Smart Computing to Secure Your Data

Recommended best practices for securing your personal and UW institutional information and data.

These basic practices can go a long way towards securing your personal 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 to connect 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.

Resources