I experienced a lot of new things during my first weeks at ETH Zurich: New faces, projects, meetings and a huge number of abbreviations. Luckily, my new colleagues understand my confusion; it was obviously the same for them at the beginning. I have also already noticed that IT Services has a lot of outstanding and highly motivated employees, who do their best every day to support the researchers, teachers, students and the administration with their work. I would like to take the opportunity to introduce myself personally in my short video.

Dr. Rui Brandao, Director IT Services

The new IT Training Lab at Hönggerberg has opened its doors. In August 2016, seven IT trainees started their training as IT Specialists (Federal VET Diploma) with a focus on systems technology at ETH Zurich. The "IT Training Lab project", which was initiated by Dieter Schorno, ETH Vocational Training, and developed by ITS together with the departments, has thus started successfully.

Under the project management of Fabio Consani (ITS PPF), representatives from ITS and the departments, the "IT Training Lab project" was started during the last quarter of 2015. In January 2016, the Executive Board approved the IT Training Lab concept developed by the project group, which meant the organisational issues as well as the location- and content-related design and implementation could begin. Seven IT trainees started their apprenticeships at the end of August. Six of these trainees belong to ETH departments, one to the IT Services. Following a long and very thorough recruitment process, Marc Winkler was appointed Head of the new IT Training Lab at the end of September. This means the project for setting up the IT Training Lab has been concluded successfully. It is still too early for a preliminary conclusion. Nevertheless, we can say with confidence that the mood and motivation in the new IT Training Lab are very good. To find out which additional steps are planned following the successful start of the Training Lab for future trainees and those looking to gain some initial insight, please read our ITS Blog.

Fabio Consani, Group Manager Portfolio Management (ITS PPF)

An ETH user establishes a connection from India, and then a short time later from Africa: a case for the network security group at ETH Zurich. This group, which is part of IT Services, is the central area of expertise when it comes to security in the ETH network. Their task is to protect the ETH data network against external and internal "incidents". These incidents can be caused by individual users, even internal ones, as well as external computers. Special software and specialist knowledge is needed in order to handle these tasks.

If a person or a computer establishes a VPN tunnel to ETH from Switzerland, and then a very short time later from another continent, the alarm bells start ringing for the network security group. It could be a case of misuse or just an anomaly. Anomalies refer to data traffic of any kind that deviates significantly from the usual data traffic in ETH network. It can be caused, for example, by a user or a device that has been infected with malware. What could have happened? The network password of the ETH member could have been obtained by an unauthorised person via a phishing email, and is now being used illegally. Identity theft can also take place however by simply opening email attachments. Infections with malware can even take place when simply surfing the Internet. Computers then often become part of a "botnet" with computer programs controlled by foreign parties. The better the maintenance of a device, the lower the risk of infection. This means that operating systems and applications should always be kept up-to-date and security updates should be installed. If servers are not maintained properly, things can become particularly critical. Their services cannot simply be deactivated, as on a normal PC. All of the above-mentioned cases are part of the regular daily work of the network security group, which generally observes multiple incidents each day. In order to be able to identify such irregularities in network traffic, various methods are used such as the intrusion detection system Snort and information from external sources, like SWITCH-CERT. If any incidents transcend the boundaries of the network, the network security group works together with the department SSHE (Safety, Security, Health and Environment).

Anatoliy Holinger, Deputy Group Manager Network Security (ITS NET)

Reading the latest research information or finding ETH staff and their offices on your smartphone – at ETH there are a few apps that ETH or companies have developed themselves. Some of these apps have a large range of functions, and complex back-end integration in the IT infrastructure of ETH. Maintenance and further development are also a part of mobile development. For this reason, ETH has decided to handle new and ongoing developments internally within ETH.

Keeping you up-to-date while on the go: ETH apps support staff and students with their work and studies (e.g. ETH App, ETH Globe App, ETH EduApp, ETH Career Center App). Many apps have been developed by ETH, some have been developed externally. However, ETH Zurich now wants to handle the development of new apps or changes to existing apps internally. ITS Software Services (ITS SWS) therefore decided to implement the next major expansion of the EduApp internally. Other ETH areas are also starting to show an interest in the app development activities of IT Services. For example, ITS SWS are going to start another project at the beginning of 2017 together with the services department. ITS is currently holding talks with the Safety, Security, Health and Environment department (SSHE) regarding an app for security services. The medium- to long-term objective is to establish an app factory within ITS SWS, which will develop and maintain apps using modern software engineering methods. Further information on the ongoing development of the EduApp can be found in the ITS Blog.

Werner Schnedl, Project Manager WCMS, LMS & Mobile Applications (ITS SWS)