An explanation of the Remote Control Notifications email message

This article explains the content of the remote control notifications message, why you might have received such a notification and how to escalate any issues.

Remote control notifications are sent automatically each evening. They are sent after a member of IT staff remotely controls a computer using the University's remote control software tool. This software can allow the remote computer display to be seen by the connecting member of IT staff.

The ability to remotely control computers is carefully managed and maintained. Only approved IT staff have this capability and access to the software tool is controlled. IT staff will act in an ethical and professional manner at all times, only accessing systems and data they need to for the task.

A notification message will contain the following text:

From:Remote Control Auditor <remotecontrol@leeds.ac.uk>

Subject:Remote Control Notification - Please Read!

Dear First-name Last-name,

This is an automated email from IT. You do not need to reply unless you have any concerns about its content. This email has been sent to you because at approximately Time on Date the PC known as PC-Name was remotely controlled by an IT Technician. The person who did this was IT Technician name and they performed this action from IT-PC-Name. The PC was remotely controlled by a member of IT support staff as a result of you or another user reporting a fault with the PC or requesting help. It may or may not have been done while you were present at your PC. If you weren't present when this happened you should have been informed beforehand that this was due to happen and have given your permission for the PC to be looked at in your absence.

If you didn't give your consent for this remote control session to take place please can you first check that PC-Name is the name of your PC (See Knowledge base article KB0013845 for details). If you are not a user of PC-Name or you are concerned that this was done without your permission please read KB0013235. If you still have concerns, you can report this incident to IT at https://it.leeds.ac.uk. The matter will then be investigated.

The use of remote control facilities is governed by a charter. You can view this charter at KB0012148 This charter lays down the situations in which IT staff may remotely control your PC and your rights should you feel that there has been a contravention of these policies.

Regards,

The University of Leeds IT Service, Client IT Assurance and Administration Team

https://it.leeds.ac.uk

The following fields contain information specific to the remote control session:

First-name Last-name - The name of the user logged in at the time of the session
Time - The time of the remote control session
Date - The date of the session. Notifications are sent at the end of each day for the sessions undertaken on that day
PC-Name - The name of the computer that was connected to
IT Technician Name - The name of the IT technician that connected to the PC
IT-PC-Name - The name of the computer that the IT technician used to connect from

What happens during a remote control session

The remote control software that the IT service uses will prompt you to agree to a remote control session.

If your computer is locked, the IT technician can connect and "switch user", to do the necessary work. This does not require you to agree to the connection.

Without your approval an IT Technician will not be able to connect and see the live activity on your computer screen.

Where a notification has been received unexpectedly, there can be a number of reasons for this:

An IT technician has remotely connected while the computer screen was locked to fix a reported issue. Our remote control software will identify the current user of a locked computer and notify them of the remote control session; however the IT Technician will not have been able to see the current user's screen or any of their data, emails, etc. at any point of the remote control session.

The last logged on user is identified as the current user by the remote control software. Occasionally the remote control software can incorrectly identify someone as still being logged on and will alert them to a remote control session having taken place.

The remote control session was undertaken on a computer where the notified user has recently logged on, but it is not the users normal computer. Examples of this are the use of a computer in an IT office to help resolve an issue, a computer in a meeting room or lecture theatre, or a loan computer that is being prepared for reissue. You can verify your computer name by browsing to http://mypc.leeds.ac.uk and cross checking this against the PC-Name in the message.