User Information Security Precautions 2006
Every member of the University community has a responsibility to take precautions that will help protect our information and computer systems. You are responsible to:
- Use a long pass-phrase for your Hawk ID instead of a short pass-word, and never share it with anyone! Numbers, letters, special characters, blanks, and punctuation are all allowable characters. A sentence or phrase is very easy to remember! Change your pass-phrase often, at least once a semester.
- AVOID storing highly sensitive information on mobile devices (laptop, tablet PC, PDA, USB flash drive, etc) and on individual workstations. Encrypt the data and password protect the device if you do keep it local. Other options are to store sensitive data on department managed file servers, or move the data on a CD/DVD and store in a secure location.
- Avoid disreputable web sites and free software downloads.
- Do not click on attachments you are not expecting, or on links sent to you in unsolicited advertising (SPAM) e-mails. Do not reply to unsolicited messages asking for personal information.
- Lock your screen when your computer is unattended.
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Limit your use of privileged user accounts (like "Administrator" on Windows PC's) to reduce your exposure to "mal-ware" (malicious software) found in many types of communications (email, web, instant messages, etc). Sign on with a regular user account whenever you can.
- Have your computer managed by a University IT Professional. If this is not possible, you must:
- Configure your computer to automatically download and apply updates
- Run the current version of anti-virus software and configure it to update virus signatures daily
- Configure and activate the firewall feature on your computer to block all unneccessary communications
- Install only reputable licensed software
- Make backups of files stored locally on your system drive regularly