The South Bayview Bulldog

Kay Murphy

Stories worth hearing this Tuesday include that of Kay Murphy, 100. She recently recovered from COVID-19 at a Halifax nursing home where the quick-witted woman enjoys keeping up with the news. As told by the CBC, family tears absolutely turned to joy. Then, the remarkable story of a five-year-old Utah boy who was stopped as he drove the family SUV to California where he planned to “buy a Lamborghini.” Think big, we say. Finally, a frightening incident near Dundas and Seaton Sts where a man, 43, goes berserk and starts hurling large rocks at the police.

News of a series of virus outbreaks at Toronto Western Hospital has emerged overnight with the latest total of staff members infected with COVID-19 set at 79. The numbers appear to be climbing with the hour even as it is also said that many staff have already recovered. Some 19 patients have tested positive, ten of whom remain hospitalized. Two patients have died.

York University is recovering from a serious cyber-attack that occurred Friday evening, the university says in a news release Monday. It says that fast action by technical staff halted a much more damaging impact.

On Friday evening, York University fell victim to a serious cyber-attack that corrupted a number of University servers and workstations. Fortunately, the attack was quickly identified by UIT staff, who immediately took the necessary steps to mitigate the scope and potential severity of the attack by shutting down York’s computer systems and engaging external forensic experts to fully investigate this extremely serious situation.

As you can imagine, the investigation is complex, is still ongoing and will likely take some days to complete. However, UIT continues to work 24/7 to bring as many systems back on-line as soon as they have been inspected and cleared.

Please also be advised that most York IT Service Desk ticketing systems (e.g. askIT@yorku.ca, ITHelp@glendon.yorku.ca) have been out of service since the cyber-attack and will NOT be available on Monday morning, nor will UIT and other Faculty IT units’ phone systems. We are working to rectify the situation.

Update on Systems

Over the weekend functionality was restored to the following systems:
• Password change
• Office 365 (including email)
• York website (except for sites on Windows servers)
• The following faculty websites: Schulich, Science, LA&PS, Education, Health, Graduate Studies
• Zoom
• Moodle
• On-campus student access to the internet
We are now focusing on making the following services available as soon as possible – updates to follow:
• VPN for HR and Finance
• Mymail/Central Mail
• All remaining Faculty websites
Unfortunately, the following systems are still not available while the investigation continues:
• CRM Student email
• Most VPN
• HR, Finance SIS systems for general use
• Internal drives (including FAS)

We sincerely regret the inconvenience caused by this cyber attack and would ask for your continued patience and understanding as we work as quickly as possible to return York’s computer systems to full operational status while ensuring their integrity and security. It is already very evident that UIT’s quick response significantly reduced the potential damage this cyber attack would have caused, if not detected and dealt with so quickly.

As we bring York’s computer systems back into service, to ensure maximum security and as an important step in safely restoring systems, the entire York community will need to change their current passwords. We will advise when this needs to take place.

Updates will be provided regarding the recovery of York’s systems on an ongoing basis.

Donald Ipperciel
Chief Information Officer

The Ministry of Health reports 370 new cases of COVID-19 infection Monday. It is a further drop from earlier numbers and continues a trend of declining cases. Ministry of Health

The phishing scam in which an employee gets mail which appears to be from a boss or superior is seen again in Durham Region where police say three local charities have reported an attempt to trick the treasurer into sending money. They say the bogus emails appeared to be from the charity’s president but of course, were not. Another tipoff to a scam in progress was the direction to buy $500 in Google gift cards. Uh-huh, sure.

Truck tractor stopped with spike belt at Fruitland

OPP have stopped a stolen truck tractor and arrested two men with the use of a spike belt across the QEW at Fruitland east of Hamilton. It’s not clear where the vehicle was stolen but a chase began when OPP saw it on Highway 403 near Burlington. It turned around and headed towards Niagara but the spike belt team was waiting for and brought the truck to a stop where the men were arrested.

Stolen truck tractor stopped on QEW at Fruitland Rd./OPP

The RCAF Snowbirds have raised spirits with flyovers in Nova Scotia.

Warning COVID distraction might lead to measles epidemic

Humanitarian organizations like UNICEF are worried that the world-wide focus of resources on beating COVID-19 might lead to neglect of immunization of kids for measles and other diseases. Equally disturbing is a concern that disrupted food chains may lead to starvation in impoverished parts of Eastern Africa. Finally, a wide-ranging and informative discussion about how Canada’s economy might recover in the face of COVID debt burdens and battered oil prices.

Carrie Symonds with new son

His father’s son

British prime minister Boris Johnson and his fiance Carrie Symonds have named their tousle-haired son Wilfred after two doctors who treated Johnson for COVID-19. Pictures of Symonds and the newly-born Wilfred were posted to Instagram by Carrie. Wilfred is seen bawling and sporting a full head of unruly blond hair like his dad. The Sun (London)

Ontario’s Medical Officer of Health says Sunday that the number of community transmissions of COVID-19 is indeed falling slowly but people must continue to maintain social-distancing and their new at-home lifestyle for a while longer. The Ministry reported 434 new cases of COVID-19 on this sunny morning as thousands tuned in to church services. It is a heartening figure, below the average of 448 cases daily reported since Saturday, March 25. That includes the 511 seen Saturday (yesterday). “While it’s coming down slowly, it’s having ups and downs and we’d like to see it progressing even quicker,” MOH David Williams said. “That means everyone needs to adhere to physical distancing as we’re not yet disrupting community transmission adequately at this time. So we want to stick to the task.”

Update from Longo’s

Longo’s at Leaside Village on Laird Drive

Longo’s will require all customers to wear masks of some form in order to enter stores starting Monday, says a release from the firm. The decision by Longo’s and others raises the question of mask availability. Most conventional places for such a purchase are either closed or out of stock. Amazon is offering delivery of a mask by sometime in June.  Longo’s release

Leaside women making masks for porch pickup

At least two women are offering what appears to be home-made masks in posts to Leaside Community Facebook. Check them out here and also here.

Masks made in Leaside for porch pickup

Toronto Police attended a three-vehicle crash at Bloor St. and Dundas St. Saturday afternoon where a driver has fled the scene. A man in his 30s is said to have serious injuries. The scene is in the Roncesvalles neighourhood west of Lansdowne Ave. Photos tweeted by Poryo MohSo who has some nice pictures taken elsewhere on the account.

Person of interest

Private jet incinerated in February

York Regional Police have released a photo of a man who they call a person of interest in relation to the arson of a private jet at Buttonville Airport on February 27. The release does not offer much more on how or where police found this new lead. If you can help, call 866-876-5423, ext. 7541. Arsonist destroys private jet in gasoline fire at Buttonville

The Ministry of Health is reporting 511 new cases of COVID-19 and 55 more deaths in the province. The numbers reported on Saturday brings the total number of novel coronavirus cases in Ontario to 17,119, including 1,176 deaths and 11,390 recoveries. Statistics show that 66.5 percent of cases in Ontario have now been resolved.

• Remdesivir receives emergency approval as a Covid-19 treatment
• COVID-19 cases in Canada much higher than we think: Montreal researchers