Don’t let FERPA come back to bite! (InfoSec Bulletin #1 - May 22, 2006)

InfoSec Bulletin #1 - May 22, 2006

Don’t let FERPA come back to bite!

Did you know that the Federal “Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act” controls disclosure of student information such as personal information, grades and other student information? Disclosure of this information requires the specific authorization of the student in most situations.

How does this affect me?

If you maintain student information on paper or electronically you need to make sure the information is secure. If you maintain this type of information on:

• Individual, Department, School or University web sites or servers;
• Blackboard;
• Your computer
• Your cell phone or
• Your PDA (to name just some examples)

Double check and make sure access controls and other proper security measures are in place to control this data.

Safeguards and controls for University wide “enterprise” systems such as PeopleSoft are maintained by Offices of the Registrar, Bursar, and Admissions in conjunction with I.T. For these enterprise systems, the key is to not share your user ID and password with others.

Questions?

For more information on FERPA, please see U of L's FERPA guidelines at
http://library.louisville.edu/uarc/stupriv/guidpriv.htm
or contact the FERPA Compliance Officer:

William J. Morison, Ph.D.
U of L Open Records Officer http://library.louisville.edu/uarc/insp/insp.htm
FERPA Compliance Officer http://library.louisville.edu/uarc/stupriv.htm
Director, UARC http://library.louisville.edu/uarc/

University Archives and Records Center
400 Ekstrom Library
University of Louisville
Louisville KY 40292
e-mail: bill.morison @ louisville.edu (Remove spaces in email address, there to minimize spam)

For more information on electronic information security, please click here for an overview of Privacy and Security Tools and ways to maintain the confidentiality of data or contact the University Information Security Officer:

Bruce W. Edwards
Information Security Officer
University of Louisville
MedCenter One Building
501 East Broadway, Suite 320
Louisville, KY 40202

e-mail: bruce.edwardsjr @ louisville.edu (Remove spaces in email address, there to minimize spam)
Web: http://security.louisville.edu