Cable TV Connections in Residence Halls

Cable TV services that were offered in the residence halls have changed since last semester. After reviewing the usage of our SpectrumU system, we have decided to discontinue the service to students on campus.

We paired this decision with the dramatic increase in students bringing in their own streaming services and utilized the Cable TV cost savings to almost double our network bandwidth to the TCU community.

This change means that you will not only have better experiences with your own streaming services while on campus, but with all Internet based services whether it be for personal or academic use.

NOTE: Keep in mind that Lobby TVs will continue to have active Cable TV service. This change only affects the physical cable connections in the residence hall rooms and your ability to connect to our SpectrumU streaming system.

Faculty/Staff,

We are happy to announce that the four-year-cycle computer replacement program will be back up and running by January 2022 after being on hold during the pandemic.

The program will be slightly different as we adjust to the resulting backlog, a revised budget and shipping delays (currently up to 6 months), but be assured that TCU will continue to provide centralized funding for every faculty and staff member to have a primary computer that is refreshed regularly, as well as provide repair and loaners.

For now, TCU IT is addressing computer replacements that were deferred during the pandemic, and recovering and redeploying computers that were temporarily deployed during the pandemic. Priority will be placed on refreshing computers used in teaching labs and computers for existing faculty, and providing new or less than one-year-old computers for new faculty.

Existing Employees

• If you think it is time for your computer to be replaced per the four-year cycle, IT will have that record and will notify you soon. Please, be patient as IT moves through the process of catching up.
• If your TCU computer needs to be repaired, IT will cover the repairs if it is less than 4 years old OR it is the designated primary computer of any age.

New Employees

• All new employees at TCU will receive new or like-new computers.

Questions

• The IT Coordinator or technical contact for your college or school is your point person for all computer questions, including replacement and repair. Please, address all questions to them.

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Teresa Abi-Nader Dalberg	Bryan Lucas
Provost and Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs	Chief Technology Officer Information Technology

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On Saturday, July 31st, at 7:00 a.m. myTCU will be taken offline so we can make some modifications to the tool.  We expect the system to be back online by 12:00 p.m. that same day.  Please, review the information below to see how these modifications might affect how you use the tool. 

What is changing in myTCU?

For the most part, you won’t notice any major changes to myTCU when we bring it back online this weekend.  The primary difference will affect the links to some of the services that you might use in the system. 

You can still navigate to everything exactly the same way as before, but the direct links to specific pages in myTCU may be slightly different.  This means that if you have any bookmarks to pages in the system, that they may stop working and will need to be re-created.  We don’t expect many people to be affected by this change and creating a new bookmark should be fairly easy to do, if it is needed at all.

On Monday, we began receiving reports from off-campus Mac, iOS and some Windows users indicating that they were seeing blank icons when logging in to myTCU which would log them out when they clicked on them.

Our EAS (Enterprise Application Support) team has been working hard to find a solution, but we have yet to identify a workable fix for the problem.  We are not the only university that is struggling with this issue, after a recent patch was applied to our system, and we are spending time with the vendor to get a solution in place as soon as possible. 

How do I fix the problem?

Here are a few things to try if you are seeing this issue with myTCU:

• Mac Users – Either bring your device to campus and connect to the TCU Network or try using Chrome on your device (this may require you to clear cookies and cache as well).  This has fixed the problem for most Mac users, but not everyone.

• iOS Users – At this time the only option for iOS users is to come to campus and connect to a TCU Network or move to another device.

• Windows Users – While very few Windows users are seeing this problem, those that have reported the issue have generally seen relief by moving to Chrome and/or clearing cookies and cache on their browsers. 

Links to Services Outside of myTCU

There are many ways to get access to some of the services that are located in myTCU by using a direct link.  Here are a few:

• Box – http://box.tcu.edu
• Email – Students – http://stumail.tcu.edu
• Email – Employees – http://mail.tcu.edu
• IT Self-Service – http://it.tcu.edu/support/self-service/
• TCU Announce – https://tcuannounce.tcu.edu/
• TCU Online – D2L – http://d2l.tcu.edu
• Qualtrics – http://qualtrics.tcu.edu
• Zoom – http://zoom.tcu.edu

You can also access the Okta Portal (http://tcu.okta.com) to get a list of other applications that you might need access to until this is fixed. If you have any questions or problems, please reach out to the IT Support HelpDesk using the information below and we will route your questions to the appropriate contact. We are sorry for the recent disruption and hope to have a solution in place soon.

Over the course of the past six years, we have done extensive work to prepare the campus for a true technology disaster. Two years ago, we did a disaster recovery test in June and are now ready to run a similar trial this summer. Please, make note of the dates below, so you can plan accordingly.

The 2021 Disaster Recovery Test will start on Sunday, June 13^th and end at 5 p.m. on Monday, June 14^th.

What does this mean for you?

