Former head of the CIA General Michael Hayden has signed on as a member of a new Georgetown project that seeks to use law, policy, and technology as responses to the issue of cybersecurity, the Office of Communications reports.

He’s already helped design a February 16 exercise called Cyber ShockWave, “an exercise that brings together a bipartisan group of former senior administration and national security officials playing the roles of Cabinet members responding to a simulated cyberspace attack.”

The Los Angeles Times covered the exercise—which simulated a viral attack that debilitated millions of cell-phones, took down the Internet, and knocked out large swaths of the American power grid—and reports that participants had some jarring, if Hollywoodesque responses to the simulation. The dozen or so participants, former White House advisers and other top officials, it says, considered “putting the army in American cities, … nationalizing industries, rationing fuel and snatching suspects overseas.” Yikes.

“General Hayden is one of the most respected experts in national security and intelligence,” College Dean Chester Gillis said in Blue and Gray about Hayden’s adviser position. “As a senior adviser to Georgetown’s cyberproject, he will provide invaluable guidance and experience as we work to understand and tackle some of the most pressing issues around cybersecurity.”

Photo from Flickr user matthewbradley used under a Creative Commons license.

Georgetown Provost Jim O’Donnell is ever diligent in his (rather unpopular) efforts to keep Georgetown despite the record snowfalls that have forced campus to close for three days in a row. In an e-mail he just sent to Georgetown faculty, he has provided a link to a website created by the Georgetown Center for New Designs in Learning and Scholarship that has information and suggestions about how to keep in touch with students—even hold classes—via the Internet.

“Make the Most of the Closure,” the website reads on its main page. While some of its suggestions are pretty basic—e-mail students to review what would have been covered in class—there are instructions on how to hold digital class using the electronic blackboard on Blackboard, how to arrange online quizzes and exams, how to use audio conferencing to hold remote office hours with students, or how to use it to hold class remotely.

In addition Diana Owen’s real-time blog class, the website reveals that other professors have been holding class, too: so far, it boasts the story of physics professor Earl Skelton, who has “held class” every session despite the snow over the last few days.

“It’s still snowing,” O’Donnell wrote in his e-mail, which he shared with the Voice. “We don’t yet know just how much of this week’s face-to-face instruction we will lose, but we’ve lost a lot already. We are focused on safety as first priority and academic progress a very close second.”

In the e-mail, he also says he hopes to have an announcement ready about “tomorrow’s plans” by early evening.

Read his full letter after the jump.

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Maybe none of you liked Provost Jim O’Donnell’s suggestion that Georgetown professors find creative ways to hold class on a snow day, but Communications, Culture and Technology Professor Diana Owen did. When she read O’Donnell’s e-mail encouraging professors to use technology to continue teaching, Owen told Vox in an e-mail, she was intrigued rather than annoyed.

So although she was holed up in her home in Maryland on Tuesday morning, unable to get to campus and surrounded by downed trees and powerlines, Owen still managed to hold her twenty-person, 10:15 a.m. “Media and Politics” seminar using a real-time blog.

“Within minutes, students were generating thoughtful, quality posts that drew upon course readings, previous discussions, current media developments, and their own insights,” Owen wrote in her e-mail. “I felt more like a participant in the discussion than a teacher telling things to students.”

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We know you got three shots of espresso. It’s on tape.

This finals season, wouldn’t it be nice to know that the line at Midnight Mug went out the door before giving up a coveted spot on Lau 2?

Students at North Carolina State University enjoy this very privilege thanks to a website the university library created. It allows users to access a livestream of the library café via mobile device so that they can monitor lines. Students can also browse the library catalog and search for available public computers.

A feature that will allow students to book study rooms and request books right on their phones will be available in the future. The application is not limited to iPhones, either, so even those who don’t worship at the feet of Apple can reserve books right from their phone.

Sounds like a great program, but of course, Georgetown should focus on getting full wireless coverage before it takes that big leap into Big Brotheresque mobile shortcuts.

Via The Chronicle of Higher Education’s Wired Campus blog.

Photo from Flickr user Travelin’ Librarian used under a Creative Commons license.

Nick Troiano was unimpressed by UIS’s idea of up-to-date technology.

Adam Talbot discovered the Advisory Neighborhood Commission’s real raison d‘être.

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Someday…

Way back in October, the University announced its intention to scrap its dated GUMail system for students and switch to Google Apps for Education. They predicted the move would be done by January or February. Everyone rejoiced!

But then January and February rolled around and… nothing. When we checked in on with them at the end of March, UIS Director Beth Ann Bergsmark said that since students will be keeping their georgetown.edu addresses, mail will still have to be rerouted through a directory service and UIS had to make upgrades to facilitate this.

Technical set-backs aside, though, Bergsmark said:

We do project having Gmail ready by the end of the school year [so] graduating seniors will be able to move to their Gmail accounts before they lose their old … accounts.

Well, here’s hoping that if four years at Georgetown have taught you anything, seniors, it’s not to trust the timetables you get from the administration.

Here’s what University Spokesperson Julie Green-Bataille had to say now about the switch:

[The] latest estimate is that the transition for students will take place after graduation, so current seniors will not be included, but will be able to forward their Georgetown email address as many already do.

Sorry, Class of 2009, hope you didn’t have your heart set on Gmail as your graduation gift…

Eat it, Conficker

This evening, UIS sent out an email warning students about the much-hyped internet worm known as Conficker. Techies worldwide fear that this bug, which is really, really well designed and may “go live” tomorrow and make a lot of trouble using it 10 million computer botnet.

In its email, UIS suggested making sure your Windows updates are on and that you enable your firewall. What’s more, they say,

“The University Information Security Office has taken steps to identify vulnerable systems on the Georgetown Campus and has made efforts to notify these individuals to update security patches provided by Microsoft.”

Sounds like a “God help us all” scenario, doesn’t it?

But UIS is actually on the right track, says Ned Moran, a computer science professor who teaches a class on Internet Security at Georgetown (full disclosure: I took the class last semester). According to Moran, running anti-virus software and always making sure you run system updates on your computer as soon as they’re available is the best way to proactively combat infections.

If you suspect infection anyway (say your virus scan software is shutting down as soon as it begins to run), you can scan your computer with tools developed by the Honeynet Project and remove them with software created by Symantec.

As for the doomsday warnings that the creators of Conficker are bent on wreaking havoc with their bug, Moran is less than concerned:

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Registering late? No problem. Click on “available seating” and you know what you can and can’t have.

MyAccess only gives you the crappy course catalog, which generally tells you nothing since many professors don’t post syllabi (or haven’t updated them since they started teaching). The Theatre and Performance Studies department (among others) isn’t even listed at all.

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Looks like GW’s big change from university-run mail to Gmail isn’t going to be entirely painless. Rather than keep the original @gwu.edu address, GW has added @gwmail to the front. So now student emails are student@gwmail.gwu.edu, which is an awful hassle to type.

Have they forgotten that brevity is the soul of wit and the friend of mailer daemons?

If you’re like more than 50 percent of our readers, you’re visiting this blog using Firefox. Good for you! For those of you who are still using Safari or Internet Explorer, there’s never been a better time to switch. Mozilla, Firefox’s parent group, has released Firefox Campus Edition, a copy of Firefox bundled with add-ons designed to appeal to college students.

The add-ons (music plugin Foxytunes, note-taking plugin Zotero, and social media plug-in Stumbleupon) are good, but they aren’t the best on offer for add-on-savvy college students. Here’s a rundown on the plug-ins in the pack and the superior alternatives. Read the rest of this entry »