All Co-Existent County SPOCs and Technical Contacts:
As requested, here is the list of patches that IBM tested and applied to the Dedicated County Windows 10 Workstations for March 2024:
Windows 10 22H2: Cumulative Update for Windows 10 Version 22H2 - Windows 10 Version 22H2 - KB5035845 (x64) Critical
Google Chrome: Google Chrome 122.0.6261.129 High
Visio: Security Update for Microsoft Visio 2016 - KB5002565 Important
Action Required
No action is required. Informational only.
Update
CWS/CMS Microsoft Teams Channels Set Up - UDPATE
All CWS/CMS SPOCs and Technical Contacts:
March 20, 2024 UPDATE: At this time, we would like to provide CWS SPOCS and CWS Technical Contacts with an update on MS Teams use in sharing specific CWS/CMS Reports as well as the CANS Duplicate Reports. After reviewing the feedback from our testing counties, we have determined that use of MS Teams can move forward.
We plan on going live with all county CWS SPOCS, SPOC Backups, and CWS Technical Contacts starting April 2, 2024. The rollout of MS Teams will be completed on a phased approach. Beginning on the morning of April 2, 2024, we will add users to the MS Teams county/organizations channels following this schedule:
We are confident that the use of MS Teams will be a mutual benefit to our counties/organizations as well as to CWDS in sharing specific reports and eliminating the need to email these sensitive reports, which has been problematic.
Beginning on April 2, 2024, CWS SPOCS, CWS SPOC Backups, and CWS Technical Contacts will begin to see county/organization MS Teams channels in their MS Teams application. The naming convention selected for the channels is: MO_Reports_Countyname. This name will be used since these reports fall under Maintenance & Operations. We hope this prevents any confusion with the other existing CARES Workgroup MS Team channels that some county/organization staff may have access to now.
This is a sample screenshot of how it would look in MS Teams.
Once the user clicks on the County/Organization MS Teams Channel, this will be the folder structure under the Files tab in MS Teams:
Channel / Folder Access
CWS SPOCS and CWS SPOC Backups will be granted access to all the folders shown above. However, CWS Technical Contacts will only be granted access to the CWS CMS User ID Reports and Windows Workstation Reports folders and not the CANS Duplicates folder.
For additional security, all documents contained in these folders will be password protected. Your Customer Relations team member will provide you with those passwords in a separate encrypted communication.
Thank you in advance for your patience as we begin rolling out MS Teams to the CWS SPOCS, CWS SPOC Backups, and CWS Technical Contacts.
If you have any questions regarding this process, please reach out to Customer Relations at CWS_CustRel@osi.ca.gov.
__________________________________________________________________________
The CWDS Project is excited to announce that Microsoft Teams (MS Teams) will soon be used by CWS/CMS as method to share reports previously sent via encrypted emails. MS Teams will support sharing various reports, including the following:
On January 2, 2024, it was shared that the use of MS Teams would be implemented on a phased approach, starting with the CARES Analytics Workgroup on January 8, 2024. This work was completed by our CARES Data Infrastructure (CDI) lead engineer, Craig Woody, in partnership with OTSI’s Information Technology Office (ITO). Thanks to that effort, we feel that it can now be expanded to use for CWS/CMS report sharing.
A major difference in the use of MS Teams for CWS/CMS, as opposed to its use in CARES, is that each individual county/organization will have a siloed/isolated County MS Teams channel. Due to the nature and security of the reports to be shared, only the Single Points Of Contacts (SPOCs) and Technical Contacts will have access to these county MS Teams channels. Additionally, channel members from one County will not be able to access or view another County’s MS Team channel.
Starting on March 11, 2024, a small subset of counties will assist CWDS in testing access to MS Teams for the use mentioned above. Those test counties are:
Please send Customer Relations an email if your county does not plan to use MS Teams for collaboration with the CWDS Project at this time. Customer Relations will document your county’s decision and/or identify a future timeframe to explore setting up an MS Teams channel with your county.
Action Required
Please reply by March 15, 2024 if your county does not plan to use MS Teams at this time or in the near future.
