There is nothing you need to do immediately because of these changes. You should expect the department modem pool to go away in about six months. Additional documentation on the security issues, and what to do to minimize them, is still being prepared. Unless you already understand the issues and the solutions, you should continue using the modem pool until that documentation is available. The purpose of this message is simply to give you the earliest possible notice that a change will be occurring in the future.
Additional information follows.
We re never again going to upgrade our modem pool. Modem access was established at a time when there was no reasonable alternative but to run it ourselves. Today there are many reasonable alternatives. It no longer makes sense for us to devote person power and other resources to maintain this facility. Starting in about 6 months we will stop even maintaining the modem pool, and may announce its effective demise abruptly.