there are a few folks who do reply back the phishers with their credentials. The hackers then use the login information to send spam and on occasion to access personal information that they can use elsewhere.

The best rule of thumb to follow is not to send any personal information via email in response to random queries. If you think a request may be legitimate, pick up the telephone and call to confirm. This applies not only to Luther accounts, but personal accounts as well which are also targets of phishers. Building a stronger sense of awareness regarding online security measures is a critical information skill that everyone needs to learn and keep pace with. And in the case of passwords, it actually is remarkably easy to do so — NEVER share your password(s) with anyone. If you don’t share it or write it down, it remains secure.

It’s also a good reminder for LIS staff and those who help users with passwords that we should never ask for passwords at any time and if they are provided to us, they should be changed by the user immediately. Maintaining password security on the LIS side is equally easy … just don’t invite users to share them, and always have the user enter passwords themselves.

Network security practices and policies are critical to LIS and Luther, and we want to encourage ourselves and our users to maintain the best security that we can. Thanks for doing your part.

LIS Blog Highlights from the Week

The following articles are sampled from those available on the LIS Blog:

Notes from LIS Council

LIS Council discussed planning and agenda items for the LIS General meeting, upcoming changes to campus event scheduling policies, the process map for new community members in LIS, and the overall structure of LIS as currently defined on our website.

NITLE Opportunities

As a member of NITLE (National Institute for Technology and Liberal Education), Luther has the opportunity to participate in a wide variety of developmental and training programs intended for faculty, librarians, and information technologists. Events listed at the link below are currently open for registration by Luther participants. LIS Staff who are interested in participating in an event should speak with Christopher Barth. Faculty who are interested in participating should speak with Lori Stanley. Participation is contingent upon available funding and program acceptance.

Events with Upcoming Registration Deadlines:

  • Technologies for Teaching Writing. Deadline past: limited seats may be available. Program Date: December 10, 2008. Knox College, Galesburg, IL. 4 program units. http://www.nitle.org/www/events/875.
  • How Instructional Technologists Support Faculty Designing Online Collaborative Work. An instance of the “Special Topics for Instructional Technologists” series. Deadline past: limited seats may be available. Program Date & Time: December 5, 2008, 12:00 PM – 1:00 PM Eastern. Delivered online via MIV. 1 program unit. http://www.nitle.org/www/events/848.
  • Teaching with Virtual Worlds. An instance of the “Special Topics in Digital Teaching” series. Deadline past: limited seats may be available. Program Date & Time: December 10, 2008, 4:00 PM – 5:00 PM Eastern. Delivered online via MIV. 1 program unit. http://www.nitle.org/www/events/854.
  • Encouraging Student Scholarship: Learning to Write in the Digital Age. Deadline past: limited seats may be available. Program Dates: January 16 – 18, 2009 (6:00 PM, Friday – 12:00 PM, Sunday, Eastern). Wheaton College, Norton, MA. 7 program units. http://www.nitle.org/www/events/823.
  • Developing, Managing, and Supporting GIS: Spatial Technologies in the Liberal Arts. Formerly titled: The Elephant in Adolescence: Managing & Supporting GIS. An instance of the “Special Topics in Spatial Analysis and Mapping” series. Deadline past: limited seats may be available. Program Date & Time: December 16, 2008, 4:00 PM – 5:00 PM Eastern. Delivered online via MIV. 1 program unit. http://www.nitle.org/www/events/838.
  • Web 2.0 Storytelling. Registration deadline: December 12, 2008. Program Date: January 13, 2009. St. Lawrence University, Canton, NY. 4 program units. http://www.nitle.org/www/events/905.
  • Social Software for Education: Collaborative Learning and Research Practices. Registration deadline: December 12, 2008. Program Date: January 14, 2009. Gettysburg College, Gettysburg, PA. 4 program units. http://www.nitle.org/www/events/906.
  • Teaching Science in the Digital Age. Registration deadline: December 12, 2008. Program Date: January 16, 2009. Stonehill College, Easton, MA. 4 program units. http://www.nitle.org/www/events/902.
  • Emerging Technologies and the Liberal Arts Campus. Registration deadline: December 12, 2008. Program Date: January 16, 2009. Colby College, Waterville, ME. 4 program units. http://www.nitle.org/www/events/908.
  • Creating the Virtual Liberal Arts Campus in Second Life. An instance of the “Special Topics for Instructional Technologists” series. Registration deadline: December 19, 2008. Program Date & Time: January 9, 2009, 12:00 PM – 1:00 PM Eastern. Delivered online via MIV. 1 program unit. http://www.nitle.org/www/events/849.

Complete List of NITLE Opportunities

Next Week in LIS

Notable Internet Resource of the Week: Notify.me

If there are some information sources that you absolutely must monitor in real time, notify.me allows you to take any number of online sources (RSS feeds, Craigslist, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc.) and pipe notifications to you via email, sms text message, or instant messaging. Within any given source you can also filter for specific content to limit the notifications you receive. The interface is very simple and clean, and easy to use.

On the web at http://notify.me/

Around the Web

Here are a few links to interesting developments over the past week:

  • Hardware and Technology Tools
    • None
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