Category: System Status

LITS is actively working to address a number of critical zero-day vulnerabilities that affect the Microsoft environment.

One of these affects the Outlook Desktop Client. Microsoft recently released a patch to address this vulnerability so it’s critical that anyone who uses the desktop client on either a College owned or personal computer run any available updates as soon as possible. If you have any questions regarding this update, please contact the Help Desk.

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Updating the Outlook Desktop Client (Wind0ws):

1. Close all Microsoft Office applications
   (e.g., Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, etc.)
2. Open Outlook
3. In the top-left, click File
4. In the bottom-left, click Office Account
5. Click Update Options and Update Now
6. Wait some time for updates to download and install

 

Updating the Outlook Desktop Client (macOS):

1. Close all Microsoft Office applications
   (e.g., Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, etc.)
2. Open Outlook
3. In the top-left, click Help and Check for Updates
4. Click Update
5. If prompted, click Update All
6. Wait some time for updates to download and install

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Our systems administrators are working to update and apply security patches to backend systems. Please report any issues or oddities that you may see to the Help Desk.

We will provide updates about our efforts as we have them. Please contact the Help Desk with any questions or concerns: help@brynmawr.edu or 610-526-7440.

We are currently troubleshooting an issue that is preventing some Outlook users from scheduling Zoom meetings through Outlook. Our system admins are troubleshooting this issue with Zoom and Microsoft support, but in the meantime:

If the Zoom option is still visible when you create an Outlook meeting, you are not affected and can ignore this notification.

If a Zoom option is not visible when you create an Outlook meeting, please use one of the following workarounds:

• • Use Teams for online meetings scheduled through Outlook. Teams is Microsoft’s native video-conferencing app and works the same way. You can include non-Bryn Mawr participants; participants join by clicking a link and do not need a Teams account or license. See Schedule a Microsoft Teams meeting from Outlook for more information.
  • Manually add Zoom links to Outlook meetings. To do this, you will need to schedule a Zoom meeting through the Zoom web portal, click Copy invitation next to the meeting link, and paste that information into your Outlook meeting invite.

Our apologies for any inconvenience this causes, and we hope to have a resolution soon. Please contact the Help Desk (help@brynmawr.edu, 610-526-7440) if you have any questions or concerns.

Beginning at 11:30am tomorrow, February 14th, LITS will be working with our vendors to upgrade the authentication for Tripod. Though we don’t anticipate any appreciable downtime, patrons may notice that they are unable to login to their library accounts or request books while this work is being done. If you find yourself having trouble, please try again in a few minutes.

Thank you for your patience while we perform this necessary work. Please contact the Help Desk if you have any questions: help@brynmawr.edu or 610-526-7440.

Adobe will be unavailable from 6-7:30pm on Thursday, 2/15. During this time LITS will be working with our vendors to move to our new authentication system. During this downtime, you will be unable to sign in to Adobe or modify/safe documents. After the upgrade, the Duo login screen will look slightly different.

Please report any questions or concerns to the Help Desk: help@brynmawr.edu or 610-526-7440.

This evening (2/09) LITS will be performing a necessary WordPress upgrade between 5pm and 6pm. During that time, community members may experience a brief service interruption. Thank you for your patience while we perform this necessary work.

Please contact the Help Desk at help@brynmawr.edu or 610.526.7440 with any questions or concerns or to report any lingering issues.

Update, 10:50am: LITS has resolved all of the phone issues in Cambrian Row. Please contact the Help Desk with any questions or to report lingering issues.

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This morning, community members in Cambrian Row offices, particularly Aelwyd, Clynnoc, and Pensby, may not be able to use their office phones. LITS is working to diagnose the issue and to restore service as quickly as possible.

Currently, the phones in Dolwen are operating as usual.

Please reach out to the Help Desk with any questions: help@brynmawr.edu or 610-526-7440.

UPDATE, Friday, 12/9: Late last night, LITS was able to successfully restore VPN service. You should be able to connect via the Ivanti Secure Access Client as before. Thank you for your patience while we performed this critical maintenance.

