At 5pm on October 19th, Electronic Personnel Action Form (EPAF) functionality in Employee Self Service will be disabled. Staff that need to originate, revise and review EPAFs should please do so within LoboWeb moving forward.

In an effort to improve account security, Microsoft announced their demise of text message (SMS) and phone calls for multifactor authentication in February of 2027. Starting around 9/8, customers may see a notice from Microsoft encouraging the use of passkeys. 

No immediate action is necessary, but we recommend adding a new MFA method (steps below) before the deadline to avoid login delays.

Tens of thousands of UNM users utilize the text or phone call method, so we ask that people attempt to set this up on their own and avoid contacting UNM IT at this time to keep the phone lines open for more time-sensitive issues. UNM IT will provide updates in the near future for the best contact method if you are unable to set up a new method on your own.

Our recommendation at this time is as follows: If you are familiar with passkeys, this will likely be an easy setup and will provide a better login experience. If you are not familiar with passkeys, the Microsoft Authenticator app may be a better solution.

We recognize that both of these require a smartphone, so if you do not have a smartphone, keep an eye out for the update with the best contact method and we can discuss other options.

Staff and Faculty using department issued/managed machines can also set up Windows Hello for a more streamlined login and authentication process.

Knowledge articles to assist with the change:

Adding a method

Microsoft Authenticator App

General MFA info and setups

Windows Hello

There is an issue with the Alarm Receivers which is causing some communication errors. Once it is resolved the system should automatically clear out of these errors. In the meantime you can clear the beeping by hitting enter until it says 'enter code to clear display' punch in your code and hit enter.

We are seeing a noticeable increase in phishing and email spoofing attempts targeting our organization. These messages may appear to come from trusted sources but are designed to trick recipients into clicking malicious links, downloading harmful attachments, or providing sensitive information.

Please remain vigilant and use caution when reviewing emails—especially those that:

• Urge immediate action or create a sense of urgency

• Contain unexpected attachments or links

• Request login credentials, financial information, or sensitive data

• Appear to come from internal contacts but have unusual formatting or tone

• Continue to monitor for known phish attempts at https://ispo.unm.edu/phish-bowl

How to Report Suspicious Emails in Microsoft Outlook Web (OWA):

1. Do not click any links or download attachments.

2. Open the suspicious email.

3. Click the “Report” button in the toolbar (this may appear as “Report Message” or a phishing icon).

4. Select “Phishing” or “Junk”, as appropriate.

5. Submit the report. The message will be sent to IT/security for review and removed from your inbox.

More information in reporting email can be found in the following knowledge article: https://unm.service-now.com/kb/en/how-do-i-report-spam-or-phishing-email?id=kb_article_view&sysparm_article=KB0016353

InCommon SSL/TLS certificate lifespans were reduced to a maximum of 200 days on March 15, 2026. This is a vendor change outside UNM's control.

This applies to all certificate types as enforced by the global governing organization, Certificate Authority Browser Forum. Lifespans will be further reduced to 100 days On March 15, 2027, and to 47 days on March 25, 2029. The purpose of this change is to reduce risk by decreasing validation periods.  

The current recommended solution is certificate automation using the ACME protocol with tools like certbot (https://certbot.eff.org/).
*Note: Wildcard certificates can currently only be requested as a Subject Alternate Name (SAN) on a Multidomain certificate profile. The Common Name (CN) of the certificate must not be a wildcard.

The University of New Mexico is upgrading its campus phone system to replace aging equipment that will no longer be supported after December 2026. This upgrade will help ensure reliable service and support the university’s future communication needs.

The project is actively underway, and buildings will be contacted and scheduled for transition in phases. Departments will receive more information as their building’s upgrade approaches. A timeline of identified buildings and upcoming phases is available on the Voice System Replacement Project Website.

For questions or more information, please contact the project team at voiceproject@unm.edu.

To ensure continued security and stability, UNM IT will be applying Windows Updates and rebooting servers on 10/25, 4:00 AM - 6:00 AM.

This month's updates are listed here:

https://www.catalog.update.microsoft.com/Search.aspx?q=server+2026-10

The following services will be intermittently unavailable during the outage window:

AppXtender
eVisions/FormFusion/Intellicheck
IdentityIQ (NetID.unm.edu)
Pinnacle Reports
TMA Work Order System

Other Windows servers and services (not listed above) will be intermittently unavailable during the standard patching window described at http://it.unm.edu/availability/ (under 'Hosted Windows Servers').

To ensure continued security UNM IT is performing maintenance on several SQL Servers on 11/05/2026 from 5:00pm-8:00pm. During this maintenance window the targeted SQL Servers will be intermittently unavailable. Service owners for these targeted servers have been notified and are aware of the SQL Server patching maintenance window.

Impacted services:
Active Directory
Catholic Health Initiative St. Josephs Children Longitudinal Stud
Capital Space MSSQL Database
CCURE
CCure-Avigilon-Middleware
CE Restricted Operations Service "Home Visiting"
Cherwell
College of Fine Arts AppQuest
Azure Data Warehouse
EMS
EMSS
FM Automotive
Fuelmaster
Gallup PPD
GEO ISSM Platform - SEVIS
Horizon 8
IIQ
ISPO CMDB
OnBase
Power Platforms (Power Apps and Power BI)
PPD WebCTRL
Production Crestron Web and Application Server
ProFXEngagement
SCCM and Entra POC
Special K
TMA
TMA - Teammate
UKG
UNM Online Reporting Database

To ensure continued security UNM IT is performing maintenance on several SQL Servers on 11/5/2026 from 11:30am-1:00pm. During this maintenance window the targeted SQL Servers will be intermittently unavailable. Service owners for these targeted servers have been notified and are aware of the SQL Server patching maintenance window.

Impacted services:
CommVault
NetApp Snap Protect
Solarwinds