Information Protection

The need to protect confidential information such as social security numbers and credit card numbers is well understood. Sensitive student and employee data that are accessed daily at CSUN as part of faculty and staff responsibilities however, also need to be protected. This includes information such as grades, GPAs, test scores, advising records, addresses and other personal contact information. View a complete list of confidential and sensitive data that needs to protected.

Practical Tips

Wherever possible, do not store confidential or sensitive information on mobile computing devices such as laptop computers, smartphones, and USB flash drives.

If you need to store confidential or sensitive information on mobile computing devices, employ the following protective measures:

Laptops

Enable the screen saver password feature (PDF). 

Smartphones

Restrict access to your device by enabling the password-access feature for smartphones (PDF)

USB Flash Drives

Restrict access by enabling the password-access feature for flash drives.

Sending Email

If you need to transmit confidential or sensitive information by email, include the information in a password-protected Microsoft Word or Excel file (PDF) attachment rather than including the information in the message body. 

Computer Screen Privacy

If you commonly work in a publically–viewable area, consider installing a privacy filter on your desktop or laptop computer screen. This will prevent someone from reading private information on your screen unless they sit directly in front of your computer. In addition, a privacy screen is easier on your eyes and protects the fragile surface of your screen from scratches. For more information visit the 3M Products & Services Page.

Passwords

Don't reveal your passwords to anyone and when creating passwords, use a combination of upper and lower case letters, numbers and symbols.