Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine
Feinberg Information Technology
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System Updates

Date Description

 1/11/2018

Meltdown and Spectre vulnerability mitigation plan:

  • First and foremost, hackers would need to break into our network to exploit this vulnerability.  Feinberg and Northwestern have multiple layers of protection across our network. These protections between the internet and our internal networks, on our laptops, through email flow, on our servers and beyond reduce the likelihood of our network being attacked.
  • Next, while we have these protections, it is still important to patch these vulnerabilities. We are currently testing and evaluating available patches to reduce the risk of exploitation of these vulnerabilities.  We expect to apply the appropriate patches to FSM-managed computers shortly.

For personal devices (iPhones, Androids, tablets, personal laptops/desktops, etc) we strongly encourage that the Feinberg community back them up regularly and apply updates promptly.

 

If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to contact FSM IT (fsmhelp@northwestern.edu or 1-HELP).

5/15/2017

Late last week, a significant Cybersecurity threat impacted many organizations, including health systems, around the world. Over the weekend, FSM IT took steps to reduce our exposure and applied patches to all affected computers.

If you are receiving a message to reboot your computer, then please do so immediately to reduce your vulnerability.

If you have any questions or concerns, then please contact us by email at FSMHelp@northwestern.edu or by calling 847-491-4537 (1HELP).

5/13/17

Please be sure to follow online best practices to help protect your information and identity:

  • Do not click on links or attachments from unknown or untrusted sources. 
  • Do not download documents from unauthorized, unknown sites. 
  • Do not download software from unauthorized and unknown sources. 
  • If you become a victim of an email exploit, report it immediately to the IT Support Center at 847-491-4357 (1-HELP) or consultant@northwestern.edu.
8/12/16 Security Change Notice

On 9/1/2016, we will enable the built-in firewall on all FSM managed Mac computers. This security enhancement will block incoming connections on your machine (meaning those by an unwelcome user). The firewall will enable automatically and you should not notice any changes to your computer usage.  No additional action is needed from you.  If you have questions about this security enhancement, please contact fsmhelp@northwestern.edu.