From: Ravi Ravishanker, CIO & Associate Provost
To: All Fac/Staff
Subject: Two updates happening on Monday, July 31, 2023
Duo Two Factor Authentication will be required while establishing a VPN connection
We wrote to you earlier about this topic and said this will be implemented on July 17th. Due to technical difficulties, we were unable to complete it until now and this will be going into effect at 8 AM on Monday, July 31st. As a reminder, there is no need for you to do anything different in terms of connecting to VPN. Instead of the username and password prompts you are used to, a new Duo window will popup asking you to authenticate using your email address and password and confirm on your phone. Please note that what gets promoted and whether you need to confirm depends on your Duo setting.
Here is what we sent out with the initial explanation for making this change:
As you know, during the past few years, we have introduced the need to login through Duo for most of our systems, including web applications. This provides an added layer of security that is much needed in the current environment where cyber intrusions have become a daily occurrence. An important gateway into some of the protected data from off campus is VPN (Virtual Private Network). Whereas VPN itself provides strong security, logging into it remains vulnerable. Anyone whose password has been stolen can be used by a hacker to gain access to our network and protected data. For this reason, we need to add the two factor authentication (2FA) to VPN connections.
If you have any issues connecting to the VPN after this is in place, please contact the Help Desk at helpdesk@wellesley.edu or 781-283-3333 so we can assist you.
Are you curious when your college owned computer is up for replacement?
Simply type “Computers” in the Search bar at the top of Workday and select Computers and Tablets. As of Monday, July 31st, you will see information about the college provided devices registered under your name. If you are eligible for a replacement you will see a green check mark in the first column; if you are not yet eligible it will be blank. If you are eligible, you should also receive an automated reminder, approximately a month before your eligibility date. You can schedule your replacement by sending an email to the LTS Help Desk (helpdesk@wellesley.edu). For more information regarding hardware replacement, please see the LTS Hardware Replacement Policy.
