New logo, new look
Into a modern era with a new design

Today we proudly present our new logo. This also marks the beginning of our new look. We would like to inform you about this change so that you are not surprised if you see our new look all over ITS in the coming months.

Why did we redesign our logo?
After more than 15 years, it was time for a redesign, as the old logo no longer achieved the desired effect in many respects. A simpler logo with a higher recognition value seemed more suitable to us.

With the change in ITS management at the beginning of the year, it was the perfect time to adapt the logo to today's requirements. During the rebranding, we also slightly adapted the colours and now use a harmonious combination of dark purple and grey. This colour combination conveys a modern and timeless appearance that symbolises both trust and innovative strength.

In addition, we have developed a signet that picks up on the familiar shape of a hexagon reflecting the stability of our IT service centre.

In short, we have changed our logo, but remain your reliable contact for IT matters - now with a more uniform and recognisable appearance.

As part of the ‘ITS Wissen’ event series, Dr. Ronald Schönheiter and Matthias Scharf spoke about Microsoft 365 and Teams. The great need for Teams training courses became clear. It also became clear that there are still many unanswered questions about Teams and cloud storage.

But what is behind these tools? Microsoft 365, formerly Office 365, combines online services, Office web applications and an Office software subscription. It enables location-independent working from any supported end device. The stored data is located in Microsoft's data centres and can be accessed via the internet. A central component of Microsoft 365 is Microsoft Teams.This platform combines chat, groups, meetings, notes and attachments and is integrated into the Microsoft 365 suite.

"Teams has been available at the University of Bayreuth since June 2020 and has gained enormously in functionality since then" explained Dr. Schönheiter. In order to use Teams, users need an active Microsoft account, which must be applied for via the ITS portal. The software is pre-installed as standard on ITS base-installed devices, while Teams must be downloaded and installed separately on personal devices. The programme offers numerous extensions that can be integrated into third-party products. Despite the wide range of options, there are challenges. Due to the hybrid structure of the University of Bayreuth, not all functions that are possible in the Microsoft Cloud are available. This applies to the calendar and certain apps, for example, as a cost centre would have to be set up for these.

Notice on the cessation of the messenger app scrit

At the University of Bayreuth, we used the messenger app ‘Scrit’ for internal communication in the past. This application was used very specifically. As we now have many other communication tools in operation, the option to use ‘Scrit’ will be discontinued at the end of the summer semester.

The Uni app, based on UniNow, is now available for communication with all members of the university. For communication with participants of certain courses or degree programmes, please use our e-learning platform based on Moodle. Among other things, this platform offers course areas for programme moderation.

This should cover all use cases for which you have used ‘Scrit’ in the past. However, if there is a specific use case that cannot be mapped with either UniNow or Moodle, please write to: its-beratung@uni-bayreuth.de

ITS knowledge

Dates 24/25

Digital e-mail certificate

At the end of June, we informed you via NewsFlash that you now have the opportunity to apply for your personal user certificate for e-mail traffic at the University of Bayreuth. But why do you need a digital certificate or S/MIME certificate at all?

It's all about security, authenticity, integrity and trust. But what does that mean in concrete terms?

Security:A certificate ensures that emails are transmitted securely and encrypted, protecting the content from unauthorized access. This is particularly important for confidential information. However, encryption is only possible if the recipient can decrypt the e-mail. We therefore recommend that you do not use encryption for internal university recipients, as this can lead to problems. Your e-mails will still be sent securely to internal university addressees without the information being accessed.

Authenticity: A certificate confirms the identity of the sender. The recipient can be sure that the e-mail actually comes from the person specified and not from an impostor.

Integrity: A certificate ensures that the message has not been tampered with during transmission. Any change to the content would be noticed immediately. Trust: The use of e-mail certificates strengthens trust between communication partners. It shows that the sender is seriously interested in the security and confidentiality of the communication.

Overall, e-mail certificates make a decisive contribution to increasing the security and reliability of electronic communication.

In view of the increasingly sophisticated nature of malicious e-mail attacks, we recommend that you apply for a personal user certificate and integrate it into your preferred e-mail programme.

You can find detailed instructions on how to apply for and integrate the certificates into various mail programmes (Outlook/Windows, Outlook/macOS and Apple Mail) on the laptop consultation pages.

From now on you can also have a certificate for groups/functional identifiers can be issued. Please fill out the form “Request certificate for functional mailboxes” (e.g. chair e-mail).

To the instructions: https://laps.uni-bayreuth.de/category/25-diverses/tutorial/39-personliches-zertifikat-herunterladen

IT security workshops -
Have been a great success

As part of the Information Security Week in the summer semester 2024, two workshops were held for employees of the University of Bayreuth on the topic of ‘Working securely in everyday life’ in cooperation with the K11 police department of the Bayreuth Criminal Investigation Department. Participants were given practical knowledge on how to recognise everyday dangers on the computer and how to deal with them safely.

The focus was on email security, as the majority of all attacks are carried out via email. This is particularly relevant in view of the fact that the quality of attack emails is constantly increasing due to artificial intelligence and they can often no longer be distinguished from genuine emails on the basis of simple criteria.

In the past, malicious emails were characterised by poor German or unusual terms in German, which is becoming increasingly rare nowadays. The K11 commissioners and the information security officer from the University of Bayreuth therefore instructed the participants on how to recognise malicious emails using various criteria. These criteria included Is the email expected? Is the sender known? Is an attachment expected? Does the style match the sender?

The participants agreed: ‘Nowadays, you have to take a close look to recognise whether an email is genuine or not. If you are not sure, you can use the report mail button to send the email to the ITS so that it can be checked for maliciousness.’ You can usually find this in the top right-hand corner of Outlook.

Alternatively, you can regularly visit the website with the latest malware warnings. There you will find the latest malicious emails that have been sent to people at the University of Bayreuth: https://info.its.uni-bayreuth.de/its-malwarewarnungen

Due to the great success of the workshops, similar workshops for students will also be offered in the winter semester as a continuation of the ‘Secure start to the semester’ series. The dates for these workshops will be announced in good time in the NewsFlash and in the next ITS News.

CMS basic training (classroom training)

• Mo 14.10. form  9:00 – 11:00 o´clock
• Wed13.11. form  9:00 – 11:00 o´clock

Registration via the e-learning system. The number of participants is limited: https://elearning.uni-bayreuth.de/course/view.php?id=23982

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Published by:
IT Service Centre
University of Bayreuth
Universitätsstraße 30
95447 Bayreuth

Managing editor: Oliver Gschwender
Authors: Nadja Bursian, Oliver Gschwender, Ralf Stöber, Nikolai Jahreis
Photos: Dominik Schramm, Adobe Stock