Message from Dean Parcel on Computer Security

Monday, April 11, 2005

Dear Colleagues:

Computer security is increasingly important.  Recently there were three breaches of computer security in our College that were covered in a lead story in the Journal and Courier.  Not only do such incidents cause an enormous amount of work for the University, they also put many people's identities at risk.  The University and the College are making major changes to “firewall” our systems to prevent easy access by unauthorized users.  However, you and your staff must also take action.  The bottom line is that private and sensitive data must be safeguarded against casual and overt attempts of theft. 

Therefore, I am asking you to take responsibility to educate the supervisors, faculty and other staff, including all teaching staff, in your departments about these issues.  All employees should be aware of how to safeguard data and pass that information along to their staff as needed.  Each person employed by the College should be held accountable for being appropriately proactive in protecting data.

In order to safeguard data, it must be stored properly.  Files containing social security numbers, credit card numbers or any other sensitive or private data should be stored under these guidelines:

1. Optimally, the data will be stored in a CLA IT file server.  In recent days, CLA IT staff members have more than tripled the network storage available.  Each person employed by the College of Liberal Arts is afforded space on these servers that is secured and backed up nightly.  If you do not have storage space available on a College of Liberal Arts server, or do not know how to transfer data there, please contact your site specialist or IT support professional and space will be provided for you.

2. Alternatively, in some cases data may be stored on a Zip disk, CD-ROM, and so forth.  These data should be treated as paper files and properly locked in a filing cabinet or drawer when not in use.

Again, please work with your site specialist and the CLA IT staff to address these issues proactively.  Thank you for your help with this vital matter

Toby L. Parcel
Dean, College of Liberal Arts