Due to a recently published set of security vulnerabilities, UMBC’s Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) website at umbc.edu/faq  is no longer accessible outside of UMBC. DoIT is going to keep this restriction in place for the remainder of the week while we work to upgrade the software so that it is no longer vulnerable to these attacks.

The campus community can continue to access the FAQs while on campus, or off-campus through the Virtual Private Network (VPN) or Virtual Desktop Environment (VDE). There will be some downtimes needed later in the week to upgrade the services, and we will post those when we have more details available.

Please let me know if you have any questions or concerns, and we appreciate your patience as we work to keep our systems safe and secure.

Damian Doyle

Assistant Vice President

DoIT

The DoIT Technology Support Center is looking to hire additional consultants to work during the Summer session and beyond. Please see our job description below and visit our job posting on UMBCWorks to apply. (Search for TSC Student Consultant.)

TSC Student Consultant Job Description

Technology Support Center (TSC) student consultants are the first points of technical contact for the UMBC community and those who do well often go on to work in other areas of the Division of Information Technology (DoIT). Minimally, consultants are expected to provide initial triage and support for a wide range of information technologies including accounts, hardware, instructional technologies, networking, software, telecommunications, and basic web development.

Responsibilities include, but are not limited to the following:

• Provide technical assistance to users by phone, online and in person;
• Answer TSC phones in a professional and courteous manner;
• Create, update and resolve tickets in the Request Tracker (RT) ticketing system;
• Create, update, suggest and recommend relevant FAQ articles to users (www.umbc.edu/faq);
• Provide direct assistance to users on technical issues they cannot easily resolve on their own;
• Complete in-person or online training about quality support as defined in umbc.edu/go/ticketrubric;
• Respond to all work-related communications in a timely manner;
• Escalate urgent problems to the Full-Time staff, as appropriate.

Required Skills and Experience

• Demonstrated ability to effectively communicate by phone or in person.
• Demonstrated writing ability.
• Demonstrated ability to achieve successful outcomes in handling difficult situations and customers.
• Demonstrated analytical and troubleshooting skills.
• Ability & willingness to learn coupled with a clear understanding of one’s technical abilities, so as to triage and escalate an issue that leads to an effective solution for the user.

The deadline for requesting software to be included in our physical labs, virtual labs, and classrooms is approaching. Software requests for Summer and Fall 2019 are due by May 1 (Summer deadline extended). All software requests must be renewed each semester. Please see our Wiki page for information about this process.

Requests for licensed software must include: (1)  Proof of purchase and license information, and (2) software media and installation instructions. Please contact us if you have questions about the appropriate license volume or type to purchase. Requests to install unlicensed software, software with license modes incompatible with our labs, or software with system requirements incompatible with our labs, may be rejected. DoIT will make accommodations for such requests to the extent they are practicable.

Software requests must be submitted via an RT ticket containing the required information. You can create a ticket at https://rt.umbc.edu/, or by contacting the Technology Support Center (TSC) at 410.455.3838, if you require assistance. Software requested after the deadline is not guaranteed to be made available. DoIT will notify the requestor when the requested software is available in the lab. The requesting faculty or instructor is responsible for testing the software to ensure it is working as expected.  

Software requests for one-time events:

If you need software installed for a one-time purpose (for example, a 2-day workshop in which all users need access to the software), the request should be submitted no less than six (6) weeks prior to the first lab reservation for that class. The software will be removed once you are finished.

At 7pm we completed the emergency repairs on the phonemail system while maintaining all data stored on the node. Since that time all phonemail services are fully operational. We will continue to monitor the status of the system for the next few days to ensure a full resolution to this problem.

Please let us know if you have any concerns.

Thank you for your patience,

Ray Soellner

Associate Director of Communications

DoIT

Beginning over the weekend and continuing into today some users may have experienced intermittent phonemail service including both voicemail and call processing boxes. We are experiencing hardware failures in one of the campus phonemail nodes and have been working with our vendor to diagnose the problem. We are trying to conduct a repair as quickly as possible before a more severe failure occurs.

During the repair window the campus should expect some system voicemail outages as we will need to take some systems offline to install new hardware. DoIT will communicate details of the repair window when that information becomes available. In the meantime we will be working to maintain services as best we can given current circumstances.

Should you have any further questions or concerns please let me know.

We apologize for any inconveniences this may cause,

Ray Soellner

Associate Director of Communications

DoIT