Reminders on Cybersecurity and Data Protection Related Practices while Working from Home
 

Dear Colleagues,

 

Amidst the outbreak of the COVID-19, the School maintains normal operation as far as possible with reasonable service levels taking into account of the advice from the government and the University.  Heads of Units/ their delegates in the role of supervisors exercised discretions in circumstances in allowing home working while maintaining business as usual since early February, 2020.

 

As the spread of COVID-19 still persists, working from home may become the "new normal" for some time for some colleagues.  I would like to take this opportunity to remind colleagues on some good practices related to IT security, data confidentiality and personal data privacy while working from home.

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1. Avoid using public Wi-Fi: preferably, use private fixed broadband network or private secured Wi-Fi; if you are on the go before or after your working hours and need to access your work for some reasons, use your own mobile data;

2. Avoid downloading sensitive documents to your own mobile phones, computers or storage devices; if it is unavoidable, encrypt them with strong passwords and remember to delete the documents after used;

3. Be aware of the sight lines around you: if someone is behind you, he can see everything on the screen and what you are typing;

4. Encrypt the sensitive attachments in your emails and social media messages;

5. Do not use USB memory stick;

6. Save your necessary files in OneDrive or other reliable cloud storage for easy access from anywhere.

7. Log out applications and close the browser after use; avoid saving your passwords or enabling auto-filling features (especially your HKUSPACE password) on your browsers.

8. Strengthen the physical security of your working devices; do not subject yourself to the stress of a stolen work computer and cause harm to the School by letting its data out into the wild.

If we need to run or attend online meeting via Zoom during working from home, we may find the following notes useful.​​​
 

1. A stable internet connection is necessary. Usually a 500KB to 2MB/s data speed is enough for online teaching.  But if we need to show streaming videos, we will need a faster internet connection.  If our home internet connection is shared with some other family members and the internet speed is not very fast, we may need to ask them to avoid running network speed demanding applications, e.g. online games, streaming videos, etc., during our online meeting.

2. If we use WiFi, the WiFi signal must be strong and stable.

3. For the computing machine, laptop or desktop or tablet can be used.  Mobile phone is also usable.   But if there are documents to be shared, the screen of mobile phone may be too small for showing readable images.

4. Nowadays, most desktops and laptops come with built-in webcams which can be used for live teaching.  If we are looking for higher quality imaging, we can add an external webcam via USB port. 

5. Nowadays, all desktops, laptops and tablets have built-in microphones which can be used for live meeting.  We should test the sound pickup quality of the built-in mic.  An external microphone via USB port can be considered as an alternative if needed.  One with reasonable quality is not expensive.

6. We should find a quiet place to carry out online meeting.  But if it is really not possible, we may consider to use a headset with microphone.

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For colleagues' office telephone lines which are enquiry lines, they may consider to use the Rainbow mobile app to integrate their telephone lines to their mobile phones.

 

Besides, given all the uncertainties about the novel virus, coronavirus related phishing scams or the infection of computer systems with malware through phishing emails and websites are expected to be more widespread and popular during this period.  Exercise the same level of caution in dealing with phishing wares – never open the attachments and URL links in any suspicious emails, and never enter any personal information to any suspicious websites.

 

All of the above are actually mentioned in our existing IT policies and guidelines.  But it is good to remind ourselves during this volatile period of "working from home" time.

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Dr CL Chan
Chief Information Officer

HKU SPACE

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