The University of Illinois is currently experiencing ongoing denial of service cyberattacks impacting services like email and Skype for Business. On Tuesday, November 15, faculty, students, and staff will need to use an additional piece of authenticating software to connect from off-campus to on-campus computers.

To effectively reduce these current cyberattacks and keep the Illinois network safe, customers who connect through Microsoft Remote Desktop will need to use  either the University's Virtual Private Network (VPN) or the Remote Desktop Gateway service. For more information about the upcoming changes and how to setup a VPN or Remote Desktop Gateway on your computer, please see: https://techservices.illinois.edu/news/2016/increased-security-campus-computers-will-help-thwart-cyberattacks.

All current indications suggest that no data have been lost, but the attacks are straining crucial infrastructure services. Unfortunately, these attacks are a reality of the connected world we live in. We continue to work on efforts to reduce these types of attacks. Tuesday’s change represents the first of a series of changes related to how individuals will remotely access University computing resources in the future.

After January 30, 2017, individuals attempting to access computing resources from the Internet using Virtual Network Computing (VNC) or Telnet will need to utilize the University’s VPN service.

After April 3, 2017, individuals attempting to access computing resources from the Internet using Secure Shell (SSH) will need to utilize the University’s VPN service or the future SSH Gateway service.

Please note that if we see increased attack traffic associated with VNC, Telnet, or SSH that jeopardizes the University of Illinois, we may need to accelerate these timelines.  

For questions or concerns, please contact the Technology Services Help Desk at consult@illinois.edu or call 217-244-7000.

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Joe Barnes
Chief Privacy & Security Officer
Technology Services at Illinois
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

   
     
   
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