The recent decision to block access to personal email and the entire Google Drive suite has hindered students' ability to complete research and schoolwork.
On Thursday October 29, Wake Forest School of Medicine students received an email stating that access to personal email has been revoked on all WFBH devices in response to a cyber security threat against patient data. However, most students in the research enterprise have no patient contact or access to patient data. Yet, this ban has been pushed to our research laptops.
A poll of students has revealed that the inability to access personal email has affected students in the following ways:
- Biomedical Engineering students use a Virginia Tech email hosted by Gmail, access to which has been revoked.
-Google Drive access has been blocked as of November 14 2020. This prevents access to students' work including but not limited to: research data, manuscripts, dissertation drafts, conference presentations, and lab notebooks.
-Many extracurricular activities are hosted on Google Drive. These documents have been lost with no forewarning, preventing student groups efficiently performing their programmed duties.
-Other School Activities: For example, a recent conference I attended shared resources on Google Drive, which is not accessible on student laptops.
We are asking for this problem to be solved through the creation of a student network that is separate from the medical enterprise. Students in the research enterprise largely do not have access to patient data, and thus should be on a separately hosted network anyway if cyber security is a concern. This network should allow us to access devices including lab equipment and printers. Revoking access to email and Google Drive has hindered our ability to participate in research and professional development opportunities. We are hopeful that a student network will be created that addresses these issues so that students can achieve their fullest potential.
Please feel free to add examples of how the email ban has affected your work in the comments.
Thank you,
Updates
December 7, 2020
I have spent the last few days meeting with peers who are effectively locked out of their own research data and dissertation drafts. The silence from the administration is becoming impossible to ignore while our academic progress remains at a complete standstill.
December 7, 2020
Seeing this momentum grow reminds me of the sleepless nights I spent worrying about my own lost research data. It is clear that we are not the only ones struggling to keep our academic work alive under these restrictive conditions.
30 Comments
I use gsuite daily for my Virginia Tech @vt.edu email and google drive in order to collaborate with faculty, students, and staff at Virginia Tech. Removal of gsuite access will prevent me from working efficiently
We use gmail/google drive to move files between computers to get them off of the networked computers without use of an encrypted drive which our 3D printers cannot read. The loss of access to this sharing is an annoyance at best and a detrimental set back at worst.
Rather than blocking access to email, why not provide additional education modules on the attack vectors for ransomware. It's more than just email phishing - it's removable media that transfers data between hospital machines and potentially compromised personal machines, malicious code on compromised websites, and remote desktop.
This ban has prevented me from accessing communication with professionals in the field I am seeking employment in. As well I can no longer access my volunteer emails through red cross.
I work with NPR SciCommers to get experience with scientific communication, and the entire member resource guide is on Google Drive. I am also working with a science blog, and their editing process is based on Google Docs. I am now unable to do both of these extracurricular activities from my laptop.
I use gmail/google drive to access and share presentations and other files that are too large to send through my wake email. Some data analysis can only be done on lab computers but I also need access to these files when I work from home. I don't have a personal computer at home to access gmail/google drive another way
The current wakehealth email based on outlook is so lagging behind. Sending large files, like manuscript with figures, to colleagues is difficult and will quickly take up all the mailbox capacity. If cannot access personal emails, sharing file in the team will be very inefficient. We are in the second decade of 21st century, but forced to use such a outdated email system and prohibited to use other efficient emails. It's ridiculous.
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The recent decision to block access to personal email and the entire Google Drive suite has hindered students' ability to complete research and schoolwork.
On Thursday October 29, Wake Forest School of Medicine students received an email stating that access to personal email has been revoked on all WFBH devices in response to a cyber security threat against patient data. However, most students in the research enterprise have no patient contact or access to patient data. Yet, this ban has been pushed to our research laptops.
A poll of students has revealed that the inability to access personal email has affected students in the following ways:
- Biomedical Engineering students use a Virginia Tech email hosted by Gmail, access to which has been revoked.
-Google Drive access has been blocked as of November 14 2020. This prevents access to students' work including but not limited to: research data, manuscripts, dissertation drafts, conference presentations, and lab notebooks.
-Many extracurricular activities are hosted on Google Drive. These documents have been lost with no forewarning, preventing student groups efficiently performing their programmed duties.
-Other School Activities: For example, a recent conference I attended shared resources on Google Drive, which is not accessible on student laptops.
We are asking for this problem to be solved through the creation of a student network that is separate from the medical enterprise. Students in the research enterprise largely do not have access to patient data, and thus should be on a separately hosted network anyway if cyber security is a concern. This network should allow us to access devices including lab equipment and printers. Revoking access to email and Google Drive has hindered our ability to participate in research and professional development opportunities. We are hopeful that a student network will be created that addresses these issues so that students can achieve their fullest potential.
Please feel free to add examples of how the email ban has affected your work in the comments.
Thank you,
Updates
December 7, 2020
I have spent the last few days meeting with peers who are effectively locked out of their own research data and dissertation drafts. The silence from the administration is becoming impossible to ignore while our academic progress remains at a complete standstill.
December 7, 2020
Seeing this momentum grow reminds me of the sleepless nights I spent worrying about my own lost research data. It is clear that we are not the only ones struggling to keep our academic work alive under these restrictive conditions.
30 Comments
I need to be able to save documents from my hospital issued computer on a drive that I can access from my phone to print. Since we cannot connect our hospital computers to our home wireless printers, I need a neutral place to save files and print from another device. This block makes working from home that much more impossible!
I use gsuite daily for my Virginia Tech @vt.edu email and google drive in order to collaborate with faculty, students, and staff at Virginia Tech. Removal of gsuite access will prevent me from working efficiently
We use gmail/google drive to move files between computers to get them off of the networked computers without use of an encrypted drive which our 3D printers cannot read. The loss of access to this sharing is an annoyance at best and a detrimental set back at worst.
Rather than blocking access to email, why not provide additional education modules on the attack vectors for ransomware. It's more than just email phishing - it's removable media that transfers data between hospital machines and potentially compromised personal machines, malicious code on compromised websites, and remote desktop.
This ban has prevented me from accessing communication with professionals in the field I am seeking employment in. As well I can no longer access my volunteer emails through red cross.
I work with NPR SciCommers to get experience with scientific communication, and the entire member resource guide is on Google Drive. I am also working with a science blog, and their editing process is based on Google Docs. I am now unable to do both of these extracurricular activities from my laptop.
I use gmail/google drive to access and share presentations and other files that are too large to send through my wake email. Some data analysis can only be done on lab computers but I also need access to these files when I work from home. I don't have a personal computer at home to access gmail/google drive another way
The current wakehealth email based on outlook is so lagging behind. Sending large files, like manuscript with figures, to colleagues is difficult and will quickly take up all the mailbox capacity. If cannot access personal emails, sharing file in the team will be very inefficient. We are in the second decade of 21st century, but forced to use such a outdated email system and prohibited to use other efficient emails. It's ridiculous.
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I need to be able to save documents from my hospital issued computer on a drive that I can access from my phone to print. Since we cannot connect our hospital computers to our home wireless printers, I need a neutral place to save files and print from another device. This block makes working from home that much more impossible!