Good morning, everyone.

I promise to keep this week’s newsletter a bit shorter! 😊 I just want to let you know about a current non-threat. I also want to remind everyone that rebooting your computers is a necessary thing.

Current Non-Threat

• Research Training (email)
  • I have gotten some questions about a training reminder so I thought it would be good to let our researchers know about it.
  • The sender was oretraining@utk.edu.
  • The subject was Your Research Security Training is Due.
  • The message states that the due date is 05/31/2025.
  • I checked some of the transcripts and could verify the training was assigned on or around 05/08/2025, by K@TE’s Learning Assignment Tool.
  • The UTK Office of Research & Engagement has also verified that the email is legitimate.
  • The training is a new and shortened version of training now required by the federal government for covered individuals working on research.
  • If you received the training assignment, it is likely because of your research-related job title in the UT System.
  • ORE added, “It was assigned broadly since concepts and responsibility for protecting research and intellectual property are considered important for all researchers and faculty members to understand. It also helps avoid chaos of people having to take the training with very short notice before a proposal is submitted.”

Important Information

• Regular Reboot Reminder
  • Don’t forget that every computer needs a reboot in order to improve its performance.
  • Every time you open an app, processes start running in the background, which can slow things down over time.
  • By rebooting, you are stopping unnecessary processes, freeing up memory, preventing memory leaks, and improving the system speed.
  • A reboot can also resolve little glitches and conflicts, which are sometimes caused by a process that has stalled or is malfunctioning.
  • In addition to improving the speed and performance of your computer, rebooting will help keep the computer more secure.
  • In order for some updates and security patches to be fully applied, a reboot must take place.
  • This will help resolve current bugs and vulnerabilities, and will also help prevent new vulnerabilities.
  • So please remember to reboot your computer on a regular basis.
  • Once a day would be ideal, but I completely understand that sometimes you can’t reboot due to processes that may be running in order to complete your work.
  • But please reboot a minimum of once a week!

I appreciate you all so very much for everything you do! Don’t ever hesitate to let me know if you have any questions or concerns!

Sandy

Important Note: Thank you so much for sharing these e-newsletters with family, friends, clients, students, and anyone else who may benefit from the information. I would like to stress that you should keep your students in mind, as non-employee students will not get this information without someone sharing. If anyone else has an email group for students who are not employees of your department, please let me know that address and I can include it. I do this as a blind copy so student names and addresses will not show up!