Posted February 20, 2018 by Academic and Institutional Technology
Tags:
Security
Disk Encryption for College-Owned Computers
As part of an ongoing effort to enhance security and protect College data and student and employee personal information, we will be continuing to encrypt the hard drives of College-owned computers issued to employees with access to sensitive data. This will help prevent data from being accessed if a device is lost or stolen by providing another layer of security.
Disk encryption for employee computers is one of the security measures recommended by GreyCastle Security after a security risk assessment last year.
Rationale
- Full disk encryption protects data when it's "at rest," meaning stored on your computer's hard drive. This protects your data if your computer is lost or stolen. Without disk encryption, it is possible for criminals to connect your computer's hard drive to another device and access your information. You can learn more about encryption here.
- Disk encryption is required for Wheaton College compliance with HIPAA, HITECH, and FERPA security policies.
Impact on College Community
- Upper-level administration and those with access to financial information have already had disk encryption enabled. Now, disk encryption will be enabled for primary personal laptops. AIT will contact those that need disk encryption enabled on their machine.
- College-owned Mac computers will be encrypted using FileVault and College-owned Windows computers will be encrypted using Bitlocker.
If you have any questions or concerns, please contact Academic and Institutional Technology at 630.752.4357 (HELP) or by email at ait.service.desk@wheaton.edu.