News

Action Required: Review Infrequently Used UF-Owned Computers

Published:July 23rd, 2026
Category:Collegewide, Featured, FrontPage

UF Information Technology (UFIT) is implementing changes designed to improve the security and management of the University’s computing environment. As part of this effort, inactive and outdated directory records for computers and other devices will be removed on an ongoing basis. These changes are being implemented centrally by UFIT as part of a university-wide effort to improve security and reduce stale directory records.

For most users, this change will have little or no impact. However, devices that have not connected to University services for an extended period of time may require additional assistance from Engineering IT before they can be used again.

Examples may include:

  • Computers that are kept in storage and only used occasionally
  • Research or laboratory systems that are powered on infrequently
  • Equipment used seasonally or for specific projects
  • Systems that are routinely operated off-campus and rarely connect to University services

If you are responsible for a University-owned computer or device that may fall into one of these categories, please contact your local IT support team so we can review it and help ensure it remains accessible when needed.

Going forward, university-managed devices that are intended to remain in service should be powered on and connected to University services periodically. Devices that remain disconnected for extended periods may require additional work before they can be used again. 

Devices that support research projects, field deployments, seasonal operations, emergency response activities, or other infrequently performed functions may be particularly affected if they remain disconnected from University services for extended periods. If these systems are not identified, reviewed, and mitigated, you may lose the ability to login to or access data on affected systems, with the possibility of locally stored data becoming permanently inaccessible. If a computer or device is expected to remain unused or disconnected for an extended period, please contact your local IT support team before placing it into storage so we can discuss options and help avoid future access issues.

If you are unsure whether a device may be affected, please contact your department’s IT support staff for guidance.

Thank you for helping us maintain a secure and reliable computing environment.

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Temporary Impact to Engineering IT Support Availability

Published:March 18th, 2026
Category:Collegewide

Engineering IT is currently participating in a university‑wide IT initiative focused on improving how staff computers are managed and secured. If you’ve heard that the university is implementing Microsoft InTune, that is what we are now involved in.

As part of this initiative, Engineering IT staff are engaged in daily workshops and follow‑up activities from mid‑March through April 2026. This work is necessary in order to train our staff and configure InTune to manage our staff computers. However, during this time it will temporarily impact our ability to provide routine IT support at normal response times.

What This Means for You

During this period:

  • Response times for non‑urgent IT requests may be longer than usual
  • Requests or project work may be delayed
  • Critical issues—such as outages, security concerns, or classroom‑impacting problems—will continue to be prioritized and addressed as quickly as possible

What Is Not Changing

  • This effort is currently focused on IT training and configuration
  • Faculty, staff, and student computers are not changing at this time
  • Teaching, research, and day‑to‑day computing activities will continue as normal

Following the conclusion of this engagement, Engineering IT will begin internal planning and then move forward with a slow, methodical onboarding of staff computers only, in alignment with UFIT requirements. While this work will improve our long‑term management and support capabilities, it is being designed to minimize disruption and unneeded changes to our staff.

We appreciate your patience during this time and thank you for your understanding as we complete this work to improve the long‑term reliability, security, and sustainability of IT services in the College of Engineering.

If you have an urgent or time‑sensitive issue, please continue to contact Engineering IT through our normal support channels.

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Jabber Is Being Retired on January 30, 2026

Published:December 4th, 2025
Category:Collegewide

UPDATE: Due to concerns about staffing during the holiday period, UFIT has changed the date of the end of life of the Jabber service. It will now be turned off on January 30th, 2026 instead of December 19, 2025. UFIT would still like you to migrate to Webex as soon as possible and not wait until Jabber is turned off.

What’s happening?

UF is retiring the Cisco Jabber software-based phone service and updating it with a new client. All Jabber softphones will be disabled after January 30, 2026. Users who currently make and receive UF business calls using Jabber on a computer or mobile device should transition to Webex, UF’s new softphone client.

Who is affected?

