Anti-spam changes

As part of the Anti-Spam system at the University of Reading, IT Services subscribe to a two blocklists, that are used to reduce the amount of Spam received. They do this by rejecting email that has come from an email server that has been reported as sending Spam and this significantly reduces the amount of Spam email that we are required to process. Continue reading

Sophos antivirus upgrade

On Tuesday 27 March,  ITS completed an overhaul of the Sophos infrastructure to bring us up to the latest protection they have to offer.

The primary reason was to begin deployment of the new version 10 of Sophos for Windows, which adds a level of network protection not possible with version 9. This is in order to protect against emerging threats as we have been advised by Sophos.

Sophos 10 for Windows will be deployed gradually over the coming month with no user action required. The most obvious change that you will see is the icon on the task bar will change from

 

 

To

 

 

Summary of changes:

  • Protection is offered at the network driver level rather than only in common web browsers.
  • Sophos can now assess if a PC is missing any Microsoft/Adobe/Java/Apple etc. patches.
  • Servers running Sophos now operate with a “long term support” version (fewer reboots for upgrades).
  • Faster updates with better resource usage (assuming Windows Vista or later).

 

View from the Director’s Chair – March 2012

One of the best aspects of working in IT is the breadth and variety of the issues we manage, ranging from significant, high-profile projects, to less visible, but important developments which often go unnoticed. Another month has flown past and  February included some good illustrations of this. It’s been a very busy time for IT Services, and  for me personally, with many working groups, steering groups and committees to attend, in addition to my continued round of meeting as many of ITS’ customers as possible. The more I find out about the ways in which IT is supporting the work of different schools and departments, the more fascinating the job becomes! Continue reading

Scam emails warning

There has been an attempt today, 25 January, to trap people into giving out their login details for University of Reading IT systems. Should you receive an email with the subject line ‘Attention: Staff/Students’ simply delete it.

Do not open it. Do not click on any links in it. Continue reading