March 20, 2024 UPDATE: At this time, we would like to provide CWS SPOCS and CWS Technical Contacts with an update on MS Teams use in sharing specific CWS/CMS Reports as well as the CANS Duplicate Reports. After reviewing the feedback from our testing counties, we have determined that use of MS Teams can move forward.
We plan on going live with all county CWS SPOCS, SPOC Backups, and CWS Technical Contacts starting April 2, 2024. The rollout of MS Teams will be completed on a phased approach. Beginning on the morning of April 2, 2024, we will add users to the MS Teams county/organizations channels following this schedule:
| Date – Onboarding of users | Region |
| 4/2/24 | Bay Area region counties |
| 4/2/24 | Mountain Valley region counties |
| 4/2/24 | Southern region counties |
| 4/3/24 | Central Valley region counties |
| 4/3/24 | Northern region counties Yurok and Karuk Tribes |
We are confident that the use of MS Teams will be a mutual benefit to our counties/organizations as well as to CWDS in sharing specific reports and eliminating the need to email these sensitive reports, which has been problematic.
Beginning on April 2, 2024, CWS SPOCS, CWS SPOC Backups, and CWS Technical Contacts will begin to see county/organization MS Teams channels in their MS Teams application. The naming convention selected for the channels is: MO_Reports_Countyname. This name will be used since these reports fall under Maintenance & Operations. We hope this prevents any confusion with the other existing CARES Workgroup MS Team channels that some county/organization staff may have access to now.
This is a sample screenshot of how it would look in MS Teams.
Once the user clicks on the County/Organization MS Teams Channel, this will be the folder structure under the Files tab in MS Teams:
Channel / Folder Access
CWS SPOCS and CWS SPOC Backups will be granted access to all the folders shown above. However, CWS Technical Contacts will only be granted access to the CWS CMS User ID Reports and Windows Workstation Reports folders and not the CANS Duplicates folder.
For additional security, all documents contained in these folders will be password protected. Your Customer Relations team member will provide you with those passwords in a separate encrypted communication.
Thank you in advance for your patience as we begin rolling out MS Teams to the CWS SPOCS, CWS SPOC Backups, and CWS Technical Contacts.
If you have any questions regarding this process, please reach out to Customer Relations at CWS_CustRel@osi.ca.gov.
__________________________________________________________________________
The CWDS Project is excited to announce that Microsoft Teams (MS Teams) will soon be used by CWS/CMS as method to share reports previously sent via encrypted emails. MS Teams will support sharing various reports, including the following:
- CANS Duplicate Reports
- Windows Workstation Reports
- CWS/CMS User ID Clean Up Reports
On January 2, 2024, it was shared that the use of MS Teams would be implemented on a phased approach, starting with the CARES Analytics Workgroup on January 8, 2024. This work was completed by our CARES Data Infrastructure (CDI) lead engineer, Craig Woody, in partnership with OTSI’s Information Technology Office (ITO). Thanks to that effort, we feel that it can now be expanded to use for CWS/CMS report sharing.
A major difference in the use of MS Teams for CWS/CMS, as opposed to its use in CARES, is that each individual county/organization will have a siloed/isolated County MS Teams channel. Due to the nature and security of the reports to be shared, only the Single Points Of Contacts (SPOCs) and Technical Contacts will have access to these county MS Teams channels. Additionally, channel members from one County will not be able to access or view another County’s MS Team channel.
Starting on March 11, 2024, a small subset of counties will assist CWDS in testing access to MS Teams for the use mentioned above. Those test counties are:
- Fresno
- Placer
- Sacramento
- San Diego
- Shasta
- Solano
Please send Customer Relations an email if your county does not plan to use MS Teams for collaboration with the CWDS Project at this time. Customer Relations will document your county’s decision and/or identify a future timeframe to explore setting up an MS Teams channel with your county.
Action Required
Please reply by March 15, 2024 if your county does not plan to use MS Teams at this time or in the near future.
California Department of Technology Service Desk Bulletin – Gold Camp Switch Upgrade - POSTPONED
All SPOCs and Technical Contacts:
March 11, 2024 UPDATE: The California Department of Technology (CDT) has postponed the Gold Camp switch upgrade, originally scheduled for Sunday, March 17, 2024, has been postponed. A new communication will be sent out once the upgrade has been rescheduled.