All of TCU’s primary systems have backup servers running in our secondary data center, which will take over when we do this test. Our goal is to ensure that the redundant systems do their job in the case that TCU is faced with a true emergency.

Major systems like email, printing, file shares, Internet access, myTCU/PeopleSoft, ID card access, and TCU websites are expected to make a seamless transition or have minimal downtime. We DO expect the following non-redundant systems to be unavailable during the DR Test, so please plan accordingly. 

NOTE:  There has been a slight change to this list since the last communication.

If you have any questions or problems, please reach out to the IT Support HelpDesk and we will route your questions to the appropriate contact.

On Wednesday, March 17th, we will be making a change to the wireless network that will go into effect early in the morning.  Please, read the information below on what you need to do to prepare for this change.

Wireless Certificate Change

We are updating our wireless security certificate on the eduroam, TCU Faculty Staff and LabWireless networks.  This means that your device may ask you to reenter your credentials and/or accept the new certificate to reconnect once this change is put in place.Note:  If you are connecting to eduroam, we recommend that you use your email address in place of your username when prompted to enter your TCU credentials.  This allows for a more seamless transition when you attempt to connect to the eduroam network while visiting other campuses.

Now that the campus has moved to using Okta MFA to access myTCU, many of you may be wondering how to enroll in other factors or even how to select another factor when prompted for the extra authentication.  Please, review the two sections below to ensure that you are taking full advantage of this new platform.

How do I add/change my existing factors?

It is extremely important that you have enrolled in more than one Okta MFA factor or at least have updated your existing information (when things change).  We have options like SMS texting, push notification, rolling codes (with Okta Verify) and phone calling. 

Please, visit our website at https://it.tcu.edu/okta and click on the Modify Your Factors button to learn how to add or modify your factors. 

Note:  You must have at least one working factor in place in order to add or modify your settings. 

How do I select one of my other factors?

People often miss the little drop-down button on the side of the login page when prompted to complete their Okta MFA verification.  All you have to do is click the button and select the factor that you want to use if you are enrolled in more than one factors

If you have the Okta Verify option selected, you can also click the “Or enter code” link to enter the rolling code that you find when you open the Okta Verify app on your mobile device.  This is a great solution when you are in a place that doesn’t have Internet or cellular signal. 

In order to improve information security and mitigate 3^rd party risk to the University, the Information Technology division is going to start enforcing the use of Okta Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) when using myTCU. 

This will replace the myTCU 2FA system that we currently have in place and will only prompt you for the extra verification when trying to access myTCU from off campus.  We will implement this change next week, so it is very important that you enroll in Okta MFA if you haven’t already done so. 

Note:  If you have already enrolled in Okta MFA then you can ignore this message.  

How do I complete the enrollment process?

Once MFA is enabled, you will connect to myTCU just like you normally do.  When connecting from an off-campus device, the system will start prompting you to confirm your identity via push notification, text message, or security code. 

All you need to do is enroll in Okta MFA, so you are ready to go once the change is in place.  Please, use the following steps:

• Step 1:  While using a laptop or desktop computer, go to it.tcu.edu/okta and review the information on the page.  Make sure to have your cell phone handy. 

• Step 2:  Click Begin Enrollment to start the process and follow the on-screen instructions.  Make sure to enroll in all of the options that are presented to you (SMS and Okta Verify).    

• Step 3:  Once you complete the enrollment, you will be ready for the change next week.  Just have your mobile phone available when you connect to myTCU after we turn Okta MFA on. 

What will my experience be?

Please, take a few minutes to review the video below to learn more about what your experience will be like when we enable Okta MFA for myTCU. 

On Wednesday, an email about fraudulent COVID-19 Benefits was sent from a compromised TCU mailbox to many faculty, staff and students. We are emailing you today to make sure that you know that this email was a scam in case you are still communicating with these individuals.

Recent Fraudulent COVID-19 Email

Multiple individuals at TCU received the following fraudulent email, advertising fake COVID-19 benefits and asking you fill out an online form with personal information and credit card details.

• If you received this email, please delete it.  We have scrubbed it from most mailboxes so you may never see this message.
• If you provided sensitive personal information to the scammer, please watch your TCU accounts and report any stolen credit card information to your credit card company.
• If you provided your username or password in another other correspondence, you need to reset your TCU password immediately at https://password.tcu.edu.

(Example of the Message)

ALERT: Keep in mind that messages that are too good to be true should be verified and you should always question any email that asks you to provide private information on a non-TCU website.  

What do you do about other phishing attempts?

Please, take a few minutes to review the following website to learn more about how to identify and handle a phishing email.

Phishing and Malicious Email

To report a suspicious/spam/phishing email, please forward the message to phishing@tcu.edu.  The IT Security Services team will analyze the reported emails and take appropriate action as needed.

As of this morning, the TCU Cable TV channel lineup has changed slightly.  If you have a television that is connected to the TCU Cable TV system, it is important that you have your device rescan for channels in order to pick up all of the recent changes.

