CIO Update on Technical Difficulties
February 10, 2009 - The University is constantly under the threat of malicious code whether it’s a virus, an attack, or a worm. On average, at the University, there are 250 malicious attacks per second. Most are caught with our security mechanisms. On January 13, one of these worms successfully infected campus systems. This resulted in a 33% increase in network traffic, and slowed down all of our systems. Typically, there is usually 1% of malicious traffic on the network.
To apply the necessary security patches to all CCS servers, each machine had to be shut down, installed with 2 security patches, rebooted, and the services on each server had to be reinitiated. This 4-day effort spanned 150 machines and involved four analysts around the clock. The work done was similar to that of a disaster recovery exercise. The subsequent three weeks were spent tracking all the machines on campus to limit their infection to others. Computers needed to be cleaned and then installed with security patches. We clearly cannot be as lenient as we have been in the past. Owners of infected machines are now notified and requested to update the security of their machine.
The above incident required CCS to update its security infrastructure. As it was updating the security of the University’s data centre, a technical difficulty with one of its critical servers led to Outlook and Banner service disruptions. By Thursday, temporary servers were installed to allow the community to use email and Banner. We will be working with Microsoft to implement a permanent solution by February 23rd.
Thank you,
Sylvain Chalut, ing., Adm.A, PMP
Chief Information Officer
Computing & Communications Services
