Peter Ganten in Kommune21: Public authorities need alternatives!

The ministries are considering implementing a federal cloud. So-called hyperscalers such as Microsoft and Google come into question for this. But this involves dangers, which Peter Ganten discusses in an article in Kommune21:

The operation of the cloud software of the hyperscalers by European companies should solve this problem. However, the manufacturers can install or retrofit backdoors with updates at any time – for example, in order to provide security authorities in other countries with targeted information.

Likewise, the specification of defined interfaces for connecting specialized procedures and applications severely limits the flexibility of public institutions and leads to a much greater security risk, as this can just as easily be controlled and exploited by third parties, according to Ganten. You can read about the solution he sees for these security risks at kommunale21.de (available in german).

New in EGroupware 21.1: Placeholders, and automatic generation of PDF/PNG

A new EGroupware version is available in the Univention App Center, and it offers some cool new features. For example, users can insert all data stored in EGroupware into Collabora Online directly via a new dialog, and not just via placeholders.This way, only a few clicks are necessary to include entries from the address book, calendar, timesheets, etc. into an office document—say good-bye to the tedious copy & paste sessions between EGroupware modules.

IT security on business trips: 6 points IT departments should pay attention to

Home office and mobile working on the move have long been part of our everyday lives and present IT departments with major challenges in terms of data security and convenient working for all employees. Kevin Dominik Korte, President of Univention North America, describes the different security requirements of both scenarios and why remote work should be a particular focus in an article published by the renowned US magazine Forbes.

TechRepublic shows comfortable installation of UCS

UCS offers a wide range of opportunities for companies and organizations. Jack Wallen is also convinced of this:

It can be a domain controller, a chat server, an in-house cloud-based groupware solution, a kanban platform, your Nextcloud Hub installation, a mail server, and with a robust App Center, you can extend this server to be just about anything you need.

UCS@school 5 prepares schools for the digitization of education

Bremen, 1 December 2021 – with UCS@school 5, the leading provider of open source solutions for education and the public sector, Univention, has further simplified the digitization of education. Numerous improvements and innovations that provide for a more straightforward operation are implemented in the new version of the solution, optimized for schools and school boards. That includes technical retreading and more efficient administration. School administrators can effortlessly and almost automatically manage students’ digital identities and assign them to their schools and classes in the completely redesigned and user-friendly online portal. End users will also benefit from the new portal through deeper technical and visual integration of services, single sign-on, and improved accessibility in their use.

log4j/log4shell vulnerability: UCS and third-party app updates

UCS 5.0-0 does ship apache-log4j2 as a Debian package, but this is not in use by default. We have already made updates for this package available to our customers on 12/13/2021, as they are not included in the regular errata tracking. For more information on the update, please visit the help forum at: https://help.univention.com/t/status-of-log4j-log4shell-vulnerability-cve-2021-44228-in-ucs-and-apps/19020.

UCS 5.0-1: First Point Release

On the way to perfection.

The first point release of UCS 5.0 brings further important features and tops off the major release from May. The announced Light Theme is now available as an alternative for the user interface. There were improvements in the UCS Portal and App Center, and a number of other apps are now also available for UCS 5.0.

UCS@school 5.0: Established System with a Fresh Look

A developer’s work is never done—after we published the fifth major release of Univention Corporate Server in May 2021, we’ve been keeping busy. Of course, we kept looking after our core product UCS, but we’ve also put in lots of hours to release UCS@school for UCS 5.0. In this blog post, I would like to present the new features of this major release and explain the importance for school administrators.