Talking points
We want to make our security at UofG as open and transparent as possible. To help you with discussions you may have with your team, individuals, or committees we’ve created these talking points to help ensure our awareness of security issues remain high.
1. Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) changes
Staff have been using MFA to access email for over 6 months. Soon you’ll need MFA to access other key services such as VPN, CoreHR, Moodle. Separate communications will being issued but if you have any concerns then please raise these.
2. Annual password changes
Our passwords form part of our security controls and since the COVID lockdown restrictions forced us to think differently there hasn’t been a requirement for this to be changed. However, in 2023 the requirement for password change will return and all staff will need to do this at least annually.
3. Completion of mandatory training
It is important that we understand how security relates to our day to day working life and is important for us to be able to identify suspicious situations which should be reported. There is an Information Security Awareness course on Moodle, which is available to all staff. This course is mandatory and any staff who have not yet completed it should prioritise it as soon as is practically possible.
4. Deletion of old documents and data
It is easy for us to generate, share and retain documents – we do it every day. However, over time we can build-up old files and emails which we no longer need. These makes finding our important data more difficult and indirectly cause increased costs to the University to store files and could also mean we are storing data that we are no longer supposed to be.
With the new year we would like all staff members to:
- Review their old files in OneDrive and delete ones they no longer need
- Consider whether old emails are still required or may be required in future
- Check if you have old Microsoft Teams / Sharepoint sites which are no longer required and can be deleted
It is important to remember that we should only keep information we need or may be legally required to retain. We urge people to delete with caution, if you delete files accidentally then we may not be able to recover them
Support
The Information Security team is available to provide advice and guidance on these and any other matters which you may need assistance with.