Securing Personal & UW Data - Best Practices

Owned by David Wilson
Oct 25, 2022
1 min read

Risk Advisory

These basic practices can go a long way towards securing your personal and UW institutional information and data:

  • Keep operating systems and applications up to date by applying all critical software patches.

  • Use anti-virus software and keep it updated to protect against the latest threats.

  • Use strong passwords with a combination of letters, numbers, and special characters, and change passwords regularly.

  • Avoid using the same password for multiple websites, accounts, and applications.

  • Use two-factor authentication whenever possible for signing in to accounts and systems.

  • Know the type and volume of data you have and safeguard it accordingly.

  • All faculty, staff, and students can use the Husky OnNet VPN Service for connecting to the UW network from remote locations.

  • Use eduroam to connect to WiFi on the UW campus and from participating campuses and institutions around the world.

  • Back up data on a regular basis, and purge data that you are no longer required to keep.

  • Protect laptops and other mobile devices from theft, protect them with a login password, and enable encryption when possible.

  • Lock your computer and other devices when they are unattended.

  • Before clicking on any links within an email, verify that the email is from a sender that you know and trust.

  • Look for the lock icon and https:// prefix when logging in or entering sensitive information on web pages.

  • Dispose of all personal and UW-owned devices securely.