Hi, HIPAA and other regulations require systems which house patient identifiable data to have encrypted disks at our uni. Systems which house student data (e.g. SSN #'s, grades, etc) are also encrypted. Since we are doing mostly basic research or using de-identified data in structural biology, we are not required to encrypt our workstations and servers, which improves system performance, and is a big load off my shoulders!
On Wed, Aug 17, 2011 at 2:13 PM, Jrh <jrhelliw...@gmail.com> wrote: > Dear Colleagues, > My institution is introducing concerted measures for improved security via > encryption of files. A laudable plan in case of loss or theft of a computer > with official files eg exams or student records type of information stored on > it. > > Files, folders or a whole disk drive can be encrypted. Whilst I can target > specific files, this could get messy and time consuming to target them and > keep track of new to-be-encrypted files. It is tempting therefore to agree to > complete encryption. However, as my laptop is my calculations' workbench, as > well as office tasks, I am concerned that unexpected runtime errors may occur > from encryption and there may be difficulties of transferability of data > files to colleagues and students, and to eg PDB. Transferring data between encrypted and non-encrypted systems is seamless. Most of these applications encrypt your disk and optionally usb drives. Some require a password for boot or contact a centralized key server to get the keys required for decryption so that the system can boot. Our uni has a site license for Checkpoint's encryption app, but I've used truecrypt and they all allow transferring data between encrypted and non-encrypted systems without issues. HTH, Sabuj > > Does anyone have experience of encryption? Are my anxieties misplaced? If > not, will I need to plan to separate office files, which could then all be > encrypted, from crystallographic data files/calculations, which could be left > unencrypted. If separate treatment is the best plan does one need two > computers once more, rather than the one laptop? A different solution would > be to try to insist on an institutional repository keeping such files. > > In anticipation, > Thankyou, > John > Prof John R Helliwell DSc >
