NEWS

New Winstat Servers

Nine new servers have been added to Winstat. The new Winstats are faster and each have twice as many cores (16) and more than twice as much memory (64GB) as the servers they replaced.

The two "long jobs" servers have been replaced with four faster servers. Recall that the "long jobs" servers are for statistical jobs which bump up against Winstat session limitations (disconnect after 24 hours without input from the user, and disconnected session termination after three hours). When this happens, consider moving your jobs to Linstat where most of SSCC's major number crunching is done. However, there are a few statistical software programs that are not available on Linstat: MPlus, HLM and MLwiN are the most common examples. If you need to run long jobs using these programs, contact the help desk to get access to the long jobs Winstat servers.

SSCC's Fall Training Schedule

SSCC training for fall is well underway. We are experiencing unprecedented enrollment this semester. We had over 100 people register for our Stata for Researchers workshop creating the need for three sections. This month we have 13 workshops covering Stata, SAS,WordPress, Nvivo, and Dedoose, and some of these are already full. Visit the training page today to register for classes. Email Caitlin Tefft if you want to get on a waiting list.

PRIMO Computers Locked after 30 Minute Idle Time

The Office of Campus Information Security has conducted a "baseline security" audit to identify ways units are not following established IT security best practices. SSCC has made several security improvements as a result. One change that will affect members who log into PRIMO is computers will lock after 30 minutes of idle time. You will then need to enter your password to unlock your computer. We will implement this change on Wednesday. If your campus office computer or laptop is not part of the PRIMO domain, we highly recommend that you make this change yourself (see tip below for Windows 7 users) or contact our help desk for assistance. The inconvenience of entering your password is worth it when you consider the increased security provided.

Tip: Lock Your Computer when Idle

To prevent others from using your computer when you are not present, you should lock your computer after it is idle for a short period of time and require a login before it can be accessed. In Windows 7, click the Windows logo button and type screen saver in the search box. The top result will be Change screen saver. Click on it, and you can then set how long the computer should wait before turning off the display. Be sure and check the box for "On resume, display login screen" to keep your computer secure. Note in the article above that beginning Wednesday this setting will go into affect automatically for PRIMO users.

Policy Reminder Regarding Encryption of Sensitive Data

University of Wisconsin-Madison policy specifies that restricted/sensitive data that is located on a laptop or desktop computer at the University MUST be encrypted (except for specified exceptions).

Any researchers who are working with IRB/RSP approved restricted data contracts who store data on their desktop or laptop computers must encrypt their data. If you are working on restricted data that has been put on a restricted Linux or Windows network drive, and your contract specifies that your output goes to that network drive, you do not need to encrypt your data. If you are working on restricted data on a removable hard drive in one of the SSCC cold rooms (Rm. 2403 or 2404 Social Science), you do not need to encrypt your data. 

The University policy also discusses "sensitive" information kept on laptop or desktop computers. Visit SSCC's Resources for Working with Sensitive Data web page for links to University policies on sensitive data.

Questions about the mechanics of encryption should be addressed to SSCC's Help Desk. Questions about whether your laptop/desktop restricted/sensitive data needs to be encrypted should be addressed to Data & Information Services Center (DISC).