However, third party audits and UM internal investigations have identified numerous security and privacy concerns, including a lack of data transport layer security and several below standard data encryption practices. DeepSeek also collects extensive data (including personal information) and, as a result of insecure practices, this data is at risk.

These concerns have prompted the Canadian federal government and several Canadian universities to take precautionary action by banning the use of DeepSeek.

After careful review by IST and the Provost Office, several recommendations were proposed to safeguard the safety and privacy of UM members. These recommendations have been approved by the President’s Executive Team and the following regulations now apply to all UM students, faculty, and staff.

New regulations:

1. All members of UM must remove DeepSeek from any UM owned devices or any other devices (including personal devices) that connect to the UM network.
2. IST will block the DeepSeek domain and URL’s on the UM campus firewall.
3. IST will block DeepSeek (via Intune and Defender application firewall) on any devices that are managed with Intune or Defender applications.

Exceptions may be considered for academic purposes. Please contact Information Security and Compliance via the IST Service Desk for more information.

The UM Artificial Intelligence (AI) Committee is in the process of establishing an AI Framework for the university.

These restrictions are issued under the UM Use of Computer Facilities Policy and the Information Security Policy. Non-compliance may be addressed through appropriate remedies in accordance with UM policies.

Each of us creates, uses, and owns data, but in the digital age this has only grown exponentially.  

As with any valuable resource it’s important to not only have plans in place to keep it safe, but also to ensure its quality, usability, and availability to those who need it.  

“Data governance is the strategic approach to maximizing the value of an organization’s data,” says Mario Lebar, UM’s Chief Information Officer. “Through data governance, everyone can know what data the institution has, where data is held, who has access to it, and whether it is of high quality. The governance framework provides the foundation for trust and the routine use of data analytics for evidence-based decision-making.” 

Establishing a new governance model is part of UM’s broader digital strategy, which is led by the Office of the Provost and Vice-President (Academic).   

 “UM data is an institutional asset maintained to support the university’s central mission of teaching, research, and service. To support effective and innovative strategies and operations, university data must be accessible, must correctly represent the information intended, and must easily integrate across university information systems,” says Diane Hiebert-Murphy, Provost and Vice-President (Academic). “The management, curation, and use of institutional data and institutional information are a shared responsibility, involving and affecting academic, research, and administrative stakeholders across the university.” 

A new governance model will also benefit these same stakeholders, giving faculty and staff better quality data, more cohesive processes for collecting data (with less duplication) and a greater ability to make data-informed decisions to enhance teaching, learning and working at UM. 

Some of the biggest challenges in managing data is its sheer volume, combined with its complexity and the multiple systems that exist to use, create and contain it.  

When created, UM’s new governance model will address all these factors. It will establish “the principles, roles, and responsibilities for a collaborative data governance program at the university,” says Hiebert-Murphy. “It will establish a governance structure to support UM in fulfilling our responsibility for ensuring the availability, confidentiality, and integrity of all our institutional data and institutional information, whether managed and residing on university information technology resources, stored on personal devices, managed by a third party or partner, or outsourced to a service provider.” 

Lebar, who is supporting the new model’s creation, says the current focus is on administrative data such as that found in human resources, finance and student information systems. In the future, it could also involve data from systems in facilities management, admissions and more.  

A thorough governance model will ensure the following elements are met: 

• Data Quality & Standards: to help bring about data accuracy, completeness, and consistency. 

• Roles & Responsibilities: to help manage the data including data trustees, data stewards and data guardians. This also includes the structure of the data governance committees that set direction and provide a clear accountability structure and support training and awareness programs. 

• Policies & Procedures: for data lifecycle management, documentation requirements, change management processes and retention and archival policies. 

• Metadata Management: including developing a data dictionary, data lineage tracking, business glossary and technical metadata. 

• Data Architecture: which includes development of an institutional data model, data storage, data integration and data warehousing. 

• Compliance & Risk: including regulatory compliance, risk assessment, audit trails and reporting requirements. 

 To fulfill the requirements of a new data governance model, UM has created a Data Governance Steering Committee which will begin meeting in late November 2024 and will share future updates on policies and procedures with the UM community.  