__________________________________________________________________________________
The California Department of Technology (CDT) has scheduled a change window onSunday, March 17, 2024, to upgrade switches at the Gold Camp Data Center. The change window will begin at 4:00 AM and conclude at 8:00 AM.
The CARES-Live application will experience up to a 40-minute interruption in service within the change window.
CWS/CMS connections through the Gold Camp facility will failover to either the Orange or Vacaville Data Center facilities while the change is in progress. CWS/CMS users may experience a slightly longer time than usual to connect to the CWS/CMS application while the network looks for connections to the other two Data Centers. No interruption in service is expected for the CWS/CMS application during this activity.
There is no impact to connectivity to CWS-CARES.
Action Required
CWS/CMS Users: If users experience any issues with CWS/CMS, please follow your county process for reporting issues, or you may contact the IBM Boulder Help Desk at 1-800-428-8268.
CARES-Live Users: Please follow your county process for reporting issues. CARES-Live County Administrators may contact the CARES Service Desk through the CWDS ServiceNow Customer Support Management (CSM) Portal. Alternate methods are phoning 1-855-292-3444 or via email at Servicedesk@cwds.ca.gov during normal business hours. You may also email after hours, and a Service Desk representative will contact you the next business day.
March 11, 2024 UPDATE: The California Department of Technology (CDT) has postponed the Gold Camp switch upgrade, originally scheduled for Sunday, March 17, 2024, has been postponed. A new communication will be sent out once the upgrade has been rescheduled.
__________________________________________________________________________________
The California Department of Technology (CDT) has scheduled a change window on
The CARES-Live application will experience up to a 40-minute interruption in service within the change window.
CWS/CMS connections through the Gold Camp facility will failover to either the Orange or Vacaville Data Center facilities while the change is in progress. CWS/CMS users may experience a slightly longer time than usual to connect to the CWS/CMS application while the network looks for connections to the other two Data Centers. No interruption in service is expected for the CWS/CMS application during this activity.
There is no impact to connectivity to CWS-CARES.
Action Required
CWS/CMS Users: If users experience any issues with CWS/CMS, please follow your county process for reporting issues, or you may contact the IBM Boulder Help Desk at 1-800-428-8268.
CARES-Live Users: Please follow your county process for reporting issues. CARES-Live County Administrators may contact the CARES Service Desk through the CWDS ServiceNow Customer Support Management (CSM) Portal. Alternate methods are phoning 1-855-292-3444 or via email at Servicedesk@cwds.ca.gov during normal business hours. You may also email after hours, and a Service Desk representative will contact you the next business day.
CDT Service Desk Bulletin – Gold Camp Switch Upgrade - March 17, 2024 | 4 AM - 8 AM
All SPOCs and Technical Contacts:
The California Department of Technology (CDT) has scheduled a change window on Sunday, March 17, 2024, to upgrade switches at the Gold Camp Data Center. The change window will begin at 4:00 AM and conclude at 8:00 AM.
The CARES-Live application will experience up to a 40-minute interruption in service within the change window.
CWS/CMS connections through the Gold Camp facility will failover to either the Orange or Vacaville Data Center facilities while the change is in progress. CWS/CMS users may experience a slightly longer time than usual to connect to the CWS/CMS application while the network looks for connections to the other two Data Centers. No interruption in service is expected for the CWS/CMS application during this activity.
There is no impact to connectivity to CWS-CARES.
Action Required
CWS/CMS Users - If users experience any issues with CWS/CMS, please follow your county process for reporting issues, or you may contact the IBM Boulder Help Desk at 1-800-428-8268.
CARES-Live Users - Please follow your county process for reporting issues. CARES-Live County Administrators may contact the CARES Service Desk through the CWDS ServiceNow Customer Support Management (CSM) Portal. Alternate methods are phoning 1-855-292-3444 or via email at Servicedesk@cwds.ca.gov during normal business hours. You may also email after hours, and a Service Desk representative will contact you the next business day.
The California Department of Technology (CDT) has scheduled a change window on Sunday, March 17, 2024, to upgrade switches at the Gold Camp Data Center. The change window will begin at 4:00 AM and conclude at 8:00 AM.
