Best practices to secure systems and environments
- Michael Laurentius
Owned by Michael Laurentius, created
Purpose
Keeping your system secure is essential to maintaining productivity, protecting data and intellectual property, and abiding by University and partners' policies and requirements.Â
Audience
faculty researchers Admin staff IT staff students
On this page
Initial considerations
Evaluate possible institutional options.
Consult with your local IT group about whether an institutionally managed system would meet your needs. These systems are managed by technical experts at the University, divisional, or departmental level, allowing you to focus more on the task at hand, rather than maintaining the security of unmanaged systems.
What can I do? (Top 5)
Set up full disk encryption on your devices.
Establish and follow a backup strategy for your important data.
Install and/or enable end-point protection (antivirus, antimalware, etc.) software.
Keep your devices up-to-date.
Protect devices with unique usernames, strong passwords and/or biometrics.
What else can I do?
Keep an inventory of all devices, data, and services related to your work.
Physically secure your devices and data.
Use secure, encrypted methods to transfer data to and from systems.
Securely destroy data when it is no longer required for your project or subject to retention obligations.
Install ad blocking and/or content filter software.
Notify necessary parties immediately if a device is compromised, lost, or stolen.
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Additional help
General
Contact us | Information Security (IS)
Contact us | Information Technology (IT)
Researchers
https://security.utoronto.ca/services/research-information-security-program/
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