UNMC and Nebraska Medicine have required encryption on all computer hard drives and removable storage for many years. However, encryption of removable storage devices (such as USB drives) is currently a manual process.
Effective June 7, UNMC and Nebraska Medicine will implement a change that will automatically prompt a user to encrypt a removable storage device once connected to a UNMC or Nebraska Medicine Windows computer.
This change is necessary due to the tremendous amount of sensitive information stored on the network in the form of protected health information (PHI), financial documents and confidential research data, etc.
As a reminder, it is never recommended to store data on a removable storage device; it should always be backed up on the network. If a removable storage device is lost or stolen and is unencrypted, all of the sensitive information stored on it could be accessed by whoever possesses it.
For a full set of instructions, click here. For a list of FAQs, click here.