We are following vendor recommendations to throttle iOS6 devices in order to mitigate the threat to the Exchange environment.

Please note:

iOS 6.1 users may receive the ”Cannot Get Mail error that is noted in the “Symptoms” section if they try to act on Calendar items.

Users who receive the error should immediately restart their devices and stop additional processing of Calendar items.

Once Apple addresses the bug, throttling will be removed. Additional information regarding the bug can be found here:

http://support.apple.com/kb/TS4532

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2814847/en-us

We have received reports that Macintosh users are being prompted repeatedly for credentials in both the Entourage and Outlook mail applications. We are in contact with the IT Liaisons that have reported the issue and are investigating.

For technical assistance of all kinds, visit our Report a Problem website.

Click on the Technical Problems link to log into our new Remedy ITSM system and step through the problem report process. This system also allows you to check the status of open requests, view past requests and fill out customer satisfaction surveys.

Don’t know your password? Don’t worry – click on the Password Issues link to find password self-help resources. You can also contact the Call Center during business hours at 816.235.2000, or send us an email at callcenter@umkc.edu and we’ll help resolve your issue. Have your employee ID or student ID ready when you call, if possible.

Students – visit IT Services for Students for links to resources such as Outlook Live email support, help connecting to the residence hall network, Blackboard access, wireless support and more.

Faculty and Staff – visit IT Services for Faculty & Staff to find links related to classroom services, online learning, phones and voicemail, email and more.

New Faculty – don’t forget to check out the Getting Started with IT Resources for Faculty guide!

The recent attempts to combat spam sent from Exchange servers as a result of compromised accounts have not proven as effective as we would have liked. Therefore, additional steps have been taken to protect our enviroment and maintain mail delivery.

Prevent authenticated users off-campus from sending mail through smtp.umkc.edu. POP and IMAP email clients such as Thunderbird, Eudora, Mac Mail and others rely on SMTP to send mail. However, we are not able to effectively manage mail sent using this service from these clients.

What this means for Home Customers:

Customers who currently use POP or IMAP email clients will need to use Outlook Web Access (OWA) from a web browser, or an Outlook email client. UMKC faculty and staff who would like Outlook on a personally-owned computer are able to purchase one copy of either Office 2010 for Windows or Office 2011 for Macintosh, via the Microsoft Home Use Program (HUP) for $9.95. Customers can also use Remote Desktop to connect to their on-campus computer, or our Remote Labs system.

What this means for Mobile Device Customers:

Devices configured with our current mobile device configuration instructions will not be affected by this change. If you have problems with your mobile device following this change, please refer to the instructions for your particular device, or work with your service provider to enter in the Quick Settings from our  instructions.

What this means for On-Campus Customers:

Outlook or Outlook Web Access users on campus will not be affected by this change.

Again, we apologize for the urgency of this change but believe this is the best approach to keep the University off various black lists and help us better manage situation.

Original Post – 10/10/2012:

The increase in phishing attacks and compromised accounts over the past two months have resulted in several million spam messages being sent on behalf of University of Missouri users. This issue has resulted in our email system being listed on numerous blacklists, and has impacted our ability to deliver email to external recipients.

To combat these attacks we have identified two actions that must be taken to protect the environment and maintain mail delivery:

1. Prevent authenticated users from relaying on the default port 25 connector. In our environment, authenticated users have traditionally been allowed to use port 25 to support legacy processes. The default port 25 connector is also used for primary communication between the Exchange servers and is not throttled. Leaving this port open for client use represents a security exposure that is currently being exploited. As such, user access to port 25 will be discontinued. The result of this change will be that users connecting to the Exchange 2010 client relays must use port 587 rather than port 25.
2. Set the Default Client Throttling policy for Outlook Web Access (OWA)/Outlook clients. The OWA/Outlook Default Client Throttling policy will be set to the same value as the existing port 587 client relay and throttle (550 messages per hour, 9 messages per minute). This limit is already in effect for most devices and client configurations.

