ICT PLANNING, SECURITY & TRAINING DIVISION 2007

Ejs Training was conducted by PTM on 16-17 July 2008 in which the instructor was Associate Professor Dr. Fu-Kwun Hwang, a lecturer from Taiwan.

Easy Java Simulations (Ejs) is a software tool designed for the creation of computer simulations. It is designed for science teacher (not for professional programmer). What user need to do is supply information about science model (define variable, provide initial condition- initial value for variables, giving evolution condition -how variable change with time or constrains between variables), Ejs will create java applet/ html page for your simulation.

Dr  Hwang is an expert in Ejs  and he has created more than 100 simulation objects in his website at  www.phy.ntnu.edu.tw/ntnujava/index.php.

This course is an advanced course of the “Computer Animation using EJS” course organized by PTM which was held on 25-26 April 2007 and 11-12 June 2007. Computer simulations will enhance the teaching and learning method in University of Malaya especially in Physics and Mathematics.

The  organization of the course  is consistent with UM mission to upgrade ICT usage in teaching and learning in which PTM’s role is to provide ICT service and facilities for teaching and learning in the campus.

To improve the university’s distance learning facilities, the management had approved to upgrade a lecture hall to be equipped with video conferencing equipment. The C1 Seminar Room, Faculty of Science had been chosen for this purpose.

The project was started on April 12, 2006, there were a series of discussion and meetings to determine the design and equipment required for the hall.

The project was completed in August 27, 2006 in time for the targeted date on August 28, 2006, which was visit by delegates form Kyoto and TsingHua Universities.

E-Lecture is an international collaborative project among 3 universities namely Kyoto University of Japan, Tsinghua University of China and University of Malaya.  The method used to share lecture is by using video conferencing technology in which lecturers from each university take turns to provide lectures. The topic is on Environment Science which included Air, Water and Solid Pollution, Management and Control of Environment. The 2007 E-Lecture project is continuity from 2006 E-Lecture Project.

Video Conferencing required main equipment consists of Video Conferencing Set, camera, LCD Projector and screen. Video conferencing also required stable network connection and identification of the IP address.

In order for the project to be succesfully implemented, the three universities have to  provide high capacity network connection to ensure that the audio and video is successfully transmitted.

The E-Lecture was conducted in Video Conferencing Room (formerly known as Seminar Room C1), Faculty of Science.

Centre of Poverty and Development Study (CPDS), University of Malaya with School of International Public Affairs (SIPA), Columbia University, United States of America

CPDS had appointed Prof. Jaffrey Sachs from Columbia University as the Holder of  Kursi Profesor Diraja Ungku Aziz. CPDS  will  communicate with  Prof. Jaffrey thru video conference to report and discuss about the status of the projects which were handled by CPDS.

PTM provided the video conferencing set for CPDS. PTM also provide  technical support such as testing before the actual video conferencing session to ensure that there is no interruption during the actual event. The audio and video also has to be transmitted continuously.
 
Starting in 2008, CPDS will conduct classes with 11 universities in the world using online application; Acrobat Connect Professional as a medium for the video conferencing  for the learning session organized by Columbia University. PTM will provide technical support such as camera connection, internet connection and other technical support required to ensure the classes will take place as scheduled. The classes will be held every Tuesday starting from 22 January 2008 untill 29 April 2008.

Video Conferencing Testing

There were several tests conducted through out the year:

- PTM with Tandberg (German)
- PTM with Tandberg (Malaysia)
- PTM with Universiti Kyoto, Jepun
- PTM  with Universiti Tsinghua, China
- PTM with Columbia University, New York.

The committe had drafted technical specification for the tender document and hopefully the HPC Project will start in June 2008.

1 Frontend
Xeon 2.8 Ghz Dual Processor with
Hyper Threading (2-4 CPUs)
4 GB RAM, 146 GB Harddrive

8 Computational Ndes
Xeon 2.8 Ghz Dual Processor with
Hyper Threading (16-32 CPUs)
32 GB RAM, 1314 GB Harddrive

COMBI Cluster – location at Institute of Biology Science

1 Frontend
AMD Sempron™  2.0 MHz 64-bit Processor 
Hyper Transport TechNlogy
256 MB RAM, 250 GB Harddrive

8 Computational Ndes
AMD Sempron™ 2.0 x 8 MHz 64-bit Processor
Hyper Transport TechNlogy
2048 MB RAM, 10 x 8 GB Harddrive

Perdana Cluster (PTM) –  location at Pusat Teknologi Maklumat.

