IT News You Can Use - February 21, 2022

Did You Know?

A zero-day vulnerability was identified with Chrome this week.  A patched version of Chrome is already available, but you need to make sure you apply it.  Whenever you see the “Update” button in your toolbar, take the time to press it.

Upcoming Work

• On Wednesday, February 23 at 10:00 P.M., ETS will start the process that updates all COE Linux systems (ETS managed systems only).  Please ensure that any Linux systems you, or a group you manage uses, are powered on before February 23 to ensure they are updated and rebooted (kernel updates require reboots).  The process will take some time and will run overnight. We do not expect the update process to cause interruptions, but we recommend you save any open documents before 10:00 P.M. on February 23. 

• On Thursday, February 24 at 7:15 A.M, ETS will reboot all the ETS managed Linux systems. Please save your work and logoff before 7:15 A.M. on February 24 to avoid losing any unsaved work.

If you encounter any issues on your Linux system(s) after 9:00 A.M. on February 24, please contact ETS by one of the methods below, and include this information:  1) note that it's a Linux system, 2) the hostname of the system, and 3) the location (if known), and someone will assist you as soon as they are available.

• Windows security updates will not follow the normal patch schedule this month due to some concerns over one of the updates.  They will be delayed one week and become available on Wednesday, February 23 with an installation deadline of Wednesday, March 2.   

• ETS will be doing network maintenance in Smith Lab on Friday, February 25 at 5:00 P.M.  This will affect the 3rd and 5th floors of Smith.  During the maintenance windows, there will be intermittent outages as we move to new network hardware.  It is recommended that you logout of your computer before the maintenance window and you might need to reboot after we are finished.