Every employee is responsible for protecting institutional data and understanding the laws governing the release of data. We recommend that employees receive personal training on privacy laws and best practices for protecting data at IU before receiving access to restricted data.

Data privacy month 2019

January 28 is Data Privacy Day and it kicks off a month long celebration to bring awareness to the importance of online safety, security and privacy in your daily work. We encourage you to take a look at the resources provided by staysafeonline.org and take a moment to consider ways you can improve your privacy and security practices.

See great ways to observe data privacy month in 2019

Data Storage and Handling

The Committee of Data Stewards is developing a data storage and handling tool that will help to evaluate the best method to store or send student data.

See Data storage and handling (DSH)

Tips for safeguarding student data

• Know who has access to folders before you save restricted or critical data.
• Do not store sensitive data in locations that are publicly accessible from the Internet. If you can access it without a password, so can others.
• Mobile or portable devices even for email use should be protected by a passcode and encrypted. Laptops, smart phones, and memory sticks can be lost or stolen, and if unencrypted can result in a data breach.
• Follow IU's passphrase requirements and NEVER share your passphrase, use it for other services, or save it in memory!
• If sensitive data is no longer needed, don't retain it! Know your department's retention and disposal policies.
• Be on the lookout for phishing scams. If you receive a suspicious email forward it to phishing@iu.edu.
• Run anti-virus and anti-malware tools routinely and alert IT staff if you encounter issues.
• Do not use unencrypted wireless connections when working with or sending sensitive data. VPN and IUAnyWare are secure options.
• Do not send confidential data in an email unless the data is encrypted using slashtmp for critical data or CRES.

For more information on protecting IU data, please visit https://protect.iu.edu/online-safety/protect-data/index.html