Why Worry About My Data?
A user with the password to your Truman network account could access campus computers and Truview.
On campus machines, a user could access your Y: Drive and anything you have saved on it. Anything objectionable they do on the computer would be traced back to you. Any printing they did would come out of your print account.
With access to your Truview account, a user could see your emails and any sensitive information, contained in them. They would have access to your class and housing information, as well as your billing information in MyBill.
And that’s just from your Truman account. If a user gains access to your computer, any information, whether personal, financial, or otherwise, is available to them.
How Do I Protect Data?
There are a number of ways to protect your data. What follows is not an exhaustive list.
Password Protection
Password protection is a first line of defense for any sensitive data you may have. Be sure and set a password your computer, even if it’s in a safe location. Here are some instructions on how to do this on Windows and macOS.
Additionally, you can password protect individual files and folders on your system. Windows users can find instructions here, and macOS users can find a tutorial here.
Encryption
In addition to password protecting your data, you can also encrypt it. Encryption scrambles data, making it readable only with a special decryption key. Without this key, no one can view the data. There are both paid and free tools to do this.
General Safety Tips
1) Never give your password to anyone else. A password is not useful if other people know it!
2) Make sure to log off of campus machines, online email accounts, and anything else you log in to when you are away from your computer.
3) Do not write down your passwords unless you absolutely can’t remember them. If you do write them down, be sure to store them in a safe location.