This change impacts only current Jabber users (people who use Jabber for their UF business number on desktop or mobile). If you do not use Jabber today, no action is required.

Which client can I use?

UFIT/Telecommunications has activated current Jabber users in Webex only for the same client type they currently use in Jabber:

  • If you were only using Jabber on mobile, you are currently activated for Webex mobile only.
  • If you were using Jabber on desktop, you are activated for Webex desktop.
  • If you want to use both desktop and mobile and were only previously activated for one, you must submit a ticket to the UFIT Communications Support Team to request activation on the other device type.

What do Jabber users need to do?

Since you are already activated for Jabber’s replacement, Webex, you only need to switch which application you are using for phone services:

  1. Install Webex (desktop or mobile):
    • On managed Windows/Mac computers: open Software Center (Windows) or UF Self Service (MacOS) to install Webex. See the KB articles linked below.
    • On mobile: install Webex from either the Apple App Store (iOS) or Google Play (Android). Avoid “Webex Meetings” – you want the Webex app used for phone services
  2. Sign-in: Open Webex and sign-in with your [Gatorlink]@ufl.edu email address (e.g., albert.gator@ufl.edu). You will be directed to the UF login page to authenticate.
  3. Close Jabber: When you are comfortable with the new client (or after December 19th), quit using Jabber and make sure it no longer runs. If you have administrative permissions, you can uninstall Jabber; otherwise, configure Jabber to not auto-start or submit a ticket to local IT to uninstall it.
  4. Keep Webex running: To receive calls to your UF business number, leave the Webex app running.

Note on 911 calling: During Fall 2025, Webex routes all 911 calls to Alachua County regardless of the device’s location. Please use a physical phone or your mobile phone for emergency calls. UF is introducing enhanced 911 capabilities for softphones in January 2026.

Not using a softphone yet? You can request one.

If you are a faculty or staff member who doesn’t have a UF software-based phone but would like one, and you have a UF phone line assigned to you, you can open a support request to the UFIT Communications Support team. At the bottom of this ticket screen, select Jabber as the Telephony Request Type (they currently do not have Webex listed). Make sure to include:

  • In the body of the ticket, mention that you know Jabber is EOL but you don’t see Webex in the request type selection and want to be Webex activated.
  • Your Gatorlink username
  • Your assigned Phone Number. At this time, only do this if you currently have an assigned line that shows your name on the headset.
  • Client Device Type in the dropdown provided.
  • You can specify in the body of the ticket if you’d like the presence of other lines in your client (e.g., you are part of an office that has an unassigned offline line that is named after the office and is usually answered by a pool of people).

Help yourself: Knowledgebase articles and other references

Most users can self-install on managed computers and their own mobile devices. Follow these knowledgebase articles for installation and other setup:

UFIT/Telecommunications has also provided the following resources:

If you need assistance or prefer IT to perform the install, please contact your local IT Support office or submit a ticket via the College Engineering IT Support website.

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Default Sharing Options for Dropbox and Google Drive to be Updated

Published:April 25th, 2025
Category:Collegewide

UF Information Technology is implementing new measures to the default sharing settings across UF’s collaboration platforms to improve the security of shared files and links.

In order to allow more time to adjust previously existing links, the previously announced changes to the default sharing settings in UF’s Dropbox and Google environment are postponed.

More information about this will be shared by UFIT here.

To compare the various cloud storage services offered by UF, see https://it.ufl.edu/cloud/.

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Prohibited Applications List Grows

Published:April 25th, 2025
Category:Collegewide

To abide by state and federal rules, UF closely monitors the Florida Department of Management Services’ Prohibited Applications on Government Devices List. Previous applications blocked by this have included TikTok and Deepslate. Thirteen apps have recently been added and are now being blocked at UF’s border:

  • Rednote
  • Lemon8
  • Xender
  • Baidu Search
  • Baidu Maps
  • UC Browser
  • WPS Office
  • Moomoo
  • Tiger Brokers
  • VMate
  • WeBull
  • WeChat Pay
  • CapCut

To abide by Florida Statute, UF is required to block all prohibited applications from public access on any network and virtual private network that it owns, operates, or maintains and to restrict access to any prohibited applications on government-issued devices. As such, UFIT will be blocking access to these sites and services at the network layer.

