Ideas for safe computing

Hey folks.

It’s the beginning of the new school year and we have a new crop of employees that haven’t heard the speech about safe computing. It doesn’t hurt the rest of us to be reminded either. If you watch the news at all you know what a mine field it can be.

The IT department does what it can to protect your data, including FERPA protected student information. We've invested in anti-virus software, encryption software for laptops, encrypted wireless, servers and software to install updates, and a backup system that keeps multiple copies of school data. One copy is even out of state!

Still much of the responsibility falls to you. Here is a brief list of things you can do:

1. Passwords:
1. Choose a strong one with a few numbers mixed in. The password changing page will help you know if the password you are choosing is strong.
2. Never use your Harding password for other sites (online shopping accounts, other e-mail accounts, banking, etc)
3. Don’t write it down
4. Don’t give it away. If you get an e-mail message asking you to verify your user name, e-mail settings, etc. it will not be from us!
2. Phishing: Don’t click links in e-mail messages. Even if it looks like it’s from us. We may send a message saying “go to Pipeline and change your password” but we won’t send you a link.
3. Data: Make sure all of your important files are stored somewhere besides your computer. My suggestion is to store them on your M: drive or your Google drive. Hard drives do fail. We replace several each month. That conversation is sad for those who haven’t backed up their data.
4. Secure wireless: Not only is it secure, but it’s been allocated more bandwidth that the guest wireless.
5. Physical security: Close your office when you aren’t there. Also, a screen saver with a password helps cover you when you forget.

Along these lines we will be introducing a new product named Languard this semester. It is similar to the update product that we have been using except that it will update more than just Microsoft products. We will send more information when the time comes.

Feel free to contact us with your questions and suggestions. We are here to help!