Memorandum

As the information threat landscape evolves and higher education becomes a more popular target for cybercriminals, we need your help to protect Texas Tech University's information resources.

Under the provisions of the Information Resources Management Act (Texas Government Code §2054) and OP 52.04, information resources (i.e., desktops, laptops, servers, data, etc.) are strategic assets of the State of Texas that must be managed as valuable resources, including protecting them with an appropriate level of security. According to OP 70.40, anyone who has access to sensitive, confidential and/or personally identifiable information concerning university faculty, staff, students, affiliates, or others, including donors or vendors, or who has access to any information made confidential by Texas Tech University policies or law, including, but not limited to, the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act of 1974 (FERPA) and the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act of 1999 will take reasonable and necessary steps to ensure the privacy of such information.

Texas Tech's IT Division recommends the following steps to help protect confidential information:

• Instead of downloading data to your computer, access data directly from authoritative university systems, such as Cognos or Banner. If you must save the data, save the minimum data necessary for the task to a Texas Tech-provided cloud storage service, not your device; do not retain convenience copies of files with sensitive or confidential data.
• Do not send sensitive or confidential information via email. A better option is to utilize university-provided cloud storage and provide links to only those individuals needing access to the files.
• If email must be used, it must be encrypted, and the content limited to only the minimum necessary for the task. Or, if a file with sensitive or confidential information is attached to the email, the file must be password protected. Ensure that the recipient list includes only those required.
• Encrypt your system using Texas Tech-provided tools to protect information in the event the system is lost or stolen. For more information, visit https://askit.ttu.edu/encryption.
• If files contain sensitive or confidential information such as FERPA data, password-protect these files to prevent unauthorized access.
• Delete files with sensitive or confidential information when there is no longer a business need for them.
• Mobile computing devices are generally less secure and inherently at risk for data loss. As such, they should not be used to store sensitive or confidential data (See Mobile Computing Policy.)

The IT Division provides and supports several free online file storage solutions. In addition to being more secure, these systems are backed up regularly so that files can easily be restored if lost or accidentally deleted.

* Mission critical information is any information or data that is critical to the academic, research, or administrative operation of TTU.

** Non-mission critical information is any information or data that is considered non-essential to the function(s) of TTU, a TTU business unit, or a TTU official research project.

Additional Notes:

• SharePoint Online is cloud storage ideal for departmental files that many people may need to access. SharePoint Online is also conducive for collaboration.
• Microsoft Teams provides a popular, collaborative environment with SharePoint Online storage and rich Microsoft 365 integration.
• OneDrive for Business is best for storing files needed by a single user while still allowing for collaboration and sharing.
• TechShare is an on-premises resource for archiving large files or folders but does not afford easy collaboration and may be more difficult to access on mobile devices.
• Please review OP 10.10 to make sure that file retention complies with the institutional retention schedule.
• Please contact IT Help Central at (806) 742-4357 (HELP) or ithelpcentral@ttu.edu with additional questions or for help with these tools.