The CARES-Live application will experience up to a 40-minute interruption in service within the change window.
CWS/CMS connections through the Gold Camp facility will failover to either the Orange or Vacaville Data Center facilities while the change is in progress. CWS/CMS users may experience a slightly longer time than usual to connect to the CWS/CMS application while the network looks for connections to the other two Data Centers. No interruption in service is expected for the CWS/CMS application during this activity.
There is no impact to connectivity to CWS-CARES.
Action Required
CWS/CMS Users - If users experience any issues with CWS/CMS, please follow your county process for reporting issues, or you may contact the IBM Boulder Help Desk at 1-800-428-8268.
CARES-Live Users - Please follow your county process for reporting issues. CARES-Live County Administrators may contact the CARES Service Desk through the CWDS ServiceNow Customer Support Management (CSM) Portal. Alternate methods are phoning 1-855-292-3444 or via email at Servicedesk@cwds.ca.gov during normal business hours. You may also email after hours, and a Service Desk representative will contact you the next business day.
CWS/CMS: February 2024 Microsoft Patches
All Co-Existent County SPOCs and Technical Contacts:
As requested, here is the list of patches that IBM tested and applied to the Dedicated County Windows 10 Workstations for February 2024:
Windows 10 22H2
MS24-FEB: Cumulative Update for Windows 10 Version 22H2 - Windows 10 Version 22H2 - KB5034763 (x64) Critical
MS Office 2016
MS24-FEB: Security Update for Microsoft Office 2016 - Office 2016 - KB5002467 Critical
MS24-FEB: Security Update for Microsoft Office 2016 - Office 2016 - KB5002469 Important
MS24-FEB: Security Update for Microsoft Office 2016 - Office 2016 - KB5002519 Critical
MS24-FEB: Security Update for Microsoft Office 2016 - Office 2016 - KB5002522 Critical
MS24-FEB: Security Update for Microsoft Office 2016 - Office 2016 - KB5002537 Critical
MS24-FEB: Security Update for Microsoft PowerPoint 2016 - PowerPoint 2016 - KB5002495 Important
MS24-FEB: Security Update for Microsoft Publisher 2016 - Publisher 2016 - KB5002492 Important
MS24-FEB: Security Update for Microsoft Visio 2016 - Visio 2016 - KB5002491 Important
MS24-FEB: Security Update for Microsoft Word 2016 - Word 2016 - KB5002542 Important
MS24-FEB: Security Update for Skype for Business 2016 - Skype for Business 2016 - KB5002181 Important
Adobe Acrobat Reader CC
MS24-JAN: Cumulative Update for .NET Framework 4.8 for Windows 10 Version 1607 - Windows 10 Version 1607 - .NET Framework 4.8 - KB5033910 (x64) Important
Adobe Acrobat Reader 2023.008.20533 Available - Adobe Acrobat Reader - Continuous Track APSB24-07 Critical
M&O Emergency February 2024 Zero Day Patch for Outlook Vulnerabilities
MS24-FEB: Security Update for Microsoft Outlook 2016 - Outlook 2016 - KB5002543 Important
Action Required
No action is required. Informational only.
