Education Data Security and Privacy Policy
- What does this policy cover?
- This policy pertains to all Purdue University College of Education employees
- This policy covers any computer (server, workstation, laptop) that is owned by the Purdue University College of Education. This includes computers that may not be directly managed by the College of Education Office of Information Technology.
- Why have a policy?
- With ever growing sophistication of cyber criminals and threats, we need to be diligent in protecting sensitive and restricted data. Federal regulations such as HIPPA, FERPA and GLBA mandate that we take measures to protect privacy.
- What data should not be stored on file servers?
- Credit Card Numbers
- Bank Account Number
- Personal Financial Information
- Information labeled “classified” or above by the United States government
- Social Security Numbers unless approved by the Dean
- What data should not be stored workstations?
- Since workstations are used daily to access a myriad of resources on the Internet, they are more likely to be targeted for attack. The following types of data must never be stored on an individual’s workstation unless specifically cleared by the Director of the Office of Information Technology and College Administrators:
- Credit Card Numbers
- Bank Account Numbers
- Personal Financial Information
- Social Security Numbers unless approved by the Dean
- State ID numbers (Drivers License/State ID)
- What can I do to secure my sensitive data?
- If you own and maintain data that is classified as “Sensitive” or “Restricted” by the University, this includes any data related to student grades and discipline records, you need to encrypt the data. The College of Education IT team recommends a program called “TrueCrypt” to do this. If you are interested in using this program to secure your documents on the network server and your removable storage, please email the Education IT team at edit@purdue.edu.
- Where can I go for more information?
- Purdue has many resources available for you to learn about data security and privacy. You can refer to one of these resources, or contact the College of Education Database Administrator at EdIT@purdue.edu.
