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IT Center Blog

Kategorie: ‘IT-Security’

IT Fairytale Hour – Part 2

September 25th, 2023 | by
Animated woman woman looking through a magnifying glass comparing myths with facts.

Source: Freepik

Today we continue with our series, “All about the myths in the world of IT”.
If you missed the first part of the myths, feel free to check out our last post.

“The full moon causes sleepless nights” – a myth we all know. Experts have long since proven that the moon does not have magical powers. The brightness releases less melatonin in the brain, which helps us fall asleep.
So it’s worth taking another close look at widespread half-truths.

In the world of IT, there are myths that we can get to the bottom of together.
Today, it’s all about IT security and what you should know about it.

 

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Email Security – Evaluation of DMARC Policy for Incoming Emails

August 30th, 2023 | by
Letters of a keyboard representing the word email

Source: Pixabay

In the fourth part of our e-mail security series, we would like to inform you about an innovation in our e-mail security policy.

After we reported on e-mail, e-mail statistics at RWTH Aachen University, and the SMTP protocol and its pitfalls in the first and second articles, and informed you about the DKIM identification protocol and DMARC in the third article, this fourth part is now about a new e-mail security requirement. To ensure that RWTH can continue to provide a secure e-mail service in the future, we have decided to introduce the evaluation of a sender’s DMARC policy when accepting mail at the university’s central mail gateway. You can find out what this means in this blog post.

 

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Requesting User Certificates via the RA Portal – Info for End Users

August 18th, 2023 | by
Drawing signed sheet and shield with lock

Source: Freepik

As of August 15, 2023, you can request user certificates from GÉANT/TCS in the RA portal. The DFN-PKI Global used so far will cease operation on August 30, 2023.

User certificates function like a digital ID card. They are personal, which means that you can uniquely identify yourself as a user. You can use them to sign documents or e-mails and thus prove that you personally digitally signed a document or sent an e-mail.

You need a user certificate for your e-mail address? You already have a user certificate from DFN-PKI Global? How do you proceed now? In this blog post we would like to provide clarity and answer these and other questions on the subject.

 

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Requesting User Certificates (S/MIME) via the RA Portal – Info for IT Admins

August 16th, 2023 | by
Drawing of a certificate on a tablet and office supplies

Source: Freepik

Yesterday, August 15, 2023, the RA portal (ra-portal.itc.rwth-aachen.de) was additionally enabled for the issuance of user certificates in the GÉANT/TCS (PKI). From August 30, 2023, it will no longer be possible to apply for new user certificates via DFN-PKI Global, as it will cease operation. Until August 29, 2023, there will thus be parallel operation with the well-known “DFN-PKI Global” service. All certificates issued until then will nevertheless retain their validity status for a maximum of 3 years after certificate issuance. In this blog post you can find out what tasks will now arise for IT administrators. Read the rest of this entry »

The IT Center Picture Puzzle: IT Center Management

July 12th, 2023 | by
Photo of the IT Center Management and interviewers

Quelle: Eigene Darstellung

#MeetMeWednesday: Our blog series “The IT Center Picture Puzzle” is drawing to a close, and to cap it all off, we have a particularly interesting interview in store for you. This time, the IT Center Management, Professor Müller and Mr. Bündgens, answer our questions. They talk about their daily tasks as well as about exciting projects and developments that will soon take place at the IT Center.

By the way, the key word we were looking for was “leadership”. Could you guess it? Find out more in this article.

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Cybersecurity 101: Protecting the Digital Footprint in the Digital Age

July 3rd, 2023 | by
Three footprints with blue digital background

Source: Own Illustration

In today’s digital age, our lives are increasingly intertwined with the online world. From social media profiles to online banking accounts, we leave a digital footprint that can be vulnerable to cyber threats. Protecting our digital presence and maintaining online privacy is more important now than ever. In this blog post, we’ll go over the basics of cybersecurity and provide practical tips for protecting your digital footprint.

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WiFi News – Part 3: New Root, Old WiFi

June 30th, 2023 | by
Router, notepad, and smartphone

Source: Freepik

On May 23, 2023, the server certificate of our authentication server “radius.rz.rwth-aachen.de” had expired. For that reason a new certificate was implemented in the system. In the first post of this blog series we informed you about this.

Now a larger change is coming up: In the future, the new certification instance GÉANT/TCS will be used and replace DFN-PKI Global. As a consequence a new Radius certificate and certification chain will be used. This migration will take place on August 1, 2023.

Eduroam will be affected with regard to registration and configuration. The exact background and what you have to do, to continue using eduroam, we will explain in the following blog post. Read the rest of this entry »

WLAN News – Part 2: eduroam and certificates

June 16th, 2023 | by
Top view of the Wifi icon

Source: Freepik

The Wi-Fi network eduroam is available on the entire campus of the RWTH Aachen University. If you have already configured eduroam on your mobile devices and chosen an automatic connection, your devices will connect to eduroam in the background. This happens as soon as your devices detect a network with the name eduroam in the vicinity.

Behind a secure connection to eduroam lie certificate structures that guarantee this security. But how exactly do these processes work? In the following blog post, we hope to provide answers to these and other questions.

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Multifactor Authentication in IdM Selfservice

May 31st, 2023 | by

IT security is a major and important topic at RWTH Aachen University and the IT Center.

Data protection title with a big blue digital lock on a dark blue background.

Source: Freepik

Already in 2021, it was reported that the introduction of multifactor-authentication (Mfa) would provide systems with greater security against unauthorized access.

In order to offer the MFA protection to further services the IdM Selfservice is now equipped with the so-called “MFA Tokenmanager”.

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Discontinuation of “Sophos Antivirus” – What You Have to Do Now

May 24th, 2023 | by
Drawing of a cloud surrounded by lock, shield, and wifi symbol

Source: Freepik

Within the framework of an NRW state license agreement, institutions of the RWTH Aachen University can use the virus scanner “Sophos Antivirus” as well as the corresponding management console “Sophos Enterprise Console” free of charge. In addition, members of the RWTH are allowed to use the software privately.

Now the company “Sophos” has discontinued the on-premises variants of its virus scanner as well as the management console “Sophos Enterprise Console” on July 20, 2023. Starting then, these products will no longer be provided with updates by the manufacturer. To find out if and/or how this is relevant to you, continue reading this blog post.

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