Monday, April 13, 2020

Mathematics announces candidate for dean

A message from the Secretariat.

The nominating committee tasked with selecting the next dean of the Faculty of Mathematics has announced a recommended candidate. The committee unanimously recommends Professor Mark Giesbrecht for a five-year term as dean beginning July 1, 2020.

Professor Giesbrecht completed his BSc at the University of British Columbia and earned both his MSc and PhD in Computer Science from the University of Toronto. He worked at IBM Canada before serving as Assistant Professor at the University of Manitoba and at Western University. He joined the University of Waterloo in 2001 as an Associate Professor.  His service has included a variety of roles within the David R. Cheriton School of Computer Science including as Director (2014-present) and Associate Director (2009-11) and Director of Undergraduate Studies (2002-2005), and also serving as a member of Senate (2016-present).  He is a Distinguished Scientist of the Association of Computing Machinery (ACM) and serves on a number of conference and journal editorial boards, as well as NSERC committees.

The Mathematics community will be given the opportunity to review Professor Giesbrecht’s curriculum vitae and cover letter, and to meet him via online open forum on Tuesday, April 14. Regular Mathematics faculty and staff will then vote on his acceptability as the next Dean of Mathematics.

More information about Professor Giesbrecht, the search process, and opportunities to meet with him are available on the committee website.

Thinking about using Zoom? Consider this message from IST first

A message from Information Systems & Technology (IST).

In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, most University employees are now working from home. Finding the most suitable service(s) to replace our in-person meetings, presentations or lectures is integral to continued collaboration and productivity, and the University has several licensed technologies to support this work.

Individuals may prefer to use a solution not currently licensed or supported by the University, including Zoom (a video communications tool). You may be aware of the increased scrutiny Zoom has received over the last few weeks, highlighting several issues related to privacy and security. This has included reports of racist Zoom-bombing during a dissertation and a 3rd party security/privacy review of Zoom identifying shortcomings. If you are choosing to use Zoom, please carefully consider the following:

1. The software itself has had several security vulnerabilities, some revealed last year and some more recently. Every piece of software has security vulnerabilities and Zoom has proven to be no different. It is important to keep all software (including Zoom) patched and up to date.
2. There have been media reports of the company sharing certain data they collect from meeting participants with third parties. Some of these issues have already been fixed, and others are in the process of being fixed. The company has released a statement saying that they have never sold such information.
3. Users of the software may be susceptible to having their meetings interrupted by individuals or groups with malicious intent. Advice on preventing this interruption (dubbed “Zoom-bombing”) is below and should be considered and applied to any other online presentation software.
4. Zoom does not make use of end-to-end encryption. That is to say, while communications between various clients and Zoom are encrypted, those communications are potentially visible to Zoom employees. While this is true of many platforms, it underlines the importance of the service's privacy policies and practices.

The Keep Learning and Staying connected while working remotely sites provides advice on our recommended tools for use in teaching, thesis defences, and meetings.  If strict confidentiality is a primary concern for conversations, please contact IST for additional advice.

Preventing Zoom-Bombing

Advice on avoiding unpleasant intrusions includes:

1. For each public meeting, use a unique ID - do not use your PMI (Personal Meeting ID).
2. Do not share Zoom links publicly.
3. If possible, require a meeting password.
4. It is possible to create a waiting room, where people who want to enter the meeting must wait until the presenter admits them.
5. Do not allow anyone other than the host(s) to share their screen.
6. Once your meeting has started, if you can tell when everyone who needs to join the meeting has joined, lock the meeting.
7. Force mute participants once they have joined the meeting. It is also possible to disable participant cameras, if required.
8. Consider restricting the chat to prevent use of animated GIFs and similar files by disabling file transfers.

Note that only paid accounts can create invite-only meetings.

References

• CBC story on Zoom bombing
• Another CBC story on Zoom bombing
• PC Magazine story on how to avoid or prevent Zoom bombing
• Verge article on the webserver component and Apple's response
• Zoom's "Message to our Users" dated 1 April 2020
• FBI Warns of Teleconferencing and Online Classroom Hijacking During COVID-19 Pandemic
• Citizen Lab - A Quick Look at the Confidentiality of Zoom Meetings
• Dispelling Zoom Bugbears: What You Need to Know About the Latest Zoom Vulnerabilities

Another round of Good Buddies of the University

"Oreo is the black and white kitty," writes Nancy Corbett, executive assistant to the Nobel Laureate. "And Pepper is the black kitty who is the most devious."

"Here's my new co-worker Tommy, keeping a watchful eye on me as I read the Bulletin," writes Adrienne Dwyer of Legal and Immigration Services.

"I thought I’d share a picture of my one and only roommate while we’re all working from home," writes Charlene Schumm, director of scheduling & examinations in the Registrar's Office. "It took my little buddy Myah a few days to realize that I hadn’t set up shop to provide her with a new play area!"

"Here are my coworkers watching the street and yelling at everyone to “STAY HOME!”, or the furry one, at least, as she still hasn’t grasped the concept that people are allowed to walk outside while physical distancing," writes Student Success Officer Priscila Carrara.

"Paws is having a difficult time transitioning to our work from home routine, considering she just started her role as my service dog in the office earlier in March. She sometimes thinks her “service” is to warm my chair during breaks."

"This is Pip (dark grey) and Licorne (light grey)," writes Jennifer Murray, development officer, annual giving in the Office of Advancement. "They are in charge of transcription, however they have the uncanny abilty to find the Sleep button instead."