If you are using and/or have installed any of these apps, or any other on the Prohibited Applications on Government Devices List, on a university-owned mobile device or computer, you must cease using it and remove/uninstall it from your device. If you need assistance, please contact your local IT support.

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Upcoming Default Sharing Change for OneDrive, Teams, and Sharepoint

Published:December 20th, 2024
Category:Collegewide

UFIT will be making changes on Feburary 4th, 2025 to default sharing options for Office365. This will include sharing files in OneDrive, Teams, and Sharepoint Online. On February 4th, 2025, UFIT will change the default settings for sharing files to share with “Specific people” and remove the “Share with anyone” option. At that point, the share link for anything “Shared with anyone” will be removed.

You’ll still be able to share with people outside of UF, however. To do this, you will be required to enter their email address when you share the file. Those people will then have ‘guest’ access to the file. Guest access links expire after 30 days (but could be made to expire sooner by you). Guests will also have to authenticate with a Microsoft generated verification code and reauthenticate after 5 days.

From our internal testing and understanding, this should only impact items that are truly shared with anyone. Unfortunately, however, we’ve found that even when you think you purposefully shared with specific people, the share link was actually created with the ‘Share with anyone’ permission instead. This is pretty much items that were uploaded to Microsoft Teams chats or items uploaded to SharePoint from the Outlook attachment interface (where it offers to upload your attachment to SharePoint and share it instead of attaching a copy). There could be other circumstances that also cause this behaviour.

As a result, this will likely impact more items than you think. There is a way to run a sharing report to summarize items you’ve shared and how. Running the sharing report is explained in our KB article: How do I see what files are shared, and to whom, in my OneDrive? Look for anything with a value of “Anyone” in the “Link Type” column of the report.

When I ran the report for myself, I had 748 items with 467 items having “Shared with Anyone” links.

If there are any changes to UFIT’s intended settings change for this, we’ll update this article.

UFIT has published additional information about this change at https://cloud.it.ufl.edu/m365-default-sharing/

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Unsolicited Flash Drives Being Delivered Via Mail

Published:December 3rd, 2024
Category:Collegewide

It has been reported that Engineering faculty have received unsolicited flash drives via mail. This may or may not be followed by direct emails. While it is unknown what these contain it is best to assume that these  are targeted attempts to get you to reveal personal information and/or install spyware/ransomware on your computers.

Please use secure computing guidelines and never plug in any USB drives, neither found nor delivered randomly (even if it has a fancy presentation).

In 2022 the FBI issued several warnings that hackers were sending malicious USB thumb drives via mail to companies hoping that recipients would use them and hence infect their computers and networks. At that time a hacker group, FIN7, was targeting communications companies and the USB drives contained auto-execute scripts and tools that would install ransomware which rendered the computer unusable. This mailware-by-mail campaign happens periodically and depends on our guard being down due to attention being given to more sophisticated attacks. So, please use this as a reminder and warning to be leary of random items like this.

If you do receive one of these drives, please let the Engineering IT Support office in your department know. They serve as the Information Security Manager (ISM) for your department and can report the incident and either provide the drive to the UF Information Security & Compliance office or properly dispose of it.

Additionally, remember that UF’s Mobile Computing and Storage Devices policy requires encryption of these devices if you have one of your own.

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UF Moves To Proximity Readers

Published:August 24th, 2023
Category:Collegewide

At the end of last month, various Engineering Building Operations Listservs were sent information about UF’s plans to replace door access control card swipes with contactless, proximity readers. To open doors with these new proximity readers, you either need the new GatorOne ID or a Mobile ID (with a compatible smartphone).

