Securing IRIS Logon Procedures
In the current digital environment, identity theft and threats to data integrity are a constant concern. We regularly monitor the IRIS systems to ensure the environment is secure and are always looking for new ways to better harden IRIS against vulnerabilities and attacks from both inside and outside threats.
To that end, we are making changes to the way you access IRIS as an end user to provide enhanced security to the system. The first part of this effort is already underway, as we are requiring all IRIS users who access the system via the Windows desktop client to upgrade their version to one of our latest releases. These latest versions more strongly encrypt all network traffic between your workstation and the IRIS servers. We have added a warning message to the client logon process to warn users if they are on a version that will soon be unsupported. Many of you have already encountered this message, and have taken the steps necessary to upgrade your client. We thank you for being proactive in this manner!
Our implementation of this initial phase will culminate on the evening of Wednesday, February 26th. At that point, if you have not upgraded your desktop client, you will not be able to connect to IRIS using the older desktop client.
You can download a compatible version of the Windows desktop client from either the IRIS Web Portal (https://irisweb.tennessee.edu/irj/servlet/prt/portal/prtroot/pcd!3aportal_content!2fZUT_Portal!2fiViews!2fDownloads_Welcome) or the UT Knoxville OIT software download page (https://oit.utk.edu/software-hardware/software/).
We will be communicating additional information in the coming weeks about additional steps we are taking to further harden the system. In the meantime, if you have any questions, please do not hesitate to email the IRIS Helpdesk (irishelpdesk@tennessee.edu).
