What Can I Do If I Receive Confidential Information?
The protection of confidential information in any of its forms, whether it be electronic, printed and even memorized information, is paramount to insuring continued business functions. In addition, the Ãå±±ÂÖ¼é is required to comply with Federal and State Laws to insure that UTEP is not misrepresented by the disclosure of personal information or found negligent in its duty to protect personal information of its students, faculty and staff.
What Are Some Examples Of confidential Information?
- Social Security Numbers
- UTEP ID Numbers (80/88)
- UTEP EID Number (600)
- Date of Birth
- Financial information
- Credit Card Numbers
- Medical Records
- Ethnicity
- Religious affiliations
- Sexual orientation
- Political party affiliations
NOTE - Care should be exercised when working with data containing both a person's first and last name, together with one or more of the following: Social Security Number, driver's license number, student grades, identification numbers, or account numbers, credit or debit card numbers, or other banking information in combination with any required security code, access code, or password that would permit access to an individual's financial account.
So, What Can I Do If I Receive, Store, Or Are Required To Transmit confidential Information?
The Information Security Office (ISO) has several options for securing/storing confidential information safely - if you have no other available options:
1. You can create a MSWord, MSExcel, or WinZip file to contain the confidential information. You can then use the program's "Encryption/Password-Protection" features to secure the information.2. If you receive an attachment in an email containing confidential information, please follow these steps:
- Copy the attachment temporarily to your Desktop.
- Open the attachment.
- Save the attachment using the program's encryption/password-protection feature.
- Don't forget to Delete the email containing the original unencrypted/unpassword-protected file.
3. If you receive an email which contains confidential information in the body of the email, please follow these steps:
- Click on Forward so that you can forward the email to yourself - sounds funky right, we'll explain below!
- Before you Send the email to yourself, make sure you either "X" out the confidential information or Delete the information.
- Don't forget to Delete the email.
EXPLANATION: You will not be able to edit the text in the body of the email unless you first forward or send the email to someone. Make sure you do not forward the email to someone else. Be careful not to use the "Reply" or "Reply To All" features unless you first remove the confidential information. Another alternative is to contact the individual that requires the information over the phone. If you need to send the information via email, make sure you encrypt or password-protect the information as shown above.
4. You can place a Service Desk request to have the ISO install Winmagic, aka SecureDoc, on a Ãå±±ÂÖ¼é-owned laptop. This program encrypts the entire content of a laptop. Please note that this program is only available for Ãå±±ÂÖ¼é-owned Laptops and has not been released for campus use - It is currently being tested.
Please contact the Information Security Office when in doubt.