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Tips for safe cooperation with the University of Duisburg-Essen

Guidance for secure document handling and collaboration with UDE. Sciebo shares and Sciebo project boxes still work.

Due to a serious cyber attack, the IT infrastructure of the University of Duisburg-Essen has been shut down to a large extent. Since the route of infection is still unclear, there are a few things to keep in mind when working with the UDE.

UDE employees are currently only allowed to use their end devices offline until they have been scanned. This should also apply to visitors from the UDE here at TU Dortmund. Alternatively, private devices could be used. Granting UDE employees access e.g. with Wifi2wifi (Android can do this via hotspot) or Bluetooth tethering should be prohibited!

Dealing with Sciebo

  • Technically less experienced users are strongly advised to pause the synchronization of the affected shared folders in the Sciebo client by removing the checkmark in front of the affected folder.
  • However, in individual cases it can be useful for projects to collect shared work results in a Sciebo project box and thus save them. If the Sciebo client is not used and only web-based work is done in OnlyOffice without synchronizing the files to the local computer, there is no danger.
  • Also binaries and scripts from the UDE should not be executed under any circumstances!

Dealing with Office documents

  • Office files from the UDE should still not be opened as long as the infection path is not known!
  • Do not open old Office attachments .doc .dot .xls etc. under any circumstances, do not open Office files with macros .docm etc. from there under any circumstances!

Dealing with PDF documents

  • PDF documents can also contain potentially very dangerous active components.
  • However, if all exchanged documents are saved according to the PDF A1 standard for long-term archiving, you can rule out the possibility of malware spreading.
  • Use the Sumatra-PDF program for secure viewing of PDF files under Windows.
  • So ask your colleagues in Essen to make their documents available in PDF A1 archiving format if an exchange is absolutely necessary and also use PDF A1 yourself.
  • From Office you can do this directly via Acrobat (must be installed) under "Save as Adobe PDF". Important is the selected option "Create PDF/A 1a 2005 compatible file".
  • If necessary, the SIC team will help you to check PDF documents for harmful content.

Converting Word documents to PDF-A

Information from the UDE

The University of Duisburg Essen has summarized information on the following pages, some of which may also apply to the use of computers from the UDE:

  • Update on terminal devices Imperia, Moodle and more.
  • Dealing with PCs, Laptops, Zoom, VPN and more

Alternatives for collaboration

  • Collaboration in ZOOM with split screens is safe.
  • Careful collaboration in a shared, web-only Sciebo folder is possible. Important: The integrated OnlyOffice must be used without downloading the files. Again, it should be ensured that the folder intended for collaboration is not synchronized via Scieboclient to a TU computer.
  • The safest way for inexperienced Sciebo users is to create a separate new project box for collaboration with UDE colleagues without using the Sciebo client to work purely web-based (i.e. edit the document there by clicking in the Sciebo editor (OnlyOffice) and not download it). If from there urgently slides, Word or Excel data, e.g. for printing locally are needed, one can use the function "Download as" with the selection "PDF", because the Office files are then converted into a harmless PDF. This does not apply to PDF files that are already there directly as PDF and are not converted there (potentially dangerous PDFs, see above).

More information about Sciebo project boxes

More information about Sciebo

 

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