December 5, 2007
To: UCOP Community
From: Michael Shannon, Director, IR&C Technology Support Services
As part of our ongoing IT security initiative, IR&C will encrypt all UCOP owned laptops over the next couple of months. Because laptops are vulnerable to being stolen or lost, any sensitive data stored on them is particularly at risk. Encryption is a way to protect the data on laptops should such an event occur. The encryption software converts data into garbled "ciphertext," making it virtually impossible for unauthorized individuals to obtain the data. Authorized individuals access their data by logging onto the laptop with a password to decode the ciphertext.
Employees who have UC owned laptops will be notified about a week in advance and will be given simple instructions about what to do to enable installation of the encryption software. Guidelines for using and protecting UC owned laptops are available on the Web: http://www.ucop.edu/irc/policy/laptopguide.html. Thank you in advance for helping to protect University data.