If you were not already running the most up-to-date version of the client, you will need to update your client before continuing. The update should run automatically.

If you have any questions about which version you are running or if you run into any trouble, please contact the Help Desk at 610-526-7440 or help@brynmawr.edu.

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A new zero day vulnerability has been discovered in the VPN software, Ivanti. LITS has disabled the VPN in order to apply a critical security patch. We’re working to restore service as quickly as possible but are unsure as to how long the outage will last.

Please contact the Help Desk with any questions: help@brynmawr.edu or 610-526-7440.

Update, 2/13, 12:30pm: This work has been completed. Please report any issues to the Help Desk. Thank you again for your patience.

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Update, 2/12 6:45pm: Due to vendor availability, this work will need to be postponed. We will update everyone when a new date and time has been chosen. We apologize for any inconvenience.

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Apporto will be unavailable from 6-7pm on Monday 2/12. During this time LITS will be working with our vendors to move to our new authentication system. After the upgrade, the Duo login screen will look slightly different.

Please report any questions or concerns to the Help Desk: help@brynmawr.edu or 610-526-7440.

Updated 2/7/24 at 11:40am:

VPN service has been restored. You should be able to connect via the Ivanti Secure Access Client as before.

If you were not already running the most up-to-date version of the client, it will update automatically. If you have any questions about which version you are running, please contact the Help Desk.

If you log in at ingress.brynmawr.edu you may notice some slight changes to the way the web page looks.

Please let us know if you experience any problems: help@brynmawr.edu or 610-526-7440.

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Updated 5/6/24 at 5:45pm:

LITS staff have made great progress again today rebuilding VPN configurations with support from our vendor.

Based on our current understanding, we expect to complete final steps tomorrow (Wednesday).

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Updated 5/5/24 at 5:15pm:

LITS staff have made great progress on rebuilding our Ivanti VPN. We are now awaiting next steps from the vendor.

We don’t have an estimate yet as to when service will be restored, but we will keep you updated as we learn more.

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LITS disabled the VPN on Friday, February 2, at 11:59pm.

CISA has issued an alert for a zero-day vulnerability in the Ivanti VPN and the recommendation is to take down the service today.

Students can still access College software from a campus lab computer or Apporto. Office 365 and Moodle are unaffected.

We are currently uncertain how long VPN service will be unavailable. Many organizations worldwide are affected by this issue. Responses are evolving quickly and we will share more information as it becomes available. LITS is taking steps now to source expert assistance to help us reinstate service as quickly as possible.

Please contact the Help Desk with questions: help@brynmawr.edu or 610-526-7440.

Starting at 9am on Wednesday, 2/7, the wireless network in Batten and Brecon will be unavailable. During this time, LITS will be doing necessary work to prepare for the installation of new wireless access points. Thank you in advance for your patience

Please contact the Help Desk with any questions or concerns: help@brynmawr.edu or 610-526-7440.

Starting earlier today, community members started reporting issues connecting to and using Microsoft 365 services, including email and Teams. It seems that things are working, but slowly and intermittently. This is a nationwide issue and we are waiting for Microsoft to resolve things on their end.

We will post more as we know it. Please contact the Help Desk with any questions: help@brynmawr.edu or 610-526-7440.

Between 4 and 6pm on Monday, January 29, LITS will be upgrading the  authentication system for Zoom. You may be unable to log into your Bryn Mawr College Zoom accounts for brief periods during or immediately after this upgrade.

If you have Zoom meetings scheduled during this upgrade window, you can:

• • Log in to the Zoom portal before 4pm and stay logged in. Outages will only affect your ability to log in, the Zoom platform itself will remain up and function normally during the upgrade.
  • Shift your meetings to Microsoft Teams.  (For meetings scheduled through Outlook, simply click the Teams switch.)
  • If you are using Zoom to record a class but no one is joining the meeting, consider using Panopto or Panopto Capture instead.

If you have any questions or concerns, please contact the Help Desk (610-526-7440 or help@brynmawr.edu).