SECURING AND MANAGING DATA ON THE DESKTOP: ISSUES AND PROBLEMS FACED BY HIGHER EDUCATION

Session Speaker: Gale Fritsche

Educational institutions are diverse in nature for a variety of reasons. Academic departments vary significantly on what they teach, administrative departments have different goals than academic departments and research centers tend to have their own agenda as well. Free and open thinking is encouraged in Higher Education and many faculty need the freedom to implement the computing platforms and applications needed for specific disciplines. Effectively managing end user data on desktops and laptops in Higher Education is probably the most difficult task faced by IT managers. It is relatively easy for centralized computing services to lock down and backup servers and regulate access to data for administrative computing but how do you effectively regulate and secure sensitive data that is created, downloaded and used on a desktop or laptop? How do we ensure that user data is backed up on a regular basis and easily accessible? How do you establish and enforce policies and guidelines for backing up and securing data on desktops? This session will explore and discuss the issues and problems faced by Colleges and Universities in relation to managing and securing data on user desktops and laptops as well as explore the most effective way to create and enforce desktop computing guidelines and policies.