As requested, here is the list of patches that IBM tested and applied to the Dedicated County Windows 10 Workstations for February 2024:
Windows 10 22H2
MS24-FEB: Cumulative Update for Windows 10 Version 22H2 - Windows 10 Version 22H2 - KB5034763 (x64) Critical
MS Office 2016
MS24-FEB: Security Update for Microsoft Office 2016 - Office 2016 - KB5002467 Critical
MS24-FEB: Security Update for Microsoft Office 2016 - Office 2016 - KB5002469 Important
MS24-FEB: Security Update for Microsoft Office 2016 - Office 2016 - KB5002519 Critical
MS24-FEB: Security Update for Microsoft Office 2016 - Office 2016 - KB5002522 Critical
MS24-FEB: Security Update for Microsoft Office 2016 - Office 2016 - KB5002537 Critical
MS24-FEB: Security Update for Microsoft PowerPoint 2016 - PowerPoint 2016 - KB5002495 Important
MS24-FEB: Security Update for Microsoft Publisher 2016 - Publisher 2016 - KB5002492 Important
MS24-FEB: Security Update for Microsoft Visio 2016 - Visio 2016 - KB5002491 Important
MS24-FEB: Security Update for Microsoft Word 2016 - Word 2016 - KB5002542 Important
MS24-FEB: Security Update for Skype for Business 2016 - Skype for Business 2016 - KB5002181 Important
Adobe Acrobat Reader CC
MS24-JAN: Cumulative Update for .NET Framework 4.8 for Windows 10 Version 1607 - Windows 10 Version 1607 - .NET Framework 4.8 - KB5033910 (x64) Important
Adobe Acrobat Reader 2023.008.20533 Available - Adobe Acrobat Reader - Continuous Track APSB24-07 Critical
M&O Emergency February 2024 Zero Day Patch for Outlook Vulnerabilities
MS24-FEB: Security Update for Microsoft Outlook 2016 - Outlook 2016 - KB5002543 Important
Action Required
No action is required. Informational only.
CWS/CMS MSI File Not Automatically Replicating to Servers
SPOCs and Technical Contacts for Kings, Lake, Napa, Orange, San Diego, San Francisco, Santa Clara, and Stanislaus Counties:
IBM ran a report on February 12, 2024, shortly after the CWS/CMS Release 9.3 implementation, to view when the Robocopy script was last ran. The Robocopy script is the formal process in which Counties receive the latest CWS/CMS MSI installation file. Eight (8) of the Counties had either not ran a new Robocopy script for quite some time or had never ran it. We assume these Counties must be manually copying the MSI files, instead of using the Robocopy script automatically replicate them, prior to the CWS/CMS release.
If a County needs assistance with updating the Robocopy script schedule to automatically replicate the CWS/CMS release MSI file to their County share folder, please submit an IBM Help Desk ticket (800-428-8268). The IBM team will work with your county to troubleshoot this issue.
Action Required
Contact the IBM Help Desk (800-428-8268) if a County wants assistance from IBM to automatically replicate the MSI files to the County’s shared folder using the Robocopy script.
IBM ran a report on February 12, 2024, shortly after the CWS/CMS Release 9.3 implementation, to view when the Robocopy script was last ran. The Robocopy script is the formal process in which Counties receive the latest CWS/CMS MSI installation file. Eight (8) of the Counties had either not ran a new Robocopy script for quite some time or had never ran it. We assume these Counties must be manually copying the MSI files, instead of using the Robocopy script automatically replicate them, prior to the CWS/CMS release.
If a County needs assistance with updating the Robocopy script schedule to automatically replicate the CWS/CMS release MSI file to their County share folder, please submit an IBM Help Desk ticket (800-428-8268). The IBM team will work with your county to troubleshoot this issue.
Action Required
Contact the IBM Help Desk (800-428-8268) if a County wants assistance from IBM to automatically replicate the MSI files to the County’s shared folder using the Robocopy script.
CWS/CMS: Critical Disk Space Warnings for the CAD BusinessObjects Server - UPDATE
All CAD Contacts and SPOCs:
February 23, 2024 UPDATE: The low disk space warning for the CAD BusinessObjects (BO) server has been mitigated. It was discovered that a very large extract report had inadvertently been set to run hourly and to send the results to the entire county group, rather than a single in-box. This resulted in over 600GB of data, replicated across several in-boxes. The report schedule was deleted and the in-boxes cleaned up, correcting the storage issues.
As a reminder, here are some space saving tips:
The CWS/CMS CAD BusinessObjects (BO) server has seen an increase in report storage, resulting in low disk space warnings and some intermittent report scheduling failures. While the free space on the server remains low, there is a chance of intermittent failure for scheduled reports. Please review your scheduled reports each morning and re-run if necessary.
Action Required
If you have recently added or modified scheduled BO reports, please review these schedules to make sure you are only running the report when needed. Report recurrence frequency should not be scheduled more frequently than daily, at most. Also, check that only the minimum number of instances are being retained by BusinessObjects.