Information about the new IDs can be found on the Business Services website at https://businessservices.ufl.edu/services/gator-1-card/. This includes hours and locations of GatorOne offices, training videos, and FAQs. A summary of the pertinent information is below.

Getting a New GatorOne ID

If you still have the old format GatorOne ID and you want to upgrade to the newer format, sign-in to the https://my.bsd.ufl.edu/ portal and request a new ID. Faculty and Staff will receive their first, new-format GatorOne ID without being charged (after that, it is $15 per card). In this process, you will have the option of uploading a photo or having one taken at the ID Card Office. Additionally, faculty and staff requests must be authorized by departmental authorizers. This happens automatically and usually quite quickly during business hours. You will get an email from the Business Services website when you can visit the ID Card Office to get your ID.

Old GatorOne Format
Older format GatorOne ID		New GatorOne Format
New GatorOne Card


The new GatorOne ID does not support card swipe. If you still have access in areas that depend on GatorCard swipe, do not replace your ID yet (or, at least, make sure you keep your old ID).

Additionally, when requesting the new ID, make sure to indicate that you need the card to support the new contactless, proximity readers.

Activating a Mobile ID

If your existing GatorOne ID is still in good shape, the GatorOne Office would prefer you to activate a Mobile ID to interact with the proximity readers (especially if you still need to use the card swipe in areas that have not yet been upgraded since the new card does not support swipe). Information about the Mobile ID is available at https://businessservices.ufl.edu/mobile-gator-one/. Essentially, download the “Transact eAccounts” app from your smartphone’s Appstore (its icon is pictured to the left), add a new account associated with the University of Florida (you will be directed to the UF login page to authenticate), and add then add your account to your Apple/Google/Samsung wallet.


People that have issues adding the Mobile ID to their wallet can usually correct them by uploading a new photo on the BSD website.  Additionally, we have heard that it can take up to 24 hours for the Mobile ID activation sync through university systems. If, after 24 hours you still have no access, we have seen uploading a new photo using the BSD portal corrects this issue (again, you may need to wait for the new photo to be added to your account and sync across UF systems).

Using a Mobile ID to Open a Door

After you have successfully added your Mobile ID to your phone’s wallet, using the ID to open a door is rather simple.  Make sure that NFC is enabled on your smartphone, unlock your phone, and place the phone near the reader (you do not need to open the Wallet or Transact eAccounts Apps). If everything works correctly, your phone should briefly flash your Mobile ID (making a tone) and the door should unlock.  You can recognize that the door is temporarily unlocked because the flashing red light on the reader (indicating it is locked) will flash green.

Questions

If you are still having issues, your local IT can try to answer questions and assist. However, calling the GatorOne office directly will be your best option:

GatorOne Office UF Bookstore & Welcome Center 1900 Museum Road (352) 392-8343 gator1card@bsd.ufl.edu

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Hurricane Ian Resources and Preparedness

Published:September 26th, 2022
Category:Collegewide

Once again UF is in the path of a hurricane. Whether it be a hurricane or tropical storm as it reaches the Gainesville area, the precautions we take will be the same and should be familiar from past storms.

The most likely issues we will experience during this event will be power-related (surges, brownouts, and/or outages). Some low-lying areas may also be subject to flooding due to heavy rains. In either case, please evaluate whether or not to unplug your sensitive electronic equipment during this storm and move it to a more protected or appropriate area (i.e. off the floor in areas at risk of flooding). These precautions, and many more, are covered in the Administrative and Office Areas Closure Checklist (deprecated / no longer available) and Laboratory and Research Areas Closure Checklist (deprecated / no longer available) of the College’s Emergency Management Plan found at https://www.eng.ufl.edu/safety/emergency/.

Keep track of the latest from the University of Florida by following the banner on the UF homepage or by visiting UF Emergency Weather Updates (ufl.edu). UFIT has also released a UFIT News article regarding Hurricane Ian: Prepare for Hurricane Ian | University of Florida Information Technology News (ufl.edu)

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Microsoft Sunsets Basic Authentication…

Published:September 15th, 2022
Category:Collegewide

But what does this really mean to you and should you be concerned about anything?

