Technology Team

Minutes
March 3, 2008

Attending: Dan Reke, Theron Niekamp, Nathan Walters, Carol Marion, Carol Rigola, Chuck Steel, Ann Miller, Dr. Salisbury, Harry Lawhorn
 
Guest: Becky Lawhorn

Absent: N/A

Celebrate Successes

All e-mail is now going through the new spam filters which are catching >99% of the spam before it gets to the servers. 100% of the e-mail is also using the new Exchange server.


New Items

Discussion of password updates, password reset modules, and FERPA requirements.

Harry reported that Advanced Toolware recommends against the method we were planning to use to distribute initial passwords and user ID’s. (We were planning to use a web page where students would enter their Colleague ID and an e-mail address where their account information could be sent.) They said that using just one piece of identification was not secure enough. Becky Lawhorn supported that saying that FERPA recommends four identifying items to release information. Advanced Toolware suggests using a default password comprised of certain letters from their name plus specific digits from their Colleague ID. That would only be used once to sign into a webpage where they would change their password to something they choose. That same web page would require users to choose a challenge question (or questions). There was discussion about the possible risks involved with this approach, and there was agreement that this approach minimizes risk.

Advanced Toolware has given us a quote of $8,700 to create a Self Service Reset Password Management function. There was consensus that the function is well worth the money because of potential savings of help desk costs, better service for students, increased data security, etc. However, we will have to find a way to pay for it. Dan and Carol Rigola took an action item to examine the budgets. Becky Lawhorn said that they can get their temporary password when they get their picture ID in Student Services. (See below for more information about that.) The students will have to wait until the next morning in most circumstances, longer in some circumstances, and less in others due to the time it takes for the process to extract student information from Datatel. That lag could be eliminated if we are able to automate that process.

Discussion of password reset modules. (Harry)


Follow Up on Items from previous meetings:

Q: Is there an update about cooperation between Student Services and the Library issuing ID cards?
A: Student Services has received approval to move forward with photo ID cards. They are working on the process details, but for now it looks like Student Services will be issuing them.

Carol Marion handed out a revised time table for the processes.