This Week in LIS - 27 March 2009

Submitted by bartch02 on March 27, 2009 - 3:34pm
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Headline of the Week: Norse Keys and Our Forgetfulness

One of the most frequent calls to Luther’s Help Desk (and any other Help Desk for that matter) requests assistance in resetting a password that the user has forgotten. We’ve all done this. I know every now and then I’ll plunk various passwords into a web site authentication prompt silently hoping that one of them will connect. There is little personal business that we can conduct these days online without passwords. They are necessary, and their safety, security, and integrity is critical in maintaining our identities in many ways. Authentication credentials, including passwords are very important, and LIS treats them that way.

At Luther, Norse Keys are the “keys to the kingdom” granting access to email, file shares, registration data, library circulation records, and many other systems and services. For that reason most campus community members regularly use their Norse Keys and have little opportunity to forget them. This has been made slightly more challenging given Luther’s adoption of the best practice of requiring periodic changes to users credentials. This is a critical piece of our network security plan ensuring that dormant accounts are not allowed unchallenged access to our resources. With the change in password policy, we often hear — “I’ll just write it down and put it on a sticky on my monitor (or under my keyboard, etc., etc.). Obviously doing so isn’t the wisest course of action, and violates Luther policies regarding our network use. Carelessness with login credentials regularly cause significant risk to Luther data, and our biggest vulnerability are our own users who make it too easy for others to gain access to their passwords.

One measure LIS has taken to improve this situation is a new security feature that allows self-service reset of Norse Keys online. Now users who forget a password can (relatively) easily have that reset provided they can pass the identity verification steps included in the workflow. We hope this will result in fewer Norse Keys being written down, and better service response time in resolving password reset issues. This will also significantly benefit Norse Key holders who are not regular users such as Luther’s many alumni who use Norse Keys to access the online alumni directory.

The new system requires users to supply a number of pieces of data for identity verification. It also collects answers to personal questions that generally only you should know. It also asks that you supply an alternative email address for notification purposes whenever your Norse Key is changed via this new workflow. All password resets are logged and monitored for network security purposes. This new service is available online at https://norsekey.luther.edu/. Thanks to Scott Bassford, lead developer of this new feature and the many others in LIS who assisted.

A reminder that LIS will never ask for your password in email. Email notifications from LIS will always direct you to our Norse Key website, which you should always verify as accurate in your browser address bar. Please don’t share your Norse Key with anyone, and help us maintain the security of our networks.

LIS Staffing News

LIS has launched a recruitment for a Programmer/Analyst. Initial review of applicants is underway and the opening round of telephone interviews will begin shortly.

LIS Blog Highlights from the Week

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

Notes from LIS Council

Among the topics discussed by LIS Council this week:

  • 2009-10 Budget Planning

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.

A full list of events (sortable by registration deadline) is available at http://www.nitle.org/www/events.

Next Week in LIS

Notable Internet Resource of the Week: ebookprice.info

Having recently made the jump into ebooks with a new Kindle 2, I’ve spent a little more time looking at ebook options. ebookprice.info is a still-growing website seeking to provide a single front-end to multiple online vendors of ebooks allowing users to easily compare prices. Leaving aside the inevitable DRM and file type issues, the site does provide a start when looking for ebook content. It clearly displays the versions available, and at what price. Users will need to know what file types are compatible with their personal devices (or the conversion methods available). Amazon, ebooks.com, ereadable.com, fictionwise.com, and powells.com are among the vendors currently indexed and more are being added regularly. Indexing is by title, author, or ISBN. Site design isn’t exactly stylish, but it gets the job done.

On the web at http://www.ebookprice.info/

Around the Web

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

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