Privacy & Security for Working Remotely

Protect Confidential Information

• If others are in your home, keep your work in the most secluded, secure place, like a closed room.
• All information that is not officially public is confidential, particularly if it is about identifiable individuals, including student records, grades, and most HR and financial information.
• Only share confidential information with faculty or staff who need it for University work.

Electronic Records – Files and Documents

• Ensure your devices have up-to-date security, including firewall, patches, anti-virus and anti-spam. Review and implement the security practices set out by University Information Technology Services.
• Keep confidential information on secure University systems; not on home devices you use for work.
• Encrypt information you can’t keep on secure University systems (e.g., on an encrypted USB key or drive).
• Access work, files, and documents only on authorized, secure University systems with encrypted connections to MS Teams, UTmail+ (email), & approved apps.
• Protect all of your devices, accounts and log-ins with strong passwords.
• Log off from systems when you are no longer using them.
• Lock or shutdown devices when you leave, and set all devices to lock after 5-10 minutes of inactivity.

Privacy & Security Problems

• If you suspect a security problem or issue, immediately contact your divisional IT help desk.
• For privacy concerns; immediately contact the Privacy Office at privacy@utoronto.ca.