Stay Secure During the Holidays

By Gabe Marshall, Information Security Analyst

The holiday season is here again, which means that you as a UNT faculty or staff member should be extra careful while you are away. Whether you’re purchasing a new personal laptop, traveling with a UNT owned laptop, or even doing your last minute shopping online, there are several key tips you will need to keep in mind.

Traveling With UNT Owned Laptop

If you plan on traveling over the holidays, there are a few things you will need to remember, especially if you are bringing a UNT owned laptop with you. First off, before setting off to your holiday destination, make sure the laptop has a valid UNT inventory tag (typically a green tag found on the bottom) placed on it. Secondly, if nothing else, ALWAYS make sure the laptop is kept with you everywhere you go.  A laptop can be stolen within seconds of neglect, and in the past the majority of these thefts occur over the holiday break. Common locations of theft have been homes, in cars, hotel lobbies, airports, etc.

If you plan on flying over the holidays with a laptop, keep an eye on your laptop when you put it down to be scanned at a security checkpoint or while you’re waiting to board your plane. Thieves in airports tend to work in groups and can easily distract you while another walks away with your laptop. To increase your safety further at an airport, consider storing your laptop in a regular travel bag instead of one designed for a laptop. This will give the appearance that you in fact are not traveling with one.

If you plan on bringing a laptop home to use over the holidays, make sure it is kept out of sight whenever not in use. Thieves will typically only steal what they can see from windows or immediately see when they enter your house. If you plan on bringing it in your car, remember that locking your car is not a sufficient safeguard for your laptop, especially if it is left sitting in a seat. If for some reason you need to leave your laptop in you car, you should store it locked away in your trunk.

Many laptops now come with their own anti-theft devices such as motion detection alarms, GPS tracking, security cables, etc. If the laptop you are using comes with one of these features, make sure that you are taking advantage of it. If you feel you need additional physical security for your laptop, contact your network manager to see if  additional features or items can be purchased.

Many new laptops may come with anti-theft devices such as bio-metric scanners, motion detection alarms, security cables, tracking software, etc. If your laptop is equipped with one of these, make sure it is in use. If your laptop does not come with any theft deterrents, you might want to consider purchasing one if approved by your network manager.

Lastly, if a theft does occur, please report it immediately to the police as well as your network manager. You should also make sure the UNT Information Security Team has been contacted as well. Immediately reporting incidents is required according to policy, and will reduce the likelihood of data loss.

Purchasing A Personal Laptop

If you plan on purchasing a personal laptop/storage device or end up receiving one as a gift, remember that you are responsible for the safeguards of any UNT information that touches the machine. For example, if you receive a laptop as a gift and decide you want to get a head start on a project that involves working with student directory information, then keep in mind that you should not store any of that data on the laptop itself.

The reasoning for this is that a personally owned laptop is not supported by the university, therefore your IT support staff has no way of knowing if a potential breach may have occurred. The best solution for this situation would be to contact your network manager and ask them to help you remotely connect to your work computer from your new laptop. Doing so will help more than you realize to protect the data at hand.

Another tip to remember is to make sure you have anti-virus software installed and that the laptop is currently up to date before bringing it back to campus after the holidays. An out-of-date laptop or one infected by a virus could possibly create a hole in the UNT network, allowing more attacks to take place.

Shopping On-line

Now for a bit of personal advice for all of you out there. If you want to keep yourself safe from identity theft over the holidays, here are some quick tips to remember if you plan on shopping on-line.

1. Do not store your credit card data unless needed

If an e-commerce website asks you to save your credit card information for future purchases, it is usually best to decline this offer. For each additional company that is storing your personal information, the chances of your identity being stolen increases exponentially.

2.  Make your purchases are from trusted websites only.

It is usually best to do your online shopping from popular websites. While I won’t get into the specifics of which I would recommend, I think the point can still easily be made. Large corporations usually spend more time and money ensuring that their websites are safe in order to prevent their customers information from being stolen. Smaller online companies have even been known to sell personal information to others without your consent. You can always check the Better Business Bureau (www.bbb.org) for more information.

3.    Ensure the transaction will be secure

Before your credit card transaction goes through, make sure the website is using an encrypted connection. You can usually verify this by looking at the website address alone. If the website is preceded by “https://” then you can relax and know that your data will not be intercepted. If the website does not include this, then I would contact the company before making the purchase, or shop elsewhere.

4.  Keep a list of your on-line receipts and watch your bank statement

If you have a large number of people to buy gifts for, you should always remember to keep your receipts just as you would if you were buying something in person. If your identity is stolen, thieves will often try to make non-suspicious purchases during the holidays that you might easily look over. For that reason, compare your bank statement with your receipts to make sure you have not been charged for something you didn’t authorize.

Lastly, if you do believe your identity has been stolen, immediately report it to the FTC by going to https://www.ftccomplaintassistant.gov/

You can also contact the UNT Information Security team at ext. 4062 or at security@unt.edu if you need help or advice on anything security related.

 

Originally published, December 2008 -- Please note that information published in Benchmarks Online is likely to degrade over time, especially links to various Websites. To make sure you have the most current information on a specific topic, it may be best to search the UNT Website - http://www.unt.edu . You can also search Benchmarks Online - http://www.unt.edu/benchmarks/archives/back.htm as well as consult the UNT Helpdesk - http://www.unt.edu/helpdesk/ Questions and comments should be directed to benchmarks@unt.edu

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