The combined result of these two actions will be that all client connections will be securely authenticated and throttled. Exchange Administrators plan to make these changes on the morning of Wednesday, October 10^th.

UMKC has been taking steps over the last year to move closer to the settings outlined above and, as such, do not anticipate that these changes will affect most customers in our environment. However, legacy and manually configurable email clients (Eudora, Thunderbird, etc.) or older applications or processes may need to be reconfigured to use port 587 to send mail. For assistance with this, please contact the UMKC IS Call Center or your departmental IT Liaison as appropriate.

Please let us know if you have any questions about this planned change, or if your devices or processes have problems because of this change.

We apologize for the urgency of this change but believe this is the best approach to keep the University off various black lists and help us better manage situation.

1. Never respond to emails or phone calls that ask you for any of the following information:
   • Account username
   • Passwords
   • Your birth date
   • Account numbers
   • Bank or credit card pin numbers
   • Credit card expiration date

   Universities and financial institutions – including UMKC – will not ask for personal account information via email. In addition, the UMKC IS Call Center will not ask for your password via email.
   

2. Never click on links in email asking you to verify account information. 
   UMKC will not ask you to click a link to verify account information via an email message.

   UMKC sends two types of account notices via email:

   • SSO password expiration notification messages –  these messages do not ask you to click on a link to update your password, rather, they instruct you how to navigate to a website to do so.
   • Notices of account closure to students, faculty and staff when their enrollment or employment with UMKC has ended – these notices never request any personally identifiable information. However, we ask that recipients of closure notices who believe they have received the notice in error respond via email to report their current status or to provide a reason to retain the account.
   If you doubt the legitimacy of a message that appears to come from UMKC, contact the IS Call Center for assistance.
    
3. Use common sense.
   • Always verify the URL (address) of the page that you are entering your information into. Phishing sites may rely on similar URLs, such as googkle.com, ebay-secure.com, upgrade-hsbc.com to fool users. Alternatively, phishing emails may display a link that appears to go to one site, but in reality goes to another. Always visit the site manually and don’t rely on the link in the message.
   • Think twice about using the “opt-out” option that many junk emails offer in their messages. Clicking the “opt-out” button tells a mass mailer that the email address is valid and that someone is reading it. An “opt-out” option is generally only effective when the message comes from a reputable company.
   • Don’t give out your university email address to non-trusted sources (i.e.: free promotions, website registrations, sales people, contests, etc.). If you must provide an email address on a web form, establish a separate email account (e.g., Yahoo Mail, GMail, Hotmail, etc.) or read the provision of the website’s privacy policy about distributing email addresses. Generally speaking, reputable companies do not sell or distribute email addresses.

When in doubt, contact the UMKC IS Call Center to verify the legitimacy of a message before responding.

Getting Started with IT Resources for Faculty consolidates IT information pertinent to new faculty, including:

• Connecting to various IT services and resources
• Safe computing practices
• Teaching and Professional resources
• Buying IT assets
• … and more!

While it’s specifically designed for new faculty, current faculty may also find the new site useful. Check it out today!

Please contact the Call Center at 816-235-2000, if you have questions.

If you have received an email from webmaster@umkc.edu with the subject of Account Maintenance, delete it and do not click on the links within.

If you have clicked on a link inside the email, and entered your password, you need to change your password immediately.

Students:

• If you entered your Outlook Live email password, follow the instructions to change it given here: http://www.umkc.edu/is/webmail/live/#change password.
• If you entered your SSO password (the one you use for Pathway and Blackboard), use the SSO Password Change Utility.

Faculty and Staff:

• To change your password, use the SSO Password Change Utility.

UMKC IS sends out password expiration notices via email, but we do not send out messages asking students, staff or faculty to enter passwords for the purposes of verification, to resolve security issues, etc. If you receive a message asking you to enter a password in this way, do not click on any links therein and contact the UMKC IS Call Center immediately.