All users, please review all of your reports and delete any old, unused, or duplicate reports. Please also review versioning and delete older versions if no longer needed. If it is not possible to delete reports, please purge obsolete data from reports to reduce disk usage.
Contact Chris Lovejoy (Chris.Lovejoy@osi.ca.gov) if you require more information regarding these requests.
February 23, 2024 UPDATE: The low disk space warning for the CAD BusinessObjects (BO) server has been mitigated. It was discovered that a very large extract report had inadvertently been set to run hourly and to send the results to the entire county group, rather than a single in-box. This resulted in over 600GB of data, replicated across several in-boxes. The report schedule was deleted and the in-boxes cleaned up, correcting the storage issues.
As a reminder, here are some space saving tips:
- Make sure the scheduled report recurrence is, at most frequent, daily. The data is only updated once a day, so hourly does not serve any purpose.
- Only address scheduled reports to an individual’s in-box for destination. Do not use the county group.
- Check your in-box regularly and keep it clean. If you need to store a report, move it to your personal folders.
- Limit the number of instances you retain. Remember that you can always re-run a report. Consider saving data to a secure county location if required for date-sensitive retention.
- Clean up old versions of reports that are no longer needed. This will save space, and time when we have to move to CARES Analytics.
The CWS/CMS CAD BusinessObjects (BO) server has seen an increase in report storage, resulting in low disk space warnings and some intermittent report scheduling failures. While the free space on the server remains low, there is a chance of intermittent failure for scheduled reports. Please review your scheduled reports each morning and re-run if necessary.
Action Required
If you have recently added or modified scheduled BO reports, please review these schedules to make sure you are only running the report when needed. Report recurrence frequency should not be scheduled more frequently than daily, at most. Also, check that only the minimum number of instances are being retained by BusinessObjects.
All users, please review all of your reports and delete any old, unused, or duplicate reports. Please also review versioning and delete older versions if no longer needed. If it is not possible to delete reports, please purge obsolete data from reports to reduce disk usage.
Contact Chris Lovejoy (Chris.Lovejoy@osi.ca.gov) if you require more information regarding these requests.
CWS/CMS: Data Quality Fuzzy Reports Available
All SPOCs and Data Quality Analysts:
The latest versions of data quality fuzzy reports for clients & placement homes are now available. Note that Substitute Care Provider (SCP) Fuzzy reports have been replaced by SCR8912 SCP Deduplication. The Client & Placement Home Fuzzy reports assist with data cleanup by providing a greater number of potential duplication matches, using “fuzzy” matching criteria, than would be possible on the more restricted results on the Semi-annual merge reports. Additional information on CWS/CMS data cleansing activities and benefits, including fuzzy reports, is found on the Data Quality Portal.
To help the Data Quality team to keep track of requests for fuzzy reports, a simple online request form has been developed. A new request must be submitted each time to receive the updated fuzzy reports. The Data Quality Fuzzy reports request online form is located at 2024 February DQ Fuzzy Reports Request.
Action Required
If a county wants to request a Data Quality Fuzzy Report (for Client or Placement Home), please complete and submit the online request form located at 2024 February DQ Fuzzy Reports Request.
The latest versions of data quality fuzzy reports for clients & placement homes are now available. Note that Substitute Care Provider (SCP) Fuzzy reports have been replaced by SCR8912 SCP Deduplication. The Client & Placement Home Fuzzy reports assist with data cleanup by providing a greater number of potential duplication matches, using “fuzzy” matching criteria, than would be possible on the more restricted results on the Semi-annual merge reports. Additional information on CWS/CMS data cleansing activities and benefits, including fuzzy reports, is found on the Data Quality Portal.
To help the Data Quality team to keep track of requests for fuzzy reports, a simple online request form has been developed. A new request must be submitted each time to receive the updated fuzzy reports. The Data Quality Fuzzy reports request online form is located at 2024 February DQ Fuzzy Reports Request.
Action Required
If a county wants to request a Data Quality Fuzzy Report (for Client or Placement Home), please complete and submit the online request form located at 2024 February DQ Fuzzy Reports Request.
