Keep your data (and computer) safe

Words of advice from the Office of Information Technology

Securing Your Laptop Against Physical Theft

Theft of laptops, desktop computers, computer parts and peripherals is a growing problem. According to insurance company figures, there is a 1 in 14 chance of a PC owner being victimized. If you lose your computer, or any part of its system, you've lost more than the cost of the laptop. You have lost your data. The hardware can be replaced, but the loss of work in progress could be devastating.

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People who volunteer to participate in research do so with the understanding that investigators will protect their identity and their information from inadvertent and inappropriate disclosure.

So treat collected data just like your laptop to keep safe and secure. A few helpful tips:

1) train research staff on the proper methods of keeping data secure.

2) de-identify data when saved on the laptop - this means stripping all personal identifiers from the saved data.

3) if the research requires that identifiers be kept, save your data to a removable medium (i.e. external hard drive) and secure that drive under lock and key. You may wish to use an identity key to match various data sets; if so, secure that key as well.

4) sensitive data may be secured using data encryption - the algorithmic transformation of data into an unrecognizable format that can only be recovered using a secret decryption key.