News

Default Sharing Options for Dropbox and Google Drive to be Updated

Published:April 25th, 2025
Category:Collegewide, Featured, FrontPage

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, Featured, FrontPage

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, Featured, FrontPage

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 and Laboratory and Research Areas Closure Checklist 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/:

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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Choose Eduroam for Best Wifi Experience

Published:May 13th, 2022
Category:Collegewide

UF students, staff, and faculty with active GatorLink accounts should be choosing Eduroam rather than UFGuest when connecting to WiFi on the UF Campus.

UFGuest is an unencrypted, basic option intended for visitors that limits network bandwidth and prevents access to certain UF services such as the Gatorlink VPN.

Eduroam is a secure, world-wide roaming access service developed for the international research and education community. It allows students, researchers, and staff from participating institutions to obtain Internet connectivity seamlessly across campuses around the world when visiting other participating institutions. More information about eduroam can be found at https://eduroam.org/.

For UF students, staff and faculty, eduroam requires onboarding through the “UFGetOnline” wifi network. When at UF, it registers your device onto the UF private IP network; thus allowing you to access all UF network resources as if you are directly connected to the UF network via a wire. Once onboarded, when you visit participating institutions your device will automatically connect to their eduroam network and be able to access the Internet.

To onboard on eduroam:

  1. Open your WiFi settings and connect to the “ufgetonline” network
  2. Open a new browser window and visit https://getonline.ufl.edu to register your device
  3. Select the device type from the dropdown menu on the website
  4. Follow instructions until your wifi connection is migrated to “eduroam” (please note that your username is ‘[gatorlink]@ufl.edu’ and not just your GatorLink username)
  5. Once connected, open your network settings again and forget the “ufgetonline” network

If you have questions or problems, please reach out to your local IT support or the UFIT HelpDesk (calling 352-392-HELP/4357 or visiting the HelpDesk (132 Hub)).

Finally, every May, UFIT updates eduroam’s encryption settings. This update is usually transparent to users but occasionally there may be a glitch that requires you to onboard to eduroam again. This year (2022), the update is scheduled for Sunday, May 15th.

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Goodbye Skype for Business, Hello Teams!

Published:April 30th, 2021
Category:Collegewide

On May 9, 2021 UFIT will shut down UF’s Skype for Business service. The replacement is Microsoft Teams, a unified communication and collaboration platform that combines persistent workplace chat, video meetings, file storage, and application integration that is available through the Microsoft 365 suite of products. UFIT will attempt to convert Skype meetings to Teams meetings on your behalf during the shutdown process. More information from UFIT is available at: https://news.it.ufl.edu/infrastructure/deprecation-of-skype-for-business-service/ (link stopped working Oct 2022)

"Skype for Business will be upgraded to Microsoft Teams" banner appearing in the Skype for Business client.
This banner should be appearing in your Skype for Business desktop client now.

UFIT has announced this change on the UF IT News Channel and has added a banner to the Skype for Business desktop client (example above). They will not, however, be doing direct emails or communications to Skype users. Engineering IT attempted to use chat histories to identify users of Skype for Business and sent directed communication earlier this month.

UFIT has built a basic website about Microsoft Teams at UF at https://it.ufl.edu/teams/. Additionally, UF/IFAS will be conducting a training session on making the transition from Skype for Business to Teams within the Teams champions community known as Jurassic County. This community has monthly meetings on Teams and all things Office 365. The next monthly meeting will be on May 11th at 10:00am and will focus on feature comparisons between Skype and Teams, such as:

  • Instant messaging and calling within the UF organization
  • Transcribed voicemail (Teams calls only)
  • Managing contact groups and group chats
  • Chat history and search
  • Scheduling online meetings
"Join or create a team" screenshot from the Teams desktop client.

While Teams does a number of things, this meeting will focus on things you may have been doing in Skype and how to accomplish those things, and more, in Teams.

If you’d like to attend you can join the Jurassic County team using the join code: ecgm1r1 (this code can be entered under the “Join or create a team” button in your Teams app).

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Welcome to the Cortana Daily Briefing

Published:April 19th, 2021
Category:Collegewide

UFIT opted everyone out of the Cortana Daily Briefing emails at the end of April 2021. You will need to manually turn them on to begin receiving them again.

Office 365 users at UF have recently began receiving daily Cortana emails. Where did these emails come from, what do they do and how can you disable them? Let’s find out!

Cortana is Microsoft’s artificial intelligence (AI) that acts as a personal productivity assistant in Windows 10 and Office 365. In Office 365 it attempts to find ways for you to save time and focus on what matters. After Cortana builds some information about you it starts to send a Daily Briefing email so you can stay in control of your calendar and be more intentional with your work day. It is able to learn when you work and suggests reminders, tasks, and, even, breaks.

Cortana is data driven, the more data it has the better it can predict your needs and schedule. If you are not receiving the Daily Briefing emails, it is likely that Cortana does not have enough data to send them. You may also not be subscribed.

If you do not want to receive Cortana emails, look in the footer of the Daily Briefing email, there you will find an “unsubscribe” button. It is safe to click this button.

To verify or change your subscription, login to https://cortana.office.com/ while logged into your Office 365 account using your UF identity.

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