Identity Finder Scans Begin Aug 1 – Reminder

3 07 2014

Information Security Officer Adam Edwards sent out a reminder email to all faculty this week about Identity Finder automated scans, which are set to begin for University-provided faculty desktop machines (Windows only) on August 1. Here’s his reminder:

Starting on Aug 1, 2014 the Information Security Office will begin conducting weekly scans of faculty PCs to locate restricted data. These scans will only be conducted on University provided machines. This is an effort to protect University data and prevent data loss as described in the email notice below.  If you have Human Research data, please ensure it is encrypted prior to Aug 1 2014. These weekly scans have already been rolled out to staff and TAG members.

If you have any questions please email security@scranton.edu

Thanks

Adam Edwards

You can take a look at TAG’s Identity Finder FAQ for Faculty to help prepare, and definitely refer to Adam’s instructions for encryption with 7Zip if you have sensitive or confidential data to protect!


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Encryption with 7-Zip – Instructions

3 07 2014

So there was a bit of internet shock earlier this summer when a surprise announcement came out that the widely used encryption utility TrueCrypt was no longer being developed. Previously, our Information Security Office had recommended TrueCrypt as a tool for encrypting personal and confidential information, like human subject data. Now that TrueCrypt has been discontinued, Security Officer Adam Edwards passed along some instructions (.docx) for using an alternative (also free and open source) encryption tool, 7-Zip.

Adam warns:

**One caveat with this option is that there is no central management.  This is important because if a user loses their password the data will be lost. Manual recovery procedures will need to be put in place to ensure there is alternative access in the event of an emergency.  If no manual recovery procedures are put in place and the password is lost the data will be lost.**

Please contact Information Security with questions or concerns. Thanks to Adam (and Information Security Engineer Scott Finlon) for watching out for us!


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