1 Fontend
Intel® Pentium® 4  2.6 MHz Processor,
512 MB RAM, 40 GB Harddrive

4 Computational Ndes
Intel® Pentium® 4 2.6 Mhz x 4 Processors,
1024 MB RAM, 160 GB Harddrive

1. FSKTM Cluster – location at Faculty of Computer Science and Information Technology
2. Virtual Reality Lab
3. Freedom Cluster
   

The Webcasting project was started at the end of year 2005; the first broadcasting on the internet was on January 12, 2006 with QAMU’s event “Urusan Dokumen”. Webcasting can be viewed at http://ict.um.edu.my/webcasting/index.php

After several sessions of webcasting successfully accomplished, PTM  had decided to make webcasting as compulsary for all the main events in University of Malaya.

Enterprise antivirus monitoring began in the month of January 2007. Through the monitoring, records related to the number of computers received update, number of computers infected with virus as well as the effectiveness of antivirus policy in cleaning the virus infections, were recorded everyday. Computers with recurring infections were notified, via email, to the respective PTj ICT representatives for virus cleaning. Below were the objectives which had been achieved through the monitoring:

1. Status and the number of computers received update were known. The information was important because failure of a computer to receive the latest updates would expose the computer to new virus infections.


2. Number of virus infection incidents was available. Information about the computer with the highest virus load was also known. This information was utilised for the targeted AV (AntiVirus) cleaning and prevention on the affected computer.


3. The effectiveness of AV policies in combating virus infections. A properly configured antivirus is capable of self-cleaning without the intervention of human.

ICT Planning, Security and Training Division had received two security incident reports i.e.  IPTAOSS  web site intrusions and phonography e-mail spam.

• IPTAOSS Web Site Intrusion

The first incident of the intrusions occured in November 12, 2006. The incident can be categorised as  SQL Injection attack in which data in one of the database tables had been altered. The following were the recovery and security measures taken on the server:

1. Installed the latest version of Apache, PHP and MySQL.
2. Installed built-in firewall which only allows access to Secure Shell (SSH)  and web site only.
3. Provided passsword authentication for IPTAOSS applications to access MySQL database.
4. Installed Tripwire software to monitor access to server files and configured Tripwire to send e-mail alerts of any changes in file status or the file itself.
5. Launched follow-up security scan to detect all vulnerabilities in the server and to ensure that all weaknesses were closed.
6. Rebuilt database index, using command “REPAIR TABLE”,  to increase the access speed to the database.

Despite of all the efforts, however, the web site was hacked again on Februry 14 2007. After an  investigation, the vulnerability was traced to the software used to develop the web site, PHP Nuke. Apparently, the old version of the PHP Nuke was vulnerable to SQL Injection attacks. Regarding this matter, Collaborative and Communicative Applications Division, PTM had taken the initiatives to redevelop the application and to replace the old application, which was problems ladened.

• Phonography E-mail Spam

On November 21, 2007, Pusat Teknologi Maklumat (PTM) had received reports from a few lecturers of Fakulti Sastera dan Sains Sosial on the matter related to the phonography e-mail scam purportedly sent from the sender norlidah.ahmad@yahoo.com. Regarding this matter, PTM had taken a few  measures to deal with the case, as follows:

1. Checked log of e-mails sent by norlidah.ahmad@yahoo.com. On checking, it was found that the offending e-mail was sent to 9 users of UMMail. An  ensuring e-mail was sent to the 9 victims of the e-mail scam, to enquire further whether they knew the spammer. However, only 3 recipients replied to the enquiry saying that  all of them did not know the spammer.
   
   
2. Blocked sender norlidah.ahmad@yahoo.com from sending  e-mails to the users of UMMail from November 22, 2007 3.00 pm onwards.
   
   
3. Contacted Cik Norlidah Ahmad of Pejabat Dekan Fakulti Sastera & Sains Sosial, who was suspected to be the owner of the spammer e-mail account, norlidah.ahmad@yahoo.com. However, she denied any knowledge of the e-mail account. Therefore, the possibility of the yahoo e-mail account was hacked did not arise. Hence, the possibility of identity abuse was high.
   
   
4. Analysed the header of the spammer e-mail. It was known that 'norlidah ahmad' sent the offending  e-mail  through TM Net Streamyx account.
   
   
5. Reported to MyCert (Malaysian Computer Emergency Response Team) for further investigation.

Vi) MyCERT had taken measures to restrict all e-mails from the account       norlidah.ahmad@yahoo.com at the Jaring gateway. As the result, all e-mails from the account are prevented from reaching the UM users.

PTM had become the intermediary and medium of communication between University of Malaya and Malaysian Computer Emergency Response Team (MyCERT) for managing security incident reports involving computers from University of Malaya. Listed below are the percentage breakdowns of the cases received and solved from the month of January to December 2007:

Below is the number of reports received by category: