Security

User Guide to Encryption

User Guide to Encryption

  • Use file servers and avoid storing on mobile devices or media.
  • Nearly everyone at Hopkins has access to a local area network, and many LANS can be securely accessed outside of Hopkins through a virtual private network. If you have secure remote access to a LAN file server, you should almost never need to store sensitive data locally on workstations, flash drives or laptops. You should be able to access your files through the network, and you enjoy the benefit of regular back-ups and protection against malicious code that can be attached to Office documents.

Zip Compression

Most file compression products (e.g. Winzip, 7zip, etc.) allow users to encrypt one or more files. This can be useful ensuring that sensitive files are encrypted.

JShare

JShare is a file sharing tool that allows for encrypted communications between both in the Hopkins network and to outside parties. It uses standard SSL encryption, passwords and web links. It is free to use, and there are links on the Johns Hopkins portals. For more information, please go the JShare page.

USB Thumbdrive Encryption

Flashdrive encryption requires the user to establish an encrypted volume on the drive using software installed on a configuration machine. These volumes can be mounted using software native to the device (e.g. Kingston Data Traveler) on SPARS, which we recommend) or through other software such as Rohos or TrueCrypt. In many cases, creating or configuring the encrypted volume requires administrative access to the configuration workstation (which is not possible on many clinical public workstations). It is critical that the user create a strong password and be careful to ensure that restricted files are stored on encrypted volumes on the drive.

Laptop Encryption (see the Laptop Security page)