News

A Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS) attack is a cyber-attack, which an attacker tries to overload the targeted server/system with a huge volume of traffic from multiple, distributed sources (usually zombie computers), making the server/system unavailable to its intended users. As the attacks come from a large number of PCs in different areas, it is impossible to stop these attacks simply by blocking accesses from an area.

The majority of the wireless access points (APs) installed on campus were the outdated Aruba AP-125 model (product of year 2009) which supports legacy standards 802.11a/b/g/n but cannot support the 5th generation of Wi-Fi standard 802.11ac. In order to meet the increasing demands from user devices and to improve the Wi-Fi service performance within campus, the Computing Services Centre (CSC) started to upgrade the wireless LAN last summer by replacing the controllers and 200 x AP-325 APs to provide 802.11ac Wave 2 support in high-density areas such as Library and 4/F mall area of AC1. This summer, the CSC is going to replace 600 x AP-335 in the classrooms and Lecture Theatres and is expecting to replace the remaining 2000 legacy APs in the coming year(s). Since the new APs are fully backward compatible with the previous Wi-Fi standards, you do not need to upgrade your Wi-Fi device to work with the new APs. However, new enhancements will function only when the client devices also support the new 802.11ac standard.

/* The following article is extracted from the "Information Security Newsletter" published by the JUCC IS Task Force.Security and user-friendliness tend to be in conflict with each other. From the security point of view, proper protection of sensitive information is critical. Sensitive data leakage not only damage the reputation of the University, it may also be harmful to the data custodians and related individuals. However, reflecting by user experience, better security usually introduces inconvenience to users. Worse still, due to certain kinds of technical requirements, users may need to spend time on setting up their devices or even change their working habits, thus causing a lot of people to hesitate about securing their data.

Security and user-friendliness tend to be in conflict with each other. From the security point of view, proper protection of sensitive information is critical. Sensitive data leakage not only damage the reputation of the University, it may also be harmful to the data custodians and related individuals. However, reflecting by user experience, better security usually introduces inconvenience to users. Worse still, due to certain kinds of technical requirements, users may need to spend time on setting up their devices or even change their working habits, thus causing a lot of people to hesitate about securing their data.

Research is one of the key output of a research-based institution like CityU. It is playing not only an important role in raising the ranking and branding of the institution but also as a way to attract talented students and researchers to join the big family. Showcasing our excellent research output and researchers to the public is, therefore, vital to the University.

As a follow-up to our previous article on “A New look of Virtual Desktop Service for Students” (Ref: Network Computing Issue 89 - September 2016), several enhancements had been made on the VDS. In September 2016, 300 VDS concurrent connections were available for use by students and staff, and the virtual desktops environment upgraded to the latest MS Windows version - Windows 10. All VDS connections are equipped with Graphics Processing Units (GPUs) to enable smooth running of graphic intensive programs such as Photoshop and AutoCAD. Altogether, these enhancements have greatly improved the VDS performance and users are reminded on the followings to better their VDS experiences.

/* The following article is extracted from the "Information Security Newsletter" published by the JUCC IS Task Force. */Wireless network (Wi-Fi) is now widely established and utilized at home, offices and everywhere in public areas such as rail stations, streets, and etc. This newsletter provides the technical knowledge of Wi-Fi technologies, relevant threats and countermeasures for building a secure internal Wi-Fi network.

The CityU central web servers (www.cityu.edu.hk and www6.cityu.edu.hk) are load-balanced web farms, which provide high availability services to the communities. In case any server instance of a web farm is unavailable (due to errors or maintenance), other server instances of the same web farm can still serve requests without service interruptions. 

The Policy Concept Windows policy, better known as Group Policy, is a feature of all Microsoft Windows operating systems (…Windows 7, Windows 8.1, Windows 10…) that controls the working environment and behaviour of a system. For example, a policy setting that allows or disallows remote access to computers. Setting up policies, especially those related to security and privacy, is important to manage computers in a safe and secure environment, at both work and home.  

​Massive Open Online Course, MOOC in short, has brought about a revolutionary change to how education can be delivered to learners worldwide. By definition, MOOC is a course with purposes to serve a massive number of distant learners simultaneously via online platforms. It brings a host of opportunities, as well as challenges, to any ambitious universities. It is the best of times for a university to stretch across continents to reach learners from different ethnicities to build its prestige and spread its influence; and for the same reason has made MOOC development highly challenging in terms of instructional designs and assessment methods. As a leading institution for research and professional education in Asia, City University of Hong Kong (CityU) has started its MOOC journey by launching its debut MOOC in September 2016.