Author Archives: Matt Martin, Information Assurance (IA)
On November 1, 2023, the ITS Identity and Access Management (IAM) team and colleagues across ITS and the university gathered to celebrate the retirement of the Cosign service at U-M. Created by members of U-M’s IT Commons group in 2001, Cosign was a web-based, single-sign-on solution that was rapidly adopted at other universities. As U-M’s Cosign reached the… Read More »
U-M encourages all students, faculty, and staff to engage in safe and legally compliant sharing of copyrighted materials. Here’s what you should consider when sharing copyrighted materials.
Originally designed at U-M more than twenty years ago, Cosign was once widely used across higher education. The degree to which U-M had integrated Cosign into countless applications was a testament to its success. However, the user base dwindled at U-M and across higher ed as institutions transitioned to more modern authentication protocols (OIDC and SAML). At U-M… Read More »
Duo has released a new Universal Prompt to replace their traditional two-factor authentication prompt that U-M currently uses. ITS Identity and Access Management (IAM) is planning to switch U-M Weblogin to use the Duo Universal Prompt in early 2024. Visit the Upcoming Changes to Duo page on Safe Computing to see an example. The advantages of the Universal… Read More »
Whether you are sending email, participating in online discussions, or posting to social media, practicing good digital citizenship makes the online world safer and more enjoyable for yourself and others. Do your part to support online civility and promote good digital citizenship. Some practical tips are to: Refer to the following web pages for more guidance and links… Read More »
A recent alert from the Joint Ransomware Task Force (JRTF) warns about the accelerated growth of tactics used by ransomware actors. Founded in 2022, the JRTF acts as an interagency collaborative effort to reduce the prevalence and impact of ransomware attacks and is comprised of members from the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), the Federal Bureau of… Read More »
When MCommunity was updated on July 30, 2022, the URLs of individual profile pages and MCommunity Group pages were changed. An automatic redirect function has been in place since the update, but the redirect is scheduled to end on August 8, 2023. Links will need to be updated on unit web pages, online curricula, class or department profiles,… Read More »
This summer, U-M’s Sponsor System will be upgraded to replace its dependency on Cosign authentication with Shibboleth. As part of the upgrade, the user interface will be updated with better accessibility and an improved Search/Match function to enhance the sponsorship process. The business functions and processes in place with the current Sponsor System will largely remain the same.… Read More »
Did you know that if you use an iPhone or iPad to log into U-M websites, you don’t have to type your password every time you log in? Your Apple biometrics (FaceID or TouchID) provides a secure option. You just have to take a few minutes to set it up first. Check out this new video to see… Read More »
On December 8, an MCommunity release improved deactivated and expired group functionality. Instead of deleting groups as they do today, owners now deactivate groups, thus affording all owners an option to restore groups. My Groups in MCommunity now includes a new Trash tab showing group owners all their deactivated and expired groups. Owners can recover groups for 30… Read More »
This year marked the 20th year that ITS Information Assurance (IA) has invited U-M students to take an online quiz to raise awareness about IT security issues and promote security and privacy best practices during October’s National Cybersecurity Awareness Month. All U-M students on the UM-Ann Arbor (including medical students), UM-Dearborn, and UM-Flint campuses who scored 90% or… Read More »
As part of this fall’s SUMIT series of weekly events, the Education and Engagement team of ITS Information Assurance (IA) presented on how they curate knowledge, develop training, and create awareness for U-M community members to protect themselves and the U. The team of Performance Support Analysts featured “Jen and the Matts” (Jen Wilkerson, Matt Ranville, and Matt… Read More »
This fall, ITS Information Assurance (IA) continues the tradition of celebrating Cybersecurity Awareness Month with the annual SUMIT series of weekly events hosted by IA’s cybersecurity experts. SUMIT’s online sessions include: Cosign Retirement Drop-in Sessions: Unit IT who manage services that use Cosign authentication can learn how to smoothly transition from Cosign to Shibboleth (SAML or OIDC). Safe… Read More »
U-M employees and community members all share in the responsibility to help protect U-M IT systems and data. However, some employees may not be aware of or sufficiently prepared for this responsibility. A new course in My LINC, Data Protection 101: Your Shared Responsibility, is now available to all faculty, staff, and students. It provides a brief overview… Read More »
Spring is here, the sun is shining, and many of us are going on a long-awaited trip for vacation. Whether you are heading on a long vacation or a quick professional trip, you will likely take along some combination of a smartphone, tablet, laptop, and other mobile devices. Follow these tips to safeguard both your own and the… Read More »
April 12 is Identity Management Day. Learn about the people who protect your data by “giv[ing] the right people access to the right things at the right time.”
The ITS Identity & Access Management team (IAM) has finalized plans to reach key milestones that will remove dependencies on the Cosign authentication service by summer 2022. Cosign has been the university’s secure, single sign-on, web authentication system for more than 20 years. Originally designed at U-M, the open source software was once widely used across higher education.… Read More »
U-M celebrated Privacy Day for the fifth year through a month’s worth of programming co-convened by ITS Information Assurance and the School of Information. At U-M’s 2022 Privacy Day keynote presentation, Dr. Gabriela Zanfir-Fortuna, vice President for Global Privacy at the Future of Privacy Forum, walked her audience through the key concepts of privacy and data protection and… Read More »
The Security Privacy Interaction Lab (SPI Lab) at U-M, led by Florian Schaub, assistant professor in the School of Information and College of Engineering, is a team of researchers studying privacy and security issues in today’s digital world. As part of Privacy@Michigan — U-M’s Data Privacy Day celebration, Yixin Zou, a PhD student in the School of Information,… Read More »
For more than 16 years, ITS Information Assurance (IA) has invited UM-Ann Arbor students, including medical students, to take an online quiz to raise awareness about IT security issues and promote best practices during National Cybersecurity Awareness Month. Those who score 90% or higher on the 10-question quiz are entered into a drawing for prizes. This year, students… Read More »