We are delighted that Heather Amato joined our Research IT consulting team in April 2020!

Prior to joining us at UC Berkeley, Heather achieved a Masters in Public Health at Emory University. However, her career in data developed through a data analyst position at Tracking California where she worked on environmental justice projects throughout the state. While honing her skills in data management and analysis through a PhD program at UC Berkeley, she found the opportunity to further explore her interest in data and computing by connecting with team members at Research IT. Amidst her rigorous program and exciting work with us, Heather enjoys connecting with her Italian-American roots through frequent pasta meals and looks forward to playing soccer with her team in the Bay area again!

As seen during the UCSF incident, attackers are targeting both systems and individuals using tactics like spear phishing and exploitation of Remote Desktop Protocols. If you are running outdated or unpatched operating systems, the risk to your systems and data is especially critical. (e.g., Windows XP, Windows 7, macOS 10.12 and below). Here are some ways to protect your data.

Libraries have historically served as a hub for access to technology by providing publicly available computers with access to the Internet and workshops on technology topics. Academic libraries Research IT commonly house their own internal information technology (IT) team to serve unique needs in acquisition, resource management, access, discovery, and preservation of research materials. However, these internal teams are not designed to address the technical needs of researchers, like developing data management plans and advising on storage. As a result, there is often a separation between services available through the library and services provided by central and research IT organizations. As research from across disciplines is becoming more data and computationally intense, these two campus communities have an opportunity to collaborate on comprehensive research services for students and researchers.

UC Berkeley research labs have been at the forefront of the design and planning for much of today's cloud computing industry. There are many more examples across campus of teams using, running, and facilitating access to cloud based systems including those that support the teaching of data science using platforms like Jupyterhub (also developed at UC Berkeley).