This article is part of the university’s ongoing efforts to develop our shared UM digital future, as part of the university’s digital strategy. Those interested in learning more about digital technology in the education environment can check out the following resources: 

LOD Courses: practical, hands-on training for M365, accessibility tools and more. 
Digital Community of Practice: a forum to promote best practices and build common capabilities across UM in digital technology. 
Power Platform Community of Practice: a place for citizen developers using Microsoft’s Power Platform suite of tools to come together and share ideas, projects, and best practices. 
Digital Content Maintenance Training: for users responsible for managing content on University of Manitoba digital properties.
Office Hours website help: regular access to expert guidance on digital work, specifically for umanitoba.ca, UM Today and UM Intranet. 

This upgrade will include improvements to a few areas:

• Several high priority cyber security patches to ensure Banner remains secure and up to date.
• General system patches to address known issues with Administration Pages
• Many enhancements and fixes to the accessibility features for Banner Administration Pages.
• Continue to enhance the platform to support future features.

What does this mean to you?

Do you use Banner Administration Pages to view, create, or update records and transactions, such as students’ records or journal entries?

This update will provide you with improvements to the overall system and ensure the latest cyber security patches are applied, aligning the university with regulatory requirements. However, your key data, general functions, and the business rules you follow to perform these functions in Banner Administration Pages will remain unchanged.

How does this impact you?

Banner Administration Pages and Aurora Self Service will be temporarily unavailable from August 23, 2024, at 4:00 p.m. to August 25, 2024, at 9:00 a.m. as the systems upgrade. In addition, other processes and systems that connect to Banner Administration Pages and new Aurora Self Service (e.g. Argos, BDM, FAST, UM Achieve, EPIC, ODS, IDM Warehouse) could be inaccessible or have limited functionality during this time. More information will be provided to users of these systems.

Starting May 27th, IST will replace the current Apple TV devices with the more versatile ShareLink Pro devices first on the Bannatyne campus, then on the Fort Garry campus in June-July.  

“ShareLink Pro offers faculty and staff a friendlier, more intuitive experience. It works with a wide range of devices and platforms, such as MacOS, Windows, iOS, and Android, and provides our users with the flexibility they need to share and present content seamlessly,” says the director of IST Technology Services, Richard Gloux.  

The project web page lists the rooms and buildings that will be affected. There are also frequently asked questions (FAQs) and support information to help you navigate this transition.  

In addition to detailed online instructions, the classrooms and meeting rooms will be equipped with end-user instructions to assist in making the most out of the new ShareLink Pro devices.  

This project is one of many that shows the university’s commitment to providing innovative technology for exceptional learning and working experiences. We appreciate your continued support as we move towards this change. 

For any questions or concerns about this project, please feel free to contact the project manager, Iain Cruickshank, at Iain.Cruickshank@umanitoba.ca.  

It is important for us all to learn about these scams and take steps to protect our personal information and stop fraudsters in their tracks. Two of the most common types of fraud that affect university communities are business email fraud and phishing.

Business email fraud

Business email fraud, also known as CEO fraud, is a type of scam in which fraudsters impersonate a high-level administrator, such as a dean or president and send emails to employees requesting sensitive information or money. 

To protect yourself from business email fraud, never respond to unsolicited emails that ask for personal information or money. If you receive an email that appears to be from a supervisor or a faculty, unit or department lead, verify the sender’s identity by calling them or using a known email address before responding.

Phishing scams

Phishing scams typically take the form of emails or text messages that appear to come from a trusted source, such as a bank or a government agency. The scammer then asks for personal information to be sent to them, which they can use to steal your identity or money. 

To protect yourself from phishing scams, never respond to unsolicited emails or text messages, always be cautious of emails that contain attachments and never send money or personal information to someone you do not know.

March phishing simulation

The university will run our annual Fraud Prevention Month phishing simulation in March. The email will likely be a notice about your tax information. Watch out for these three indicators of a possible scam:

1. Urgency or fear – the message will try to reel you in by triggering a fear response.
2. Suspicious links –  typos in domain names are a common trick, e.g. “umaniloba.ca.” 
3. Fictional department or unit – for example, the university does not have a “Tax Department.”

If you notice any of these warning signs, forward the message to spam [at] umanitoba [dot] ca immediately.

