It is important than ever to make sure you save your files in the right way and in the right place.
Where and how to store data has become a difficult question for some. While researchers at the university may require secure and easily accessible space to store vast data-sets, most staff and students will be using the same sort of data, files, and systems every day.
All university data should be stored securely, as appropriate for the security classification of the data. The university’s policy around storing highly sensitive, confidential and personal data provides information on how classify and store data.
In accordance with university policy, no data should be stored on local hard drives, and your non-university data should not be held in university storage.
The primary location for storing university data is Microsoft 365, including OneDrive for Business and Teams.
If you are the only person who needs to access the file / files, save to your OneDrive for Business cloud storage. This will allow you to access the files from outside the university or via your laptop, tablet or mobile devices.
If you wish to share Open/Non-sensitive data with colleagues from the university, you should save your files to your OneDrive for Business cloud storage and grant rights to your colleagues to access just that file or folder.
You may store non-sensitive data on a university managed laptop.
You may store non-sensitive data on university provided, or your own personal devices.
Where possible, avoid storing university data on external devices such as pen drives and external hard drives. Use the Microsoft 365 cloud storage which you can access from anywhere.
Where the data is classified as highly sensitive, confidential or personal, and there is no other option but to use external storage, ensure that you use an encrypted USB storage device and ensure that a copy of the original data remains within OneDrive or Teams. For additional support, please contact the IT Service Desk.
Following additional infrastructure and system changes made by ILS to ensure university governed cloud storage is even more stable and secure, the Data Storage under Data Classification table has been updated, and university data may now be stored in Microsoft 365, including Teams and OneDrive for Business.
Save to your university governed storage in the cloud (OneDrive for Business or Teams).
You may store Personal/Confidential data on a university Managed Laptop, only under the following circumstances.
You may not store Personal/Confidential data on university provided, or your own personal devices.
Where possible, avoid storing university data on external devices such as pen drives and external hard drives. Use the Microsoft 365 cloud storage which you can access from anywhere.
Where the data is classified as highly sensitive, confidential or personal, and there is no other option but to use external storage, ensure that you use an encrypted USB storage device and ensure that a copy of the original data remains within OneDrive or Teams. For additional support, please contact the IT Service Desk.
Following additional infrastructure and system changes made by ILS to ensure university governed cloud storage is even more stable and secure, the Data Storage under Data Classification table has been updated, and university data may now be stored in Microsoft 365, including Teams and OneDrive for Business.
Save to your university governed storage in the cloud (OneDrive for Business or Teams).
You may store Highly Sensitive data on a university Managed Laptop, only under the following circumstances.
You may not store Highly Sensitive data on university provided, or your own personal devices.
Where possible, avoid storing university data on external devices such as pen drives and external hard drives. Use the Microsoft 365 cloud storage which you can access from anywhere.
Where the data is classified as highly sensitive, confidential or personal, and there is no other option but to use external storage, ensure that you use an encrypted USB storage device and ensure that a copy of the original data remains within OneDrive or Teams. For additional support, please contact the IT Service Desk.
OneDrive for Business, is a cloud hosted storage system, on which you can store and share files with any staff or students at the university. Find out more on our OneDrive support page.
Find out more about Microsoft 365 at the university, including how to install it for free on your devices.
All students logging in in to a Managed Desktop computer will have a personal home area. Files stored on this area are backed up centrally.
On a university Windows desktop PCs, on campus, this includes your Documents, Desktop and Downloads folders. You should use this location to store your files and data, by default.
You should not try to store any files on the local hard drives of computers in the IT labs.
Malicious devices can install malware, software designed to cause disruption to our devices and network. Where possible, avoid storing data on external devices such as pen drives and external hard drives. Use the Microsoft 365 cloud storage which you can access from anywhere.
While you are welcome to use a CD / DVD to write and re-write your files, remember that all tablets, many laptops and even new desktop computers are now shipped without a built in drive to read disks. Many users found that the disks weren't as reliable as first thought and a simple scratch could render thousands of files un-readable.
If you store data on disks, make sure you look after them, keep them clean and keep several copies.
You will need to log into university MFDs before using it, so be sure to log out once finished. Please make sure you pick up your printing promptly, especially when waiting for multiple copies or larger print jobs, and take extra care with confidential documents.