UW and Aero Astro IT Policies and Best Practices
The following information is related to the overall Department of Aeronautics & Astronautics plan as required by UW Administrative Policy Statement 2.6, as outlined in the UW Policy Directory
Keep the Operating System (OS) of all your devices up to date.
Do NOT blend your personal data with UW data. Use a separate email reader for UW Email on your personal devices.
Use UW provided Anti-Virus Software (SOPHOS)
Use a “strong” password (combination of letters, numbers, special characters) and have a plan to change it regularly.
Use a password generator
Use a password manager (LastPass, 1Pasword, KeePass 2, etc.) to store your passwords in an encrypted data file.
Use Two-Factor Authentication (2FA/DUO).
Use the UW VPN (HuskyOnNet) when connecting from off campus.
Use “Eduroam” Wi-Fi on campus (when not connected to Ethernet).
DO NOT STORE DATA on your device (except for short term storage that you WILL move to secure storage shortly) - Always use approved UW storage (Windows Server or Google Shared Drive/Dropbox “cloud storage”).
If you deal with data that is covered by an UW Data Retention Policy – Know the period(s) of retention and set a reminder to review your existing data and purge according to the policy.
Lock your device whenever you are aware from it. Keep your device in your physical possession if you take it from your office.
Do not access personal accounts (i.e. social media) on a UW owned device. Remember– everything you do on a UW owned device is viewable.
The following link will allow you to DOWNLOAD a blank IT Onboarding checklist from a MS Excel Template. You will need to choose "Save As..." and rename it with the name of the employee who is being scheduled for installation of a new computer/laptop with IT Services.
The policies around appropriate use of IT Resources and Data Retention and Security can be found here: https://it.uw.edu/policies-guidelines/appropriate-use/#protect
These guidelines are in addition to the appropriate use guidelines.
Review your data storage usage on a regular basis in order to comply with all regulatory requirements based on the type or purpose for the data being stored. HIPPA and FERPA data, as well as any data that is controlled by a regulatory requirement from an industry partner or the Federal Government *MUST* be securely stored on systems that meet those requirements and are fully certified as being compliant. This is an on-going requirement for the storage of this type of data.
In order to access information from an on-campus source when you are off-campus, you MUST use the UW provided VPN (Virtual Private Network) software HuskyOnNet
No data/information should be stored on the hard drive of your devices. All data/information MUST be stored either in the ‘cloud’ (via OneDrive, Google Drive, DropBox, etc.) or stored on UW provided storage solution managed by UW-IT Windows File Services (WFS). All local data/information that is saved and stored on a local hard drive is at risk of being destroyed by a hardware failure or theft.
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.
Our standard workstation, running Windows 10 Enterprise (64 bit) is based on the following HP models:
Standard Tower Workstation – HP Z2 G5
Standard Desktop Workstation – HP Z2 G5
Our standard laptop, running Windows 10 Enterprise (64 bit) is based on the following Lenovo model:
Standard laptop – Lenovo ThinkPad “T” Series
NOTE: These standard hardware models can also be configured to run a standard Linux distribution (such as Ubuntu) as this Linux distribution comes with all of the necessary drivers to run these systems without the need for added configuration. Additionally, standard Ubuntu (currently version 20.04) operates more like a user-oriented desktop/laptop OS in terms of set up and operation than earlier Linux distributions.
Any other systems (such as Macintosh (MacOS) and higher end/special purpose systems (with more computing power or highly specialized OS/Application configurations)) can be configured as required by a business and/or research need. Please contact aatech@uw.edu if you need any assistance with your computing systems.
A&A departmental
aa-allusers@uw.edu: All users in the A&A department: faculty, staff, students, researchers, etc.
aa-faculty@uw.edu: All A&A faculty, includes emeriti with FTE.
*Note that the list is not moderated when members use their UW.edu email addresses. Faculty using their "aa.washington.edu" emails to post to the faculty list will get a delay for moderated approval.
aa-emeritus@uw.edu: Emeriti faculty with no current FTE.
aa-fixedtermacademic@uw.edu: Current quarterly instructional faculty and ASEs.
aa-staff@uw.edu: All A&A staff including core and research staff.
aa-corestaff@uw.edu: All A&A front office, fiscal, academic lab, KWT, IT, JCATI, Shop, and WebDev staff.
aa-researchstaff@uw.edu: All permanent and temporary classified or professional staff as well as all classified non-union positions in research labs/groups.
aa-ase@uw.edu: Academic student employees including RAs, TAs, predoctoral instructors, and graders.
aa-students@uw.edu: All students in the A&A degree program, including all undergrads, grads, and MAE students.
aa-postdocs@uw.edu: All department post-docs.
aa-dei@uw.edu: Email goes to all members of A&A's Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Committee.
A&A student sub-groups
Informal student-to-student community
aa_ugcommunity@uw.edu: Undergraduate student-to-student
aa_gradcommunity@uw.edu: Graduate student-to-student