Those who wish to contract with a vendor to collect or work with HRCI must obtain prior approval from the University CIO. For information, contact security@fas.harvard.edu.
These parties must have a written contract covering their services, including a requirement to protect CI. Please the Harvard Information Security contract-riders page.
Users should not depend on the built-in file locking in Microsoft Office for confidential info. Any number of programs can be used to circumvent the protections instead, users can encrypt such files using PGP or, for Windows computers, WinZip.
Do not use e-mail to transmit CI (Confidential Information). Please, use Harvard's Accellion Secure File Transfer server: http://fta.fas.harvard.edu. To get help with this, call 5-9000. HRCI can only be transferred out of Harvard if Harvard has a contract containing specific security requirements with the destination of the transfer.
The system known as \\fas-depts is available and provides a sufficient level of security for CI. Many Economics faculty members already have accounts on this system. For information about or access to this server, please call 5-9000.
Only when there is a business reason to do so, non-HRCI confidential info may be kept on USB drives, CDs or external hard drives only if those devices are encrypted. In these cases, please contact IT Security (ithelp@harvard.edu) to request an IronKey secure flash drive, which will be provided at no cost.
CI may be kept on desktop computer if it is properly configured. It must have a timeout password controlling access to the desktop, the operating system must be updated regularly, have updated anti-virus software, have its firewall active and kept in a secured room, etc. In other words, all common-sense steps must be taken so that the computer may be used to work with CI to securely complete a specific business related task. If you still need the data once the task is completed, the data must be moved to a secure FAS file server, such as \\fas-depts (commonly known in the Economics...
Student info (such as grades, reference letters, transcripts, personal statements, class work) must be treated as CI. As a general rule, it is best for faculty and staff to treat all student data as CI, unless there are specific reasons not to.
