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Now that its renovations are nearly complete, the Memorial Union will soon be home to an open-access computer lab for the first time in two years. Anyone connected to UC Davis can use it.

The lab is scheduled to open May 1 in 246 MU. It will be open 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. on weekdays, then expand its hours starting this fall. The room will have 22 computers, including seven Macs and six stand-up stations, plus both B&W and color printers.

You’ve heard of spring cleaning? There’s a digital equivalent, and it’s as important as any scrubbing you do around the house or office.

Like cleaning your home, the work might not be much fun, but you won’t have to haul out any mops or sponges to do it and you’ll likely feel better when you’re done. You’ll improve your security, and your devices will probably run faster.

Here are a few tips for refreshing and renewing your cyber life:

1. Review your online accounts

It’s really happening. The instructional use of SmartSite will end when spring term concludes in June.

“As planned, SmartSite will no longer be an active learning management system once spring quarter ends, without exceptions,” said David Levin, director of Academic Technology Services (ATS) in Information and Educational Technology.

“We want everyone to know this is a firm deadline,” he said. “About 85 percent of instructors are already using its replacement, UC Davis Canvas, and we don’t want the final 15 percent to be left behind.”

SiteFarm, UC Davis’ modern web publishing platform, will be available campuswide starting April 17.

Campus website developers and communicators can use SiteFarm to build and manage websites. SiteFarm is a central service available at no cost to campus units, and includes cloud hosting; you can take it for a spin on the demo site.

This message is for the 28,500 UC Davis faculty, staff and student employees who received an email in January advising them to take their UC cybersecurity awareness training.

To the nearly 83 percent who have finished the training: Thank you!

To the 17 percent who haven’t yet: You’re overdue—and remember, completing the training is now a pre-requisite for receiving a “Fully Achieved Expectations” rating on your annual job evaluation. Please complete the training soon. Also, deans and vice chancellors have received lists of people in their areas who are overdue for finishing the training, or whose deadline is close.

Registration is now open for the 2017 Information Security Symposium, which will again deliver two days of labs, talks and workshops on cybersecurity in higher education.

Because the last few conferences have sold out, this year’s event has room for 450 people, or about one-third more than two years ago. The conference occurs every other year, and this year the semi-annual UC Cybersecurity Summit has been added to the lineup.

If you’re teaching with UC Davis Canvas for the first time this spring, we have some tips for you, based on feedback from faculty who started using Canvas during fall and winter quarters. The advice can help you get started.

If you own a project site in SmartSite and wonder what to do with it now that the service is going away, we have updates.

The first is that project sites can continue in SmartSite past spring quarter—but please notice the key phrase, “project sites.” As previously announced, the capability for teaching with SmartSite will conclude after June.

The second update is that Information and Educational Technology is assembling a team to help project site owners identify new locations for the project work they’ve been housing in SmartSite.

The new 2017 Technology Highlights report presents stories about a few key developments in UC Davis IT, involving such areas as support for research, wireless access, and new approaches to information security.

If you enjoy the report’s online bonus game too, so much the better. It’s just in there to show that reports about technology don’t have to be dense.

Tax-fraud season is like the flu. It comes around each year, and you need to take extra precautions when the risk is high.

From now through the tax-filing deadline in April, the risk is high.

“We don’t know what the scams are going to look like this year,” says an advisory from the University of California Systemwide Information Security Office, “but expect attackers will only get craftier.”

The campus is three-fourths of the way home. Seventy-five percent of instructors who are teaching with a learning management system (LMS) this term are using UC Davis Canvas.

That’s up from 60 percent last fall, and explains a major change in LMS use among students. Last autumn, almost all students had at least one class apiece in Canvas and SmartSite, and so they used both systems. Now so many instructors have adopted Canvas that about 10,000 students don’t need to use SmartSite this term.

Want to get savvier about online snooping?

Come to the free showing of the 2013 documentary film “Terms and Conditions May Apply” in room D of the Student Community Center from noon to 1 p.m. Monday, Feb. 6. Faculty, staff, students, alumni, and campus visitors are all welcome. You can enjoy free snacks while you watch.

As of Jan. 9, the first day of instruction, 72 percent of winter term instructors and courses using a learning management system have chosen to use UC Davis Canvas. The other 28 percent continue to use SmartSite.

The numbers are based on the 1,500 winter quarter course sites that UC Davis instructors have published so far, and could change slightly as the remaining winter sites are published. The results depict a solid advance from fall 2016, when 57 percent of courses and 60 percent of instructors used Canvas.

Services that require a high level of security often use two-factor authentication—a process that requires you to enter your password plus a second piece of information before you can log in.

You probably use two-factor now when you visit your financial or health-care websites. You might also see it more frequently on campus websites and services over the next year or two.

Remember the required UC cyber-awareness training you finished several months back? If you completed it about a year ago, then it’s nearly time to take the short, online refresher. Look for an email with details by January.

Since late 2015, the University of California Office of the President has required all new UC faculty, staff and student employees to complete the training, then take an update course each year. Taking about 30 minutes, the refresher is 15 to 30 minutes shorter than the introductory session, and includes updated information.