USC Provost IT is excited to announce a new program designed to merge your USC NetID password and your Provost account password into a single, USC-wide passphrase. This process, called passphrase synchronization, will simplify the login process for university and department systems by reducing the number of passwords needed to manage and will increase passphrase security across the university. What … Read More
Major Network Disruption – 4/8/18
Early Sunday morning, a pre-planned network upgrade conducted by Information Technology Services encountered issues and caused a major campus network outage. This outage severely affected many university-wide and Provost IT-provided systems, services and applications, causing them to be unavailable until after 12pm. Although we are still closely monitoring the issue and posting updates here, we believe ITS has resolved the … Read More
Major Network Disruption – 1/24/18
After 9:00pm on the evening of Wednesday, January 24th, USC Information Technology Services experienced a major network outage. This outage severely affected many Provost IT-provided services, causing them to be unavailable until well past midnight. Although we are still closely monitoring the issue and posting updates here, we believe ITS has resolved the core issue at this time. If you … Read More
“You have a secure message” Phishing Alert
During the morning of 1/13/18, many users received a phishing email claiming to be from “Provost IT Support” or “One Drive” telling them to click a link to view a secure message. Do not click on this link. This is a phishing email which will attempt to steal your confidential login information. If you received this message and replied to … Read More
Winter Recess Hours
USC and the Office of the Provost will be closed for winter recess from Saturday, December 23rd, 2017 until Monday, January 2nd, 2018. The University resumes normal business operations on Tuesday, January 2nd, 2018. The USC Provost IT helpdesk will be closed to non-urgent requests during this time. Phone calls will route to voicemail and non-urgent tickets or emails submitted … Read More
Critical Mac Security Flaw
Earlier this afternoon, a user on Twitter publicly disclosed a critical security vulnerability affecting Mac OS X Computers. While the extent of the vulnerability it not yet fully known, the issue allows any malicious person to easily gain full access to your computer with extremely little effort. This problem also affects the latest version of OS X, High Sierra 10.13.1. … Read More
WannaCry Malware Warning
Over the last 48 hours, security researchers have discovered a particularly malicious strain of malware targeting Microsoft Windows computers worldwide. The ransomware is known to lock all files on a victim’s computer and network drive(s) and then demand a significant monetary payment in order to unlock them. Infections have so far been discovered in almost 100 countries worldwide and have … Read More
President Nikias Phishing Email Alert
Many individuals have recently reported receiving emails from USC President C.L. Max Nikias asking them to open an attachment in order to view an important message from the President. If the user opens the attachment, a document instructs them to click a link and then login to a page to view the secure message. If you received this message and replied … Read More
Cisco WebEx Plugin Vulnerability Alert
Cisco recently announced that a critical security vulnerability in their WebEx video conferencing software can potentially allow a remote attacker to take control of your computer. The WebEx computer conferencing plugin for all major browsers, including Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, and Internet Explorer, is affected by this vulnerability. Additionally, you do not have to be a host of any meetings … Read More
Important: New Email Deletion Policy
In September of 2016, the University announced a new email policy which goes into effect on January 18th, 2017 for staff and March 15th, 2017 for faculty. At 12:01am on these dates, messages over sixteen months old will be automatically and permanently deleted from your mailbox if they are in a default folder. A default folder is defined as one that you did not create, such as … Read More