E-mail related to the 2016 TUM April Fools' Joke

Dear Colleagues,

The TUM ID (still frequently known as the LRZ ID) has been a key aspect of the TUM IT system, particularly for central identity management. Because the format of the TUM ID (i.e. "gu42abc") is neither user-friendly, nor compatible with TUM’s new corporate design, the IT Service Center and the Leibniz Supercomputing Center (LRZ) have been working hard to create a new, user-friendly and secure solution for you.

 

The most important changes

  • The TUM ID will no longer be valid effective July 1, 2016.
  • In the future, the Facebook ID will be used instead of the TUM ID.
  • To prevent data loss, please link your TUM ID to your Facebook ID. This can be done effective today: April 1, 2016.

Below is additional information on how to proceed.

 

Benefits at a glance

  • By linking to your Facebook account, you have an easy-to-remember user name that you selected yourself.
  • At the same time, you can benefit from having to remember only one password for Facebook and TUM.
  • Because Facebook requires a clearly-identifiable user name, the pseudonym problem associated with the TUM ID is also eliminated.
  • In addition, Facebook will make its worldwide servers available to us. Thanks to global backups and redundancy, that means you will no longer have to worry about downtime.

 

How to proceed

  • If you already have a Facebook account, you can link it. Please have your TUM ID (including password), your personnel number (you can find this number on your ID card) and your Facebook ID and password ready. The process takes no more than two minutes.
  • If you do not have a Facebook account, do not register directly with Facebook. Facebook and TUM have created a simplified registration and linking process. Please have your TUM ID/password and your personnel number ready. This process takes no more than five minutes.

Once you have successfully linked your IDs, you can only log on to TUM’s central systems with your Facebook ID.

 

 

Outlook

The transition that takes place on April, 1, 2016 will be for university employees only. For students, the transition will occur one year later on April 1, 2017.

 

Best Regards,

Hans Pongratz

Vice President for IT Systems & IDs (CIO)

 

Note: This information is being sent to all employees registered in TUMonline.

Psst...

and did you catch the little "typo"?

 

Mr Pongratz’s real title is:

Vice President for IT Systems & Services (CIO)

not

Vice President for IT Systems & IDs (CIO)