ITS News 01/2024

We present– Dr. Hans-Jörg Bauer

The new head of the IT Service Center

[Since January 1, 2024, Dr. Hans-Jörg Bauer has been in charge of the IT Service Center (ITS). His career speaks for itself: It all started with a degree in mathematics at the Technical University of Munich. From there, his path took him to Bonn, Cologne and most recently Wuppertal, where he worked as head of the Center for Information and Media Processing.

The ITS employees welcome his election. He is an asset to the University of Bayreuth not only professionally, but also personally. We are convinced that with his open and committed manner, he will give a positive impetus to the projects that are coming up in the coming years.

Although we have already learned a little about him from the newsletter "News from Campus", there are still a few questions that we are very interested in:

What projects are planned in the near future?

In order to be able to raise the necessary investments in the IT infrastructure, applications for large equipment are a particularly important instrument. Several are currently being assessed, drafted or prepared. In the area of research data management, which we are working on with the UB, ZUV and in cooperation with the research departments, important further developments are also pending. Other important topics include improvements in the WLAN area, renewals of the media equipment in classrooms, the digitization of various processes, participation in the commissioning of the FZA building and changes in content management. The list could be extended even further.

What has been your first impression so far?

In the first two months I already made a lot of good contacts at the UBT. I felt very warmly welcomed at the university and at the ITS and received a lot of support from everyone. I depend on that, because getting to know the university and the IT department is no small matter. My impression is that there is a really good spirit on campus. The ITS has very committed and competent employees. I experienced this several times and in a very practical way in the first few weeks. I am therefore very much looking forward to continuing to work together.

What do you see as the biggest challenge in the ITS?

Providing IT services to a university is fundamentally a challenge due to the wide range of needs. As a result of digital transformation, we have seen a significant increase in demand for new IT services. These are often relatively complex because, for example, cloud solutions and local IT need to work together or certain security requirements need to be met. This means that IT services are experiencing quantitative and qualitative growth. This is of course a very significant challenge in operational, financial and especially personnel terms.

What shouldn’t be missing from your desk?

I actually try to keep the desk as clear as possible - which I manage better with the real desk than with the desktop on the laptop. But I would like to have a teapot and cup nearby.

Thank you for your time and the opportunity to get to know you a little better at the beginning. We wish you a successful and hopefully long-lasting time in the ITS.

Ever-growing threats:

Information security in focus at the University of Bayreuth

As part of the ISO 27001 certification of the ITS, annual surveillance audits are required. The auditors from TÜV Süd independently check the information security management system (ISMS).

The ITS passed the surveillance audit again in mid-January. The auditors confirmed that the ISMS is functioning very well.

The new head of the ITS, Dr. Hans-Jörg Bauer, is delighted with this success: “When I started, we managed a major task well and showed that we face the ever-growing challenges of information security every day. This is particularly necessary because of the ever-growing global threats that do not stop at the University of Bayreuth, as can be seen almost every day in all media.”

The information security officer Ralf Stöber emphasizes: “Through the ISO 27001 certification in 2020 and its continuous maintenance through annual audits, we have established a high level of security from which all members of the university can benefit. On this basis, however, it is necessary for everyone involved to actively contribute to information security.

Everyone should do their part by handling emails carefully, using secure settings on their computer and regularly updating their software. We offer the necessary knowledge through training courses on the Panopto video server. We encourage all members of the university to make use of this offer, which we will continue to expand this year."

Mission Apollo successfully completed

The Mission Apollo project started in the ITS in the middle of last year. Behind the exciting title lies a new backup system that has replaced the previous, now 7-year-old system.

After intensive planning, implementation and testing, the new backup system based on a multi-level backup concept is now running and is distributed across different locations for security reasons. Any necessary data restoration is significantly faster with the new system. The backed up data is kept immutable for a certain period of time and thus offers protection against ransomware attacks - a type of malware attack.

Chair and faculty servers outside the ITS can be backed up for a fee if required. Tom Rüger is your contact for backups.

Exciting worlds of AI image generation

For our article on installing the backup server - Mission Apollo - we experimented a bit with free AI image generators.
Our quest for the optimal result for the task "Create an image around the backup server and Mission Apollo" led us to Bing Copilot Designer from Microsoft (see image KI1 above). Firefly from Adobe (image KI2 - Firefly) was equally impressive as another star in the sky of AI creations.

Our experiments with Night Café (KI3 Night Café) and Lexica (KI4 - Lexica) undoubtedly produced impressive images. Nevertheless, we felt that they were not in perfect harmony with our original task. For an in-depth

insight into the world of free AI image generators, we recommend taking a look at the informative article from Heise:

https://www.heise-regioconcept.de/online-marketing/ki-bilder-erstellen.

ITS Knowledge

Due to the positive feedback, we will continue our ITSWISSEN training series in 2024. We have selected five relevant IT topics where we are sure that we can help you make your everyday work easier with important basic knowledge, exciting new features and useful tips.

Register for the respective dates as usual via our eLearning portal. All registered participants will be informed of the final location shortly before the date. We look forward to a lively participation again this year.

Dates

May 2nd / 10 a.m. - 11 a.m. / MuVi room
Sending emails with the new email appliance

Learn from Ronald Schönheiter and Ingo Gröger how you can optimally set up the new email appliance and use it effectively.

May 16th / 10 a.m. - 11 a.m. / MuVi room
SciNote@UBT (research data management)

Denys Priadko cordially invites users and interested parties to a lively exchange on the UBT's electronic laboratory notebook.

June 6th / 9:30 a.m. - 1 p.m. / PC pool 2.01 (AI)
IT security workshops

In collaboration with the Bayreuth Criminal Investigation Department, Ralf Stöber is offering two workshops for safe working in everyday life, where you can, for example, test your own skills in recognizing phishing emails.

June 13th / 10 a.m. - 11 a.m. / MuVi room
Microsoft 365 & Teams

For all questions about Microsoft 365 & Teams, Ronald Schönheiter and Matthias Scharf will be on hand during the training to provide you with helpful tips and tricks.

July 4th / 10 a.m. - 11 a.m. / MuVi room
eForms in the area of human resources

Learn everything about the latest forms and developments in the area of eForms in human resources from Thomas Kaufmann.