Access to email, internet, portal and SMS: Update 31 May 2018

Most people should now be able to access their work emails and other systems from their personal smart phones, laptop or home PC. If not, get in contact with the ICT Support team on 0800 374 843 as the fix needs to be done on a one-on-one basis.

The past few months have been a frustrating time for everyone and we again apologise for the time it’s taken to sort things out.

The issue came about because a phishing email tricked some people into inadvertently giving away their FENZ network log in and other security credentials.

To prevent hackers from using these details to log into our network, we had to act quickly and shut down our most vulnerable entry point to the network – email. Unfortunately, it also meant people who used non-FENZ issued cell phones and other mobile devices to access their work emails were also shut out. By taking this immediate action however, we were able to prevent a major breach of our system.

The ICT Helpdesk team are working through the backlog of Helpdesk calls. This has taken longer than expected as the team has to tailor the fix to each person’s individual phone model, internet provider, etc. Again we ask for your patience, and to keep logging your ICT problems. We can’t fix what we don’t know.

We have spent a lot of time, energy and money on getting people back onto the network, balancing giving people access with keeping our systems secure. We want to ensure that only people who should use our system, are using it.

We have been rolling out Microsoft Office 365 and Windows 10 nationally over the past few months which will provide us with greater mobility and security. However these systems are only as secure as the people who use them. This is why we require people to login to the network, and to keep their login details secure. Essentially, we have all got keys to a very large house with some very valuable items in it but, if even one person to leaves their keys in the front door or on a cafe table, we have to change all the locks. This is what we've done.

This experience highlights how dependent we all are on information and communications technology (ICT) to do our jobs. We have now invested even more in making our systems safer so that when (not if) an attempt to breach our network happens again, there is less impact on you.

We are also working to improve our support service. This includes getting more people on the ground and we’re looking to ways of ensuring issues get resolved on your first call to the help desk.

This is also a reminder that we are all responsible for ensuring our network remains secure – be data smart and keep your log in details and passwords to yourself!

The online Information Security module on Learning Station is a fun, quick way to get up to speed with what we require of you (go to: Portal > Tools > Applications > Learning Station > Home > Information Security Awareness - Online) and the Netsafe Guide(external link) 2018 has some good suggestions for how to keep safe online, at home and at work.