Faculty, staff and students should follow these steps to respect privacy and safeguard the personal and Sensitive Data that WVU collects for administrative, academic, research and outreach activities:
- Use a secure passphrase for your WVU Login. Never reuse your WVU Login credentials for personal accounts.
- Never share your WVU Login username and/or password with anyone. If you have already done that, change your password now at login.wvu.edu. Don’t share the new one.
- Never click on links or attachments in unexpected emails, particularly if they are from an unknown sender. If an email looks suspicious, forward it as an attachment to defendyourdata@mail.wvu.edu.
- When you are ready to upgrade your WVU device, contact your IT support group to securely delete the data from your old device.
- Never access WVU data using public Wi-Fi networks unless you are using WVU’s VPN.
- Grades, class lists or schedules, disciplinary records, financial aid information and payroll information are subject to FERPA and should never be provided via email or telephone. Letters of recommendation and evaluations should also be kept private.
- Keep your unpublished paper, research, book, artwork, proposal, thesis, patent, algorithm, analysis, review, composition, etc. securely stored until you are ready to share it broadly.
- Periodically review data stored on your WVU devices and consider securely deleting it. Keep in mind any record-retention requirements before destroying data. When in doubt, seek guidance from a supervisor.
Defend your personal data at home, too.
- Ensure your personal devices are operating on the latest security software, web browser and operating system. Turn on automatic software updates to defend your machine against unknown risks. Install Sophos anti-virus on your personal devices for free at freeav.wvu.edu.
- Periodically review and securely delete files that contain personal data, such as tax information. Install Spirion for free to identify and shred sensitive data stored on your personal devices.
- Don't feel pressure to complete your profile on social media sites. Information like your birthday, phone number and where you live or work can be used to reset your password and access your personal accounts.
- Actively manage your privacy settings for all online sites.
- Be thoughtful about who gets your personal information and how it is collected. Periodically review the third-party apps that you have authorized to access your accounts and remove those you no longer need.
- Secure your mobile devices with a password or biometric scan. Set your phone to automatically lock after a brief period of inactivity (no longer than 15 minutes).
- NEVER plug in an unknown USB. External devices can be infected by viruses and malware.
- Protect yourself from Identity Theft.