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Writing a data management plan: security

Data security is the means of ensuring that research data is kept safe from corruption and that access is suitably controlled. It is important to consider the security of your data to prevent:

Accidental or malicious damage or modification to data.

  • Theft of valuable data.
  • Breach of confidentiality agreements and privacy laws.
  • Premature release of data, which can void intellectual property claims.
  • Release before data have been checked for accuracy and authenticity.

You need to consider the following questions for securing your research data:

  • How will you manage access arrangements and data security?
  • How will you enforce permissions, restrictions and embargoes?
  • Other security issues such as sensitive data, off-network storage, storage on mobile devices (laptops, smartphones, flash drives, and other devices), policy on making copies of data, and so on, where relevant.

Securing research data is part of the issue of information technology security. You should always have up to date anti-virus software installed on your office and home computer.

If you have sensitive data that is covered by privacy laws or confidentiality agreements, it is best to store it on a computer that is not connected to any network. If this is not possible, then you can also consider encrypting your data.

However, you should also be aware of physical security. A computer that is not connected to a network is still vulnerable to theft and malicious damage or modification to data.
For highly sensitive data you can use an external hard drive and store it in a locked safe overnight. Such data should not be stored on portable drives such as laptops and flash drives, unless absolutely necessary, and without encryption.

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Creative Commons Licence
PILOT - Writing a data management plan by Edina, University of Edinburgh modified by Marion Kelt, GCU is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. Based on a work at http://datalib.edina.ac.uk/mantra/introduction.html