Some bad news for the handful of people who know what LastPass is, and the fewer who actually use the school’s LastPass membership: the school will be cancelling its membership on Nov. 9. For those unacquainted with the service, LastPass is an encrypted password manager that can create and store strong passwords for all of one’s accounts. This little-known service will stop being offered in order “to align with the university technology strategies, security requirements, and resource allocation,” according to a statement on the Information Technology Services (ITS) website. The ITS is advising that you should export your passwords into a new password manager before the Nov. 9 deadline. There are instructions on the ITS page on how to manage this.
If you still prefer to use LastPass instead of other password managers, the software offers a free version; the only caveat being that you can only store passwords on one device, rather than the paid version that syncs your passwords across all of your devices.
If you need more help than the ITS homepage to save your passwords, the ITS desk also rolled out a new A.I. chatbot this year. The chatbot offers 24/7 services, unlike the ITS desk which is open from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. on Monday to Thursday, 9:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. on Friday, and closed entirely on weekends. The chatbot cannot do everything the ITS geniuses can, but it has been trained to deal with common issues. If you need help along the lines of Duo troubleshooting or Eduroam connectivity at 7:00 p.m., you no longer need to wait. If your problem is a little bit more complex than connecting to printers, then the chatbot will help create a ticket for the ITS team for you. The chatbot is not a replacement for the helpful ITS Help Desk Team, but it is now a resource available if the ITS team is not accessible when tech support needs arise.
