LTS Offers Laptop Encryption Service
Data security is becoming increasingly important as the
number of data breaches and lost or stolen computers
continues to rise.
It is Lehigh University policy to maintain the integrity and
security of institutional, proprietary, and confidential
data with which the University is entrusted. Under certain
State and Federal laws, the theft of sensitive data must be
disclosed to all parties that may be affected.
Data is usually classified sensitive
when it falls within the guidelines of FERPA (student
records), HIPAA (medical records) or GLBA (financial
records) or any other data an institution determines as
sensitive.
It is estimated that one computer
breach costs an institution approximately $260 per record
lost. This equates to over $1,000,000 for every 4000 records
lost!
As another significant step toward improved data security,
Library and Technology Services (LTS) has begun a full disk
encryption project for University-owned laptop computers
containing sensitive or confidential information.
Given the more portable nature of
laptops, this project is being undertaken with the
expectation that all University computers will be encrypted
sometime in the future.
University computer users are encouraged to take advantage
of this offer to have their Lehigh-owned laptop encrypted by
LTS using PGP Whole Disk Encryption software.
Interested users should enter a work
order at:
http://www.lehigh.edu/help/. An LTS Computing Consultant
will contact users shortly thereafter to schedule a time to
install the software and encrypt the hard drive.
For more information on encryption at
Lehigh, please visit
http://www.lehigh.edu/security/encryption/encrypt.html
and contact your departmental computing consultant or the
helpdesk at 8-HELP with any questions or concerns.