The majority of people at UF have quietly been converted to using the replacement to Basic Authentication, called Modern Authentication (or by its more technical term OAuth v2.0). Because most people are accustomed to logging in with the UF login page, the change was probably not even noticed when Outlook redirected to the UF login page rather than its standard password dialog window.

But there’s more. You may still face problems accessing your email once Basic Authentication is no longer supported. It likely won’t be a problem on a laptop or desktop computer however. Most of the issues will come from mobile devices.

If you received a direct email from UFIT or from Engineering IT Support, then you were identified as someone that would be impacted by this change. Access to your email/calendar will be interrupted in some manner (usually on your mobile device).

Keep reading to understand the differences between the two authentication methods and the impacts this has.

Table of Contents

When will Basic Authentication be disabled?

Basic authentication will be disabled by Microsoft on Oct. 1, 2022 within Office 365. Since Office 365 is a big environment, Basic Authentication will be disabled in university tenants over the next few days. So, the actual day it will be disabled for GatorMail is not known.

How does Basic Authentication work in Office 365 / GatorMail?

With Basic Authentication, your email/calendar client will transmit your username and password to Office 365 (Exchange Online), branded at UF as GatorMail. Office 365 then forwards this information to UF’s authentication services. If authentication was successful, UF sends a token back to Office 365 so you can connect and use your email/calendar.

What is Modern Authentication?

Modern Authentication is the reverse of Basic Authentication. When you authenticate with Modern Authentication in Office 365, Office 365 does not collect any usernames and passwords. Instead, it redirects you to UF’s authentication services (the UF Login page) for you to login. Once you successfully login, the UF Login page sends a token to Office 365 so you can connect and use your email/calendar.

Modern Authentication is more secure than Basic Authentication since Microsoft never collects your username and password. It simply receives a token to UF that says you’ve successfully authenticated.

So, if you are seeing the UF login page with your email/calendar client, than you know that you are using Modern Authentication.

Which clients are capable of Modern Authentication in Office 365 / GatorMail?

The following is a non-exhaustive list of clients which are capable of authentication to Office 365 / GatorMail with Modern Authentication:

  • Outlook on the web (Outlook Web App (OWA))
  • Outlook for Windows (2016 or newer)
  • Outlook for Mac (2016 or newer)
  • Outlook App for Android
  • Outlook App for iOS (version 10.x or greater)
  • Mail app on iOS (iOS 11.x or greater)
  • Mail app on MacOS (MacOS 10.14 (Mojave) or greater)
  • Gmail app on Android (July 8th, 2022 update or later (also varies by device and manufacturer))
  • Thunderbird app (77.0b1 or later)

Compatibility is not a guarantee and depends heavily on the developer and manufacturer. UFIT only supports the Outlook app on mobile devices.

How do I configure my applications to use Modern Authentication?

We’ve created a number of Modern Authentication articles within our Knowledgebase on this website (available by searching for Modern Authentication). Most of these articles simply point to the documentation created by UFIT for https://www.mail.ufl.edu/ at https://www.mail.ufl.edu/managing-email/connecting-to-email-applications/

Is there anything else that may be impacted by this change?

Of course! It is not possible for us to know every tool used to interact with GatorMail. One such integration was discovered this week and there may be more as time goes on. This space will be used to document those items found.

Zoom

Zoom has the ability to sync meetings from your Outlook calendar into the Zoom desktop app. This integration is turned on via your online profile at https://ufl.zoom.us/. If you’ve been a longtime user of this feature it is likely using Basic Authentication. See our knowledgebase about reconfiguring this setting:

I’d like to learn more about Office 365 authentication?

If you’d like to learn more about Basic and Modern Authentication in Office 365, please review the following documents from Microsoft:

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