Computing and Communications Services News: August, 2005

August, 2005

Computing image
The SCS team (left to right): Jackie Scoggins, Tammy Welcome, Greg K., Gary Jung and Susan James

SCS Wins UCOP Award for Innovation in IT

The IT Division’s Scientific Cluster Support (SCS) program was awarded the Larry L. Sautter Silver Award for Innovation in Information Technology by the University of California Office of the President (UCOP). The award, presented to the SCS project team at the annual UC Computing Services Conference in San Francisco earlier this month, recognizes SCS for its achievement in university computing. Read more.

Computing image

IT Updates

Last month’s issue of Computing and Communications Services News reported on a number of the IT Division’s Windows-related projects. More updates below:

DOE’s ESnet to Host 2nd Collaboration Workshop Oct. 12-14 at LBNL

ESnet (DOE’s Energy Sciences Network) will hold its second Collaboration meeting to help plan the future direction of ESnet Collaboration Services. Users, engineers and managers of collaboration services at all DOE/ESnet research centers are invited to attend the workshop, which will be held Oct. 12-14, 2005, at Berkeley Lab. Organizers of this year’s meeting hope a number of scientific users will attend. Read more.

Computing image

Service Tip

LBNL Announcements Now on BLIS Portal

Check out Labwide announcements now available on Berkeley Lab Information Systems (BLIS). The new announcements channel will provide IT updates and more, including a list of which buildings are involved in the IT Division’s Appletalk phase out.

Protecting Your Computer

LBNL Avoids Zotob and Esbot Worms

On Sunday, Aug. 13, computer worms named Zotob and Esbot began infecting systems across the Internet. The worms preyed on Windows 2000 systems that were missing a patch released only five days prior. Two days before the worm outbreak, the LBNL Computer Protection Program (CPP) proactively isolated about 400 vulnerable/unpatched systems to protect the systems from the anticipated worm and notified system owners about the need to patch. LBNL had no infections from this worm. Read more.

Add Protection by Converting Static IPs to DHCP

The Computer Protection Program (CPP) implemented protective measures that reduce the ability of computers on the Internet to initiate connections to Lab DHCP computers several months ago. These measures offer significant protection from numerous daily Internet attacks. The restrictions will not affect your computer’s network activities unless you intend to offer services to the Internet (Web servers, ftp servers, database servers, etc.). Go here for details. Read more.

Reminder: UNIX Systems Must Log to the Central Syslog Server

Help prevent malicious attackers from entrenching themselves on your computer and infecting other Lab computers by configuring your UNIX computers to send their logs to the Computer Protection Program’s (CPP) central syslog server. The central syslog server provides valuable forensic information on incidents, which saves CPP and the system’s owner time and money by facilitating incident recovery. For instructions on how to configure your UNIX computers to log to the central syslog server, go here.

Monthly Virus Update: More Than 33,000 Worms Eradicated

The Lab's virus wall continues to guard LBNL systems against worm and virus infections. Last month it detected and eradicated 33,924 worms and viruses, almost all of which targeted Windows systems. In contrast, the number in June was 32,996.

Top