Employee Self Service Now Requires VPN For Off-Campus Access

Effective February 7, 2014, off campus access to UC Flex Employee Self Service will require University of Cincinnati employees to log into the UC network using

UC’s VPN (Virtual Private Network)

.  

“This change will better secure employees’ personal information in UC Flex such as address and banking information,” said Christine Street, director, Information Services, Administration and Finance, Business Core Systems. “The change will require the additional step of logging into the VPN prior to logging into UC Flex.”

Phishing scams have become more frequent and hacking more sophisticated, Street said.  The University of Cincinnati is not alone in taking steps to address these concerns.  

“Other institutions of higher education utilizing SAP are taking similar actions to secure their employees’ information,” Street said. “A recent incident at another University revealed that faculty recently had usernames and passwords stolen from suspected phishing scams that were used to change bank account information for direct deposit via ESS.”

The functions within UC Flex impacted by this change will be all transactions within Employee Self Service including hourly time clocking.  Non-Exempt (hourly) Employees who utilize ESS to clock hours from off campus can utilize the mobile app in addition to accessing ESS utilizing the VPN.  

“The addition of the VPN requirement should not cause a great hardship as the Internet is required to access UC Flex and employees will therefore already be online,” Street said. “Employees are provided with a VPN Account utilizing Central Log-in Credentials at the time of hire therefore it is readily accessible.” 

The log-in page can easily be accessed from the UC homepage under UC Tools.  The additional step of logging into the VPN is worth employees’ time in exchange for increased protection of their personal information.  For more information about UC’s VPN system, see: http://www.uc.edu/ucit/internet/offcampus.html

Questions pertaining to UC Flex Employee Self Service can be directed to ucflex@uc.edu