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    Chemistry IT Support

The Chemistry IT Services is located at the Department of Chemistry, University of Toronto, provides IT services to faculty, staff and students in the Department as well as to external customers.

The Computing Services extend across all IT areas - Client services, IT Infrastructure, Application Development and High Performance Computing. They and support research, teaching and administration functions in the Department of Chemistry.

We welcome customers to browse our site and contact us for additional information 

Welcome to Chemistry IT Services

Announcements

Information Security Advisory: Patch now - Windows RDP Vulnerability

We would like to call your attention to the Microsoft released an advisory and patch today, May 14th,  for an RDP vulnerability that affects at least Windows XP, 7, 2003, and 2008.  The vulnerability can be exploited remotely, in default configuration, without authentication, and with low effort/complexity (for reference, WannaCry was a "high" complexity attack).  This patch release includes an unprecedented release of patches for 2003 and XP.

https://portal.msrc.microsoft.com/en-US/security-guidance/advisory/CVE-2019-0708

We are currently assessing the impact and will be releasing additional information, but I strongly encourage you to patch as soon as possible.  As with any patching, testing is highly recommend and it is too soon to say if there are known issues with patching but do not wait longer than necessary on this one.  I also encourage you to review systems for the need to have RDP access turned on at all and especially those open directly to the internet.

https://www.us-cert.gov/ncas/current-activity/2019/05/16/Microsoft-Releases-Security-Updates-Address-Remote-Code-Execution

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Chemistry O365 migration -- Complete successfully!

We have completed handing over our MX records to the Office 365. This final step completes our email migration to Office 365. Alchemy (our previous mail server) has been shut down for the mailing services. The Department will no longer be running its own mail server, and alchemy will be retired from our DNS records. Anyone requesting 'alchemy' as a DNS name will most likely be denied. 

We will hold on to the backup copies of emails on alchemy for one (1) year, after which, for security reasons, we will delete the backup email copies.

If you wish for us to delete your files sooner, please let us know. If you wish to get a copy of the files, please let us know.

This migration project took us nearly 1.5 years to finish. We would like to thank everyone for your patience, cooperation, and understanding.

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Microsoft Ending Support for Windows 7

All software products have a life-cycle. After January 14, 2020, Microsoft will no longer provide security updates or support for PCs running the Windows 7 operating system. After this date, this product will no longer receive free:

•         Technical support for any issues
•         Software updates
•         Security updates or fixes

Computers running the Windows 7 operating system will continue to work even after support ends. However, using unsupported software may increase the risks from viruses and other security threats.

We encourage users and administrators to upgrade to a currently supported operating system BEFORE January 2020. For more information, see the Microsoft End of Support FAQ.

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Two Chemistry ECF talks at TKF 2018

TechKnowFile is an annual Tech conference for University of Toronto Staff and Faculty. It is held on May 3 and 4, this 2018 year. The Chemistry ECF Team will be presenting two talks:

  • "Keeping an eye on your assets through Zabbix" by Renante Yson
  • "Blockchain Tutorial: The basic building blocks of a blockchain application" by Violeta Gotcheva

For more information visit http://tkf.utoronto.ca

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Quercus in A&S

Quercus – the new Learning Management Engine (LME) is here! Access to Blackboard will expire on 31 August 2018. Materials stored in BB (e.g. course materials) will need to be exported before August 31 or they will be lost.

The A&S Quercus site - http://teaching.artsci.utoronto.ca/teachinginas/quercus/ - contains information about

  • how to export course material
  • training sessions
  • contacting support 

We encourage everyone to get familiar with the transition to Quercus from Blackboard.

 

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Contact Info

Department of Chemistry
University of Toronto
80 St. George St.
Toronto, Ontario  M5S 3H6
Canada  
 
Email: chem.watcher@utoronto.ca
Phone:  647-550-9795 or 416-978-5257
Room:  LM633