CWS/CMS: California Department of Technology Service Desk Bulletin – Citrix Update
All SPOCs, Technical Contacts, and SBC Administrators:
The California Department of Technology (CDT) has scheduled maintenance on Saturday, March 9, 2024, beginning at 6:00 AM and concluding at 1:00 PM. During the maintenance window, CDT will update Citrix Storefronts to resolve an identified security vulnerability. Users will not be able to access Citrix at various times during the migration. It is recommended that users do not log into Citrix during the maintenance window.
Action Required
If users experience any issues with CWS/CMS, please follow your county process for reporting issues or you may contact the IBM Boulder Help Desk at 1-800-428-8268.
The California Department of Technology (CDT) has scheduled maintenance on Saturday, March 9, 2024, beginning at 6:00 AM and concluding at 1:00 PM. During the maintenance window, CDT will update Citrix Storefronts to resolve an identified security vulnerability. Users will not be able to access Citrix at various times during the migration. It is recommended that users do not log into Citrix during the maintenance window.
Action Required
If users experience any issues with CWS/CMS, please follow your county process for reporting issues or you may contact the IBM Boulder Help Desk at 1-800-428-8268.
CWS/CMS Infected and Unsupported File Extension File Cleanup – UPDATE
CWS Directors, SPOCs and Technical Contacts in Affected Counties:
February 8, 2024 UPDATE: The California Department of Social Services (CDSS), the CWDS Project and IBM are still working on determining an approach for sharing with counties the documents that have been quarantined. This decision will take a little longer to complete than originally thought. The updated ETA for the decision is now March 15, 2024. An update will be shared out to everybody once the decision has been made.
In the meantime, the CWDS Office is still awaiting notification from the CWS Directors from a majority of the impacted Counties on your preference to delete or to keep quarantined the affected files. If you have not yet shared your preference, please do so by the extended deadline of February 29, 2024.
____________________________________________________________________________
December 26, 2023 UPDATE: The California Department of Social Services (CDSS), the CWDS Project and IBM have decided that the safest option is to quarantine the identified infected and unsupported files in CWS/CMS. The files will not be deleted from CWS/CMS, but users will be prevented from opening the affected documents. The affected documents will be saved to a quarantined area of CWS/CMS on Saturday, January 6, 2024. If a CWS/CMS user attempts to open one of the quarantined documents, they will receive the following error message:
Please note that this DRMS 00122 error message is informational only and that the user will be able to continue to work in the CWS/CMS application after receiving the error message.
The CWDS Project and IBM are still looking to receive responses from the CWS Directors indicating their permission to permanently delete these files. Please contact CWDS Customer Relations (CWS_CustRel@otsi.ca.gov) by January 31, 2024, with your decision whether to have IBM delete the files in a batch file deletion process.
__________________________________________________________________________________________
December 18, 2023 UPDATE: In the attached letter the California Department of Social Services (CDSS) has provided updated guidance to Counties impacted by the CWS/CMS infected and unsupported file cleanup effort.
Please contact CWDS Customer Relations (CWS_CustRel@otsi.ca.gov) with any questions related to this guidance.
_________________________________________________________________________________________
As part of planning for CWS-CARES V1, the CARES Data Conversion team has been performing incremental conversion from CWS/CMS data and documents into CWS-CARES. After the documents are extracted from CWS/CMS, they are scanned to ensure that no viruses are introduced into the CARES environment. During this process, it was discovered that, out of 73 million documents that are stored in the CWS/CMS database, approximately 2,400 documents are infected with a virus or malware. Of these 2,400 documents, 95% were last updated in 2001 or before.
Further, there are an additional 2,600 files that have an unsupported file extension.
Due to security concerns, these documents and files cannot be moved into the CWS-CARES application.
Please NOTE: These infected documents are stored in binary large object (BLOB) format on the mainframe in the Db2 database. As a result, these documents do not affect CWS/CMS data on the mainframe. However, if the document is opened, the virus can infect the user’s personal computer. Please ensure that you have a current antivirus operating on your workstation.
If you are receiving this communication, it means that your county is impacted by this issue.
For each affected County, we will send a report listing the infected files and unsupported file extension files, with additional details pertaining to that County. The reports will be sent to affected counties after the Kick-off meetings.
