IT Security

About Information Security at Carleton

Information Security provides vision and direction for developing and supporting IT security initiatives at Carleton. The group provides leadership in the development and operation of structures, programs and policies that address the needs of Carleton’s information assets and how they are protected.

Key areas of accountability are:

• Ensuring that appropriate and reasonable safeguards are employed to detect and protect against potential threats to IT assets
• Establishing and evolving an appropriate security posture that balances risks, investment and safeguarding of assets against the university’s ability to operate effectively and efficiently; and,
• Evaluating, planning and delivery of the security aspects of the university’s network infrastructure

As part of an ongoing program to raise the level of security awareness at Carleton University, the Information Security Division provides security awareness reminders to the campus community on a regular basis.

Did you know?

• Over 80 per cent of the email sent to the Carleton email gateway from the Internet is SPAM.
• Most simple passwords can be cracked in under 4 hours.
• Each day ITS identifies 10 – 15 viruses on computers in our network.

For more information:

• Virus/Malware Protection
• Residence PC Protection
• How to keep your system up to date

Portable Storage Devices

User’s Responsibilities for Protecting University Data

Portable storage devices – USBs, memory cards, removable or external hard drives and CDs/DVDs, Smartphones, tablets, iPods – connect to a computer and provide file storage.

• They can be easily lost or stolen.
• Confidential information should never be stored on portable media unless it is protected from unauthorized access.
• All confidential information should be stored on an encrypted secure storage media devices.
• “Encrypted USB thumb drives” are available from ITS Hardware Services at ext. 4063.
• Network drives should be used to store confidential student data, financial data, health records and research data.
• If sensitive or personal information is stored on a portable storage device and it’s lost or stolen, this could lead to significant security and privacy concerns.

If you believe that there has been a breach of confidential information on portable media, please contact the ITS Service Desk at ext. 3700 immediately.

• Do not use portable storage media for university information that is not otherwise publicly available.
• Do not leave storage devices unattended and lock them in a secure area.
• Remove confidential data from mobile devices once it is no longer needed for valid business purposes.
• Please ensure that university-provided portable device(s) are returned to ITS (https://carleton.ca/its/contact/) for disposal when they are no longer required