IS technicians worked diligently throughout the night to bring key systems back online by early Monday morning.  UMKC students, faculty and staff may experience some intermittent technical issues this week until replacement hardware arrives and is installed.

We appreciate everyone’s patience and understanding as we fully restore our technical resources.

If you have questions about this, or other IS topics, please contact the IS Call Center.

If  voice mail is to be associated with an individual employee…

1. Make sure the employee has an Exchange email account. If you need to set up an account, contact the UMKC Call Center at 816.235.2000 with the employee’s Employee ID number. Keep in mind that voice mail cannot be set up for students with email accounts on the Outlook Live system.  Student employees who need access to voice mail must use a departmental or generic voice mail box (see below).
2. Fill out the Voice Mail Change Form online at http://www.umkc.edu/is/nt/voicemailchange.asp. A departmental representative with signature authority on a MoCode account must submit the form, since each phone extension is billed to a particular MoCode on a monthly basis. The employee cannot do this on his own behalf unless he has already been given signature authority on the MoCode (this is rare).
3. When voice mail has been set up, the employee will receive an email from Information Services containing a temporary voice  mail password.
4. The employee can access their voice mail through their office phone (dial x5000) using the temporary password and will be prompted to change temporary password to one that only they know. Password rules can be found at http://www.umkc.edu/is/nt/unity/.  Once the password is set the employee can access messages either by phone or email.
5. Use the  Unity Quick Reference Guide, found at http://www.umkc.edu/is/nt/pdf/UnityQuickReference.pdf, for help setting greetings and to personalize voice mail further.

If the voice mail box is for departmental use…

1. If a departmental account doesn’t already exist, request a departmental Exchange mailbox using the form at http://www.umkc.edu/is/cs/forms/F-S-Acct-Request.pdf.
2. Once an Exchange mail box has been created, you can request voice mail for the account by following steps 2 through 5 above.

If you don’t know the password to a departmental or generic voice mail box that is accessible by phone only (not tied to an email account)…

• For generic voice mail boxes (those not tied to an Exchange mailbox), an authorized departmental MoCode signer can request password changes by contacting Infrastructure Services Networking and Telecommunications at 816.235.1595.
• For departmental mailboxes (those tied to a departmental Exchange mailbox), a dean, department chair, or designated representative can contact the Information Services Call Center at 816.235.2000 to request a password change for the Exchange account.

 If you need to change Caller ID/telephone display information for a phone number…

• If the phone is used by an individual, fill out the Voice Mail Change Form online at http://www.umkc.edu/is/nt/voicemailchange.asp. This form includes a field for telephone display name.
• If the phone is used as the main line for a school or department, the campus standard is to retain the school or department name on the display, even if the Exchange email account tied to the voice mail box is used by one specific individual. Information Services recommends that a school or department use a departmental mailbox for general departmental use so that multiple users can access it at any time.

If you still have questions about establishing a voice mail box or using the Unity voice mail system, visit http://www.umkc.edu/is/nt/unity/ or contact Information Services Networking and Telecommunications at 816.235.1595.

If you have received an email from violations@umkc.edu, delete it and do not click on the links within.

If you have clicked on a link inside the email, and entered your password, you need to change your password immediately.

Students:

• If you entered your Outlook Live email password, follow the instructions to change it given here: http://www.umkc.edu/is/webmail/live/#change password.
• If you entered your SSO password (the one you use for Pathway and Blackboard), use the SSO Password Change Utility.

Faculty and Staff:

• To change your password, use the SSO Password Change Utility.

UMKC IS sends out password expiration notices via email, but we do not send out messages asking students, staff or faculty to enter passwords for the purposes of verification, to resolve security issues, etc. If you receive a message asking you to enter a password in this way, do not click on any links therein and contact the UMKC IS Call Center immediately.