Please provide a point of contact including IT Support and Security Officer as appropriate and their information (Name, Email, Role, etc.) for the person that should receive your County’s report no later than 11/8/23. The report will be sent via encrypted email to that person.
Please use this form to provide the point(s) of contact: CWS/CMS Infected Documents/Unsupported File Extension - Contacts
Once Customer Relations receives the point of contact person’s information, they will be invited to the Kick-off meetings scheduled for 11/14/23 and 11/16/23. The intent of those meetings will be to review next steps.
Action Required
Please provide a point of contact and their information (Name, Email, etc.), using the link above, for the person that should receive your County’s report no later than 11/8/23.
February 8, 2024 UPDATE: The California Department of Social Services (CDSS), the CWDS Project and IBM are still working on determining an approach for sharing with counties the documents that have been quarantined. This decision will take a little longer to complete than originally thought. The updated ETA for the decision is now March 15, 2024. An update will be shared out to everybody once the decision has been made.
In the meantime, the CWDS Office is still awaiting notification from the CWS Directors from a majority of the impacted Counties on your preference to delete or to keep quarantined the affected files. If you have not yet shared your preference, please do so by the extended deadline of February 29, 2024.
____________________________________________________________________________
December 26, 2023 UPDATE: The California Department of Social Services (CDSS), the CWDS Project and IBM have decided that the safest option is to quarantine the identified infected and unsupported files in CWS/CMS. The files will not be deleted from CWS/CMS, but users will be prevented from opening the affected documents. The affected documents will be saved to a quarantined area of CWS/CMS on Saturday, January 6, 2024. If a CWS/CMS user attempts to open one of the quarantined documents, they will receive the following error message:
Please note that this DRMS 00122 error message is informational only and that the user will be able to continue to work in the CWS/CMS application after receiving the error message.
The CWDS Project and IBM are still looking to receive responses from the CWS Directors indicating their permission to permanently delete these files. Please contact CWDS Customer Relations (CWS_CustRel@otsi.ca.gov) by January 31, 2024, with your decision whether to have IBM delete the files in a batch file deletion process.
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December 18, 2023 UPDATE: In the attached letter the California Department of Social Services (CDSS) has provided updated guidance to Counties impacted by the CWS/CMS infected and unsupported file cleanup effort.
Please contact CWDS Customer Relations (CWS_CustRel@otsi.ca.gov) with any questions related to this guidance.
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As part of planning for CWS-CARES V1, the CARES Data Conversion team has been performing incremental conversion from CWS/CMS data and documents into CWS-CARES. After the documents are extracted from CWS/CMS, they are scanned to ensure that no viruses are introduced into the CARES environment. During this process, it was discovered that, out of 73 million documents that are stored in the CWS/CMS database, approximately 2,400 documents are infected with a virus or malware. Of these 2,400 documents, 95% were last updated in 2001 or before.
Further, there are an additional 2,600 files that have an unsupported file extension.
Due to security concerns, these documents and files cannot be moved into the CWS-CARES application.
Please NOTE: These infected documents are stored in binary large object (BLOB) format on the mainframe in the Db2 database. As a result, these documents do not affect CWS/CMS data on the mainframe. However, if the document is opened, the virus can infect the user’s personal computer. Please ensure that you have a current antivirus operating on your workstation.
If you are receiving this communication, it means that your county is impacted by this issue.
For each affected County, we will send a report listing the infected files and unsupported file extension files, with additional details pertaining to that County. The reports will be sent to affected counties after the Kick-off meetings.
Please provide a point of contact including IT Support and Security Officer as appropriate and their information (Name, Email, Role, etc.) for the person that should receive your County’s report no later than 11/8/23. The report will be sent via encrypted email to that person.
Please use this form to provide the point(s) of contact: CWS/CMS Infected Documents/Unsupported File Extension - Contacts
Once Customer Relations receives the point of contact person’s information, they will be invited to the Kick-off meetings scheduled for 11/14/23 and 11/16/23. The intent of those meetings will be to review next steps.
Action Required
Please provide a point of contact and their information (Name, Email, etc.), using the link above, for the person that should receive your County’s report no later than 11/8/23.
If unable to find a specific Bulletin, please contact Communications.