“To best support the collaborative work of our faculty, staff, and students, we must make their identity, roles, and access seamless as they move within multiple areas of U-M,” said Andrew Rosenberg, M.D., chief information officer for Michigan Medicine. “Our current methods rely on dozens of poorly connected IT systems,” he added. “Centralizing these activities in terms of… Read More »
The MiWorkspace team at Information and Technology Services (ITS) worked with Health Information Technology & Services (HITS) to configure MiWorkspace computers to connect to the Michigan Medicine wired network. Michigan Medicine is increasing security for their wired networks by requiring trusted university devices contain a specific security protocol. MiWorkspace computers in the following units are now configured to… Read More »
When Michigan Medicine’s telephone dictation and transcription service provider was impacted by a global malware cyberattack, teams from Health Information Technology & Services (HITS) and Health Information Management (HIM) acted swiftly to ensure the service was disabled, no patient information was compromised, and alternative solutions were provided. “Many staff played a role in the response to the dictation… Read More »
A group of security and networking experts across ITS met recently to ensure U-M is prepared for potential distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks.
You put U-M systems and data at risk if you use your UMICH (Level-1) password for non-university services. If you use your UMICH email address and password to establish a personal account, and that information is exposed in a data breach, your UMICH account is at risk. If you have used your UMICH (Level-1) password for non-university services,… Read More »
This year, U-M will take advantage of strong campus partnerships and newly available technology to make an enterprisewide solution for role and access management a reality.
J. Alex Halderman (second from right), professor of electrical engineering and computer science, testified before the U.S. Senate Select Committee on Intelligence at a June 21 hearing titled “Russian Interference in the 2016 U.S. Election.” It focused on the federal government’s role in safeguarding U.S. elections from outside interference. Halderman emphasized that “our highly computerized election infrastructure is vulnerable… Read More »
The ITS Identity and Access Management team is exploring Privileged Access Management (PAM) and third-party solutions to mitigate U-M’s cybersecurity risk exposure.
In April, the Michigan Medicine community came together to achieve a significant goal – namely to ensure that enhanced security protocols were in place on all wireless devices connecting to the mission critical network. WiFi security for more than 20,000 devices joining the network daily was the first step in a 19-month initiative to make the IT environment… Read More »
U-M has not been affected by the widespread global ransomware attacks on computer networks over the weekend. Even with the U-M campuses — including Michigan Medicine — unaffected at this time, the attack remains a serious, ongoing threat. The attack that started May 12 has spread to more than 150 countries and 200,000 computers. For those affected, the attack… Read More »
Private groups in the MCommunity Directory now hide not only the members, but also the owners and moderators. Aside from enhancing overall MCommunity privacy, this feature, which was implemented May 13, will help make the kind of email spoofing that occurred earlier this year more difficult. It stops would-be email spoofers from discovering and impersonating the moderator of… Read More »
IT Innovation at Lunch, a professional interest group open to the Michigan IT community, will host a session May 19 about managing elevated access.
Would you rather unlock your smartphone with a plain four-digit PIN or with a series of emojis? For example, is it easier (and just more fun) to remember “🐱💦🎆🎌” than “2476”? Smartphone users commonly use emojis to express moods and emotions in emails and text messages. But there had been no formal study of how easy emoji passwords were to… Read More »
A sweeping study by U-M researchers of an internet communication mechanism common in mobile devices has revealed that so-called ‘open ports’ are much more vulnerable to security breaches than previously thought. The vulnerability is most pronounced in Android apps that let users share data across devices and connect to their phones from their computers. One app, called Wifi… Read More »
On April 13, a panel of experts discussed the development of international cyberspace norms. The event was part of the Dissonance, an ongoing speaker series that explores timely topics at the confluence of technology, law, privacy, and security. Watch the recording Event highlights Discussion points included what constitutes responsible state behavior in cyberspace, the differences between physical attacks and cyberattacks,… Read More »
As cyberspace becomes more and more central to the international security discussion, states are increasingly searching for common “rules of the road.” Attend the next Dissonance event and join Tim Maurer, fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, as he moderates a panel discussion on the development of international cyberspace norms. The event is free and light… Read More »
On March 22, 2017, Knight-Wallace journalists, Bastian Obermayer & Laurent Richard shared stories behind the biggest data leaks in history, and how privacy and security present challenges in investigative journalism in the digital age.
Whether you are planning a vacation or professional trip, you will likely take along smartphone, tablet, laptop, or other mobile device. Follow these tips to safeguard both your own—and the university’s—data. Before you travel Decide whether or not you need all your devices. If you don’t need it, leave it. Consider taking a device that you only use… Read More »
To support the proposed revision of the IT Security Policy, Information Assurance has published revised U-M Data Classification Levels on Safe Computing. The revised policy will be supported and supplemented by specific operational, procedural, and technical standards, many of which specify actions to take based on the classification level of the data involved. The new data classification levels… Read More »
Whether a nation should retaliate against a cyber attack is a complicated decision, and a new framework guided by game theory could help policymakers determine the best strategy. The “Blame Game” was developed in part by Robert Axelrod, a professor at the Ford School of Public Policy who is well known for solving a version of the classic… Read More »