OIT offers recommendations for securely storing data

Today’s digital world allows us to share, store, and transmit data with the click of a mouse. This is great for many business processes and for efficient work, but often means that protecting sensitive data requires more vigilance. 

At Ohio University, the term “sensitive data” refers to data classified at a medium or high level that must be protected against unauthorized disclosure. This includes, but is not limited to, data such as bank account numbers, Social Security numbers (SSN), protected health information (PHI), and internal business information.  

Although understanding your data and protecting it can seem overwhelming, the Office of Information Technology (OIT) has created resources to help you navigate data storage and transmission in a secure and efficient manner.  

• The Information Security Office’s Protect University Data webpage is a great starting point to explore what you can do to protect the data we interact with each day.  
• OIT’s Storing Data by Type webpage will empower you to make decisions based on available IT services and common data types, such as student education records (FERPA), payment card industry information (PCI), identifiable human subject research data, and more.  
• OIT’s Storing Data by Solution webpage will enable you to make informed storage decisions based on solutions offered by OIT, including Blackboard, OneDrive, PeopleSoft, and more. 
• For quick reference information, OIT recommends bookmarking the Storing Data by Type: Searchable Table webpage.

Please contact the Information Security Office if you have any questions about appropriate storage or sharing practices. The Information Security Office is happy to schedule consultations to help you classify your data, as well as help you establish secure storage and sharing practices.