What else you can do

You can take several other steps to protect your personal information and stop bad actors. These include using strong passwords, regularly checking your credit report and being cautious when sharing personal information online. Additionally, stay informed about the latest frauds and scams, pay attention to university information security alerts and report any suspicious messages to spam [at] umanitoba [dot] ca.

Remember: Information Security Starts with You!

For the past decade, the UM JUMP portal has been used as a channel for internal communications and for student and staff access to applications. JUMP is being retired in order to move applications and content to newer, more secure services such as Microsoft Teams and SharePoint.

This January, the project team will contact JUMP site owners individually and work with them to start testing and migrating their sites and/or applications.

Over the next three months, the goal is to move applications currently accessed from JUMP, like Concur and Epic , to new homes.

What does this mean to you?

Applications available to students and staff will be accessible from a new online location depending upon the needs of the unit or faculty. More information will be available in the new year.

For questions about the project, contact project manager Blair Dagdick at Blair [dot] Dagdick [at] umanitoba [dot] ca.

Join our IT Learning Coordinator on December 7 or 9 for an overview of Zoom’s security settings and tools.

During each session, we will learn about:

• Authentication
• Making set-up choices to improve meeting security
• Using the Security icon to respond to a disruption during a meeting
• Zoom webinars and when to use them

Both sessions will be hosted in UM Zoom. Please register and attend with a Zoom account connected to your @umanitoba.ca or @myumanitoba.ca email address.

Register to attend on:

• December 7 from 12:00-1:00 p.m.
• December 9 from 12:00 to 1:00 p.m.

Please contact the IST Service Desk at 204-474-8600 with any questions about registering for the sessions.

Currently, the breakout rooms feature is only available in the desktop version of the app and only meeting organizers can start breakout rooms. However, participants can join a breakout room using any device.  

How to add breakout rooms to your Teams desktop app 

1. Ensure you have the latest version of Teams installed.  
2. In Teams, click your profile picture and go to Settings. 
3. In the General section of Settings, check the box beside “Turn on new meeting experience.” 
4. Quit and restart Teams.   

More on Microsoft.com

Read the announcement and watch breakout rooms in action: Breakout rooms generally available today in Microsoft Teams 

The IST Service Desk

• Closes Wednesday, December 23, 2020, at 6:00 p.m.
• Reopens Tuesday, January 5, 2021, at 8:00 a.m.

IST Open Area Computer Labs

• Closes Wednesday, December 23, 2020 at 1:00 p.m.
• Reopens Tuesday, January 5, 2021, at 8:30 a.m.

Request support or report system outage

To request urgent support or to report a major system outage, call 204-474-8600 and press 2.

Unplanned interruptions of major systems such as UM Learn, Email, JUMP and the University of Manitoba website will be restored as soon as possible.

Phishing simulation results

Last month, two phishing simulation email messages were sent to staff.

According to the October phishing simulation results, our university staff can certainly recognize a phish.

Only 1.6% (down from 2% last year) clicked on the link in the first email and 2.8% (no change from last year) clicked on the link in the second email.  Great job!

Remember, when you see a suspicious email, don’t click on the link! In some cases even clicking on a link may cause trouble. Clicking on a suspicious link in an email can be risky because the website may not just be a phishing page asking for your credentials.  The web page may contain malicious code that will attack a vulnerability in your browser, which may then infect your computer with malware such as ransomware or spyware that can steal data.

Phishing Training Contest

1,665 staff and students viewed UM Learn Phishing Module. Congratulations to the iPad draw winner, Michael Gusak! We hope you get lots of use out of your new iPad. Don’t forget to ensure that your new mobile device is secure.

Cyber Security Poster Contest

We received seven poster contest submissions. Thank you to Neil Marnoch, Registrar’s Office; Karen Meelker, Access and Privacy Office; Brandy Usick, Student Engagement and Success; Patrick McCarthy, Information Security; and David Treble, Information Security who selected the winners based on their creativity, use of colour and clear message about cyber security. 

Congratulations to our winners!

First place: Imaobong Udofa

Cyber Security Contest Poster First Prize Winner – Imaobong Udofa

Second place: John Baptista

CyberSecurity Contest Poster Second Prize Winner – John Baptista

Third place: Akila Ambagala

Cyber Security Month Poster Contest Winner Third Place – Akila Ambagala

For more information, visit the Information Security and Compliance web page at http://umanitoba.ca/computing/ist/security/phishing.html