What changed with our Cable TV service?

Earlier today we added several new channels to the system and some of our existing channels have moved to new locations in the lineup.  All you have to do is rescan for channels on your TV in order to pick up any changes to the system. 

If you would like a list of available channels and information about our Cable TV system, please reference the link below. 

http://tv.tcu.edu

In the early part of 2021 we are going to be replacing the Two-Factor authentication system in myTCU with something called Okta Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA).  Many of you are probably already using Okta MFA to connect to the VPN and the faculty and students have been using this tool in D2L for several months. 

In order to prepare for this change, we recommend that you follow the process below to pre-enroll in Okta MFA. The process only takes 5 to 10 minutes to complete so don’t wait to get this done.    

Note:  If you have already enrolled in Okta MFA to use another service like the VPN then you can ignore this message.  

How do I complete the enrollment process?

Once MFA is enabled, you will connect to myTCU just like you normally would, but the system will now prompt you to confirm your identity via a push notification or text/phone message when you login from an off campus device. 

All you need to do is enroll in Okta MFA so you are ready to go once the change is in place.  Please, use the following steps:

• Step 1:  While using a laptop or desktop computer, go to it.tcu.edu/okta and review the information on the page.  Make sure to have your cell phone handy. 

• Step 2:  Click Begin Enrollment to start the process and follow the on screen instructions.  Make sure to enroll in ALL of the options that are presented to you (Text/Phone message and Okta Verify).    

• Step 3:  Once you complete the enrollment, you will be ready for the change in 2021.  Just have your cell phone available when you connect to the myTCU once we turn Okta MFA on. 

Wednesday evening, TCU was again the target of a two-step phishing email campaign.  Phishing emails are fake messages that try to steal your personal information. 

Please, take a few minutes to review the information below about the recent phishing attacks to help determine if you need to take any action.

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Examples of the Recent Phishing Attempts

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First Phishing Email from 9-30-2020

• The goal of the first phishing message was to gather TCU credentials.  The message looked something like this. 

• The link led to a generic site used to harvest usernames and passwords. We were able to isolate those that we believe fell for this phishing attempt but if you entered your TCU password on this form, you need to change your password immediately. 

Second Phishing Email from 9-30-2020

• After successfully gathering passwords from individuals who responded to the first message, a second message was sent involving a fake employment scam.

• While there were no links to follow in the second message, replies were configured to be sent to an external Gmail address.  If you responded to the solicitation and you have received a reply from this address, please contact ITSecurityServices@tcu.edu. 
  • DO NOT continue any conversation with the phisher via personal email or text.
• Fake employment scams often offer tempting pay in exchange for relatively little effort.  Scams often attempt to move communication outside of TCU systems so we cannot detect or block the correspondence.  If it sounds too good to be true, it usually is.

We will likely continue to see similar phishing messages and scams in the weeks ahead.  We appreciate your continued vigilance and assistance preventing the spread of these fraudulent messages.  Please, send all suspected phishing email to phishing@tcu.edu.

Last week, we announced that we were moving forward with forcing passcodes on all NEW Zoom sessions since Zoom was going to force the same change at the end of the month to all existing meetings.  Once we turned this on, it started creating some unintended issues with recurring meetings and we immediately rolled the change back to allow things to continue as normal. 

After working with Zoom, they identified a bug that causes a problem with recurring meetings and in response to schools like TCU, they have retracted their plans to force this requirement at the end of the month. 

While this means that you are not required to take any action, we encourage you to review some of the security settings below.

What can you do to protect your meetings?

We still recommend that you add a passcode, turn on a waiting room, or limit your meetings to only TCU users in order to minimize Zoombombing attempts.

If you would like to address this change on any pre-existing meetings, you can do the following:

1. Open the Zoom app and login with your TCU username and password.
2. Click on Meetings at the top.
3. Select the meeting that you want to update and then click Edit.
4. Check the boxfor Passcode, Waiting Room, or Only authenticated users can join under Advanced Options(make sure to set it to Only TCU accounts) in order to add an additional level of security to your meetings. 
5. Communicate the change to your attendees so they are prepared.

What if I created a recurring meeting for my class?

If you created a recurring Zoom meeting in TCU Online, you have a few options since the course calendar will not update in TCU Online when you modify an existing meeting:

1. You can delete the existing recurring event and create a new one with a passcode turned on. This will update the TCU Online course calendar which many students use but we recommend that you notify your students once you do this.

2. You can manually add a passcode using the instructions above and just communicate the passcode to each class.  They will still be able to use the link in the course calendar and will be prompted for the passcode when they join.

3. You can go into your meeting in Zoom and turn on a waiting room or check the requirement so only authenticated users can join (make sure to set it to Only TCU accounts).  This will add an extra layer of protection to your Zoom sessions but will not require the course calendar to be updated as the students will be able to join with the existing information. 
   
   Note:  You will have to manually admit each student into the session if you enable the waiting room option.