Tech Connect: Be Careful Where You Plug in During Summer Travel

Colorado Governor's Office of Information Technology sent this bulletin at 05/12/2023 02:36 PM MDT

Trivia for National IT Service Provider Day

In celebration of National IT Service Provider Day last month, we have a trivia question for you that you can find the answer to at the bottom of the newsletter:

Who invented the first laptop and how much did it weigh?

In This Issue

Travel Warning

Accessibility Awareness

Ready to Unplug this Summer with Some Travel? Be Careful Where You Plug In

Free, public phone charging stations are everywhere these days as a convenient solution to a low phone battery while we’re on the go. But cybercriminals are smartening up and have learned how to steal your data while you’re powering up. This hacking trend is called “juice jacking,” according to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC).

“Malware installed through a corrupted USB port can lock a device or export personal data and passwords directly to the perpetrator,” the FCC warned in a recent alert.

The FBI instead recommends bringing your own portable charger to plug it directly into an electrical outlet. Additionally, the FCC encourages travelers to purchase charging-only cables that cannot transfer data and to be aware of prompts saying “share data” or “charge only” when using a USB port.

“Avoid using free charging stations in airports, hotels or shopping centers. Bad actors have figured out ways to use public USB ports to introduce malware and monitoring software onto devices,” the FBI Denver office shared on social media.

If you travel, along with bringing your own charger, use your phone’s wireless hotspot rather than the hotel Wi-Fi for work-related projects. And always make sure your devices are up to date with the latest software and firmware.

graphic representing people around the world with different disabilities

Awareness is the First Step in Serving Coloradans
with Disabilities

Mark your calendars: Thursday, May 18, is the 12th annual Global Accessibility Awareness Day (GAAD)! The mission of GAAD is to get everyone talking, thinking and learning about digital access and inclusion, and the more than one billion people with disabilities worldwide.

Awareness is the first step in better serving people with disabilities who use a variety of accessibility tools and techniques to navigate the world of technology. Here are some common accessibility techniques that help people with disabilities the most.

Visual. People who are blind or have low vision need alternative text descriptions for meaningful images, and use the keyboard and not a mouse to navigate interactive elements. Learn more about visual accessibility.
Hearing. People who are deaf or hard of hearing need captioning for video presentations and visual indicators in place of audio cues. Learn more about auditory accessibility.
Physical. People with physical disabilities may need alternative keyboards, eye control or some other adaptive hardware to help them type and navigate on their devices. Learn more about physical IT accessibility.
Cognitive, Learning and Neurological. An uncluttered screen, consistent navigation and the use of plain language is useful for people with different cognitive disabilities. Learn more about cognitive and neurological accessibility.

To better understand how people with disabilities navigate technology, try the No Mouse Challenge created by the State of Minnesota Office of Accessibility. If you have questions about accessibility, check out the OIT Guide to Accessible Web Services or reach out to the Technology Accessibility Program (TAP) team at OIT_Accessibility@state.co.us.

Governor Signs Senate Bill 23-183 Giving Colorado Communities an Easier Path to Broadband Expansion

On May 1, Gov. Polis took a major step in creating a sustainable, competitive economy for Colorado by signing Senate Bill 23-183, which removes a major barrier to connecting all Colorado households and businesses to high-speed internet.

SB23-183 eliminates the requirement that local governments must obtain voter approval to provide broadband services. A rule in place since 2005 (SB05-152) restricted local governments from working with internet service providers to build broadband infrastructure unless they obtained voter approval to opt out through lengthy and expensive elections.

Passing SB23-183 allows the state to capitalize on upcoming federal broadband funding for capital projects and digital adoption programs. Prior to SB23-183, any Colorado local government that had not opted out of SB05-152 could not apply for Capital Projects Fund (CPF) or Broadband, Equity, Access and Deployment (BEAD) monies or any other state or federal broadband funding.

Read More About SB23-183

Products & Services

Free basic GIS services are now available

Request a consult with the GIS team to learn more

OIT’s Service Management Office is excited to announce that basic geospatial information services (GIS) are available for free to all state agencies.

GIS technology empowers users to see the big picture of their impact across the state, review visualized map data to make more informed business decisions and create basic maps to tell their agency’s story in a whole new way. The creation of apps and maps as well as basic data support is free for all agencies, with customized geospatial solutions and enterprise-level services available at a cost. Full cost and product information is available in the OIT Service Catalog.

See how the Office of Economic Development and International Trade (OEDIT) leveraged GIS data to better serve Colorado’s business community with their interactive Enterprise Zone map. Explore the possibilities of GIS at your agency by requesting a free GIS consult today.

Hunting, combo licenses now available in the myColorado™ app

Two additional Colorado Parks and Wildlife (CPW) digital licenses are now available in myColorado™, the State of Colorado’s official mobile app™. The Digital Combo License (Small Game & Fishing) and the Digital Small Game License join the Digital Fishing License, which launched in spring 2021. The Keep Colorado Wild Pass is now also digital and can be displayed within the app as a part of your vehicle registration.

The myColorado app gives Colorado residents the ability to create an electronic version of their Colorado driver license or state identification (ID) card on their smartphone as proof of identity within the state. Now, more CPW customers can use myColorado to show they have a valid small game or furbearer hunting license, a combo license and/or all associated permits.

Learn more about the CPW products you can carry in the app.

Resources

Google

Important Updates

Enhanced tool discovery in Docs, Sheets and Slides. Quickly locate features, functionality and settings using your own words without the need to navigate through menus, all from a simplified location on the toolbar—now available.

New Chat user interface. Launched April 13, learn how you can communicate better with a modernized Google Chat.

Calendar Reminders migrate To Tasks. Calendar Reminders will migrate to Tasks starting May 22. Learn about the switch.

Currents to Spaces. Google will migrate active Currents to Spaces (Chat) starting May 25. Read our FAQ on the migration.

Top Tip From OIT’s Google Team

Based on user requests, Google added a new feature to Drive that allows you to move files and folders into shared drives. Note: You can only move a folder to a shared drive if you’re a manager of the shared drive.

Google Workspace Training

May 25 at 3 p.m. - Chat and Spaces / Q&A
June 1 at 3 p.m. - Currents Migration and Gary’s Open Q&A
June 8 at 3 p.m. - Essentials: Productivity in Workspace / Q&A
June 22 at 3 p.m. - Express: Sheets (Hacks)

Quick Links

Every Wednesday: Google Open Office Hours, 9:30 - 10:30 a.m. Sign-up

Saying Goodbye to a Technology Workhorse

In the 1950s, IBM and seven other manufacturers in the U.S. started producing large computers with significant processing power. These computers were housed in a cabinet called a mainframe. Many companies and organizations now use mainframes to store vast amounts of data and process complex information. Mainframes are a critical part of IT infrastructure.

We have a mainframe at the state that has served us well since 1984. However, with the state’s strategic move to the cloud, demand for our mainframe is down. This makes it less cost-effective to keep around, and much of the existing equipment and software are at the end of support.

Mainframes will always be one of the most capable and powerful methods of storing and processing significant amounts of data and bridging the gap between older and newer systems and processes. But, as technology evolves, there are increased opportunities for cloud and managed-hosting (through external vendors) storage and processing large amounts of data. As we work to reduce our tech debt across the state, we are finally giving some of our mainframe operations a much-deserved retirement and modernizing our technology to create an efficient, secure and more reliable digital government.

Learn About our Mainframe Decommission Program