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What is the Systems Administration Initiative?

The focus of the Systems Administration Initiative (SAI) is on UNC-Chapel Hill servers. For the purposes of this initiative, a server is a computer that provides computing services to more than one user simultaneously over a network connection. At a high level, the approach will be comprised of the following elements:

system administrator identification; server identification; training system administrators in regards to expectations about information security and their responsibilities in light of those expectations; scanning and monitoring servers to determine that they are properly maintained and that they do not have security weaknesses; and fee based system administration services for servers that are identified as having persistent security weaknesses, for which fees the campus organizational unit involved will be responsible.

The first major component of the SAI is a project to identify system administrators at UNC-Chapel Hill. The approach that was approved by University leadership specifies that all system administrators will register with the Information Security Office (ISO). An facilitates the registration of campus system administrators. At a later date, other elements of this project will be implemented. The last two project elements will focus on servers storing or processing sensitive information.

For more information on sensitive data please see the help document at the following link:

If you are a system administrator for any UNC-Chapel Hill computer, please register using the form at . Please provide accurate contact information, as this information will be used to contact you to provide updates on the SAI or as otherwise necessitated by information security concerns. Please note: in some cases application administrators and/or developers will also be asked to register in order to ensure that the ISO has an accurate accounting for persons responsible for the maintenance of the University’s mission critical and sensitive servers.

The SAI registration form also asks individuals to provide information regarding the types of data (PHI, HIPAA, FERPA, PCI, etc.) hosted on the servers they manage and also whether the servers are mission-critical. This information will be used to help the ISO prioritize and tailor training opportunities and will also be used to follow-up on concerns about information security.

As this project is completely developed and formalized, additional specific information on the exact nature of the servers individuals manage will be requested.

How can individuals know the email invitation to register for the SAI isn’t a phishing attempt?

Although the SAI is being administered by Information Technology Services (ITS) for the UNC-CH campus, the staff of the Office of Information Systems (OIS) in the School of Medicine are helping with the registration phase of the initiative. Because of this, the URL for the SAI registration form () resolves to an address on a School of Medicine server. Although it never hurts to be cautious about what appear to be phishing attempts, in this case individuals who receive the invitation to register can be certain that the email is genuine.

Why is the ISO asking individuals to complete this form?

The ISO asks individuals to complete this form because as part of their duties at the University they perform maintenance on University owned computer servers. Individuals may be asked to complete the SAI registration form even though their primary job role does not include information technology or computer maintenance. Maintenance of servers can include but is not limited to the following types of activities:

patching operating systems and applications; configuring security software and/or other application settings; performing software and/or hardware upgrades; installing networked services such as HTTP, FTP, SQL; and having system administrator or root level access on a server.

What is a server?

For the purposes of the SAI, a server is essentially a computer that provides computer access or services to more than one user at the same time over a network connection (i.e., an HTTP/web server, a network file share, a web-enabled database, etc.).

Who is a system administrator?

A system administrator is an individual that performs maintenance on a server. Please note that in some case application administrators and/or developers may be required to register for the SAI. Most often, this will be the case where a developer or application administrator manages an aspect of a server that is critical to the server’s security.