Working Securely from Off Campus

Owned by Timothy Pinkham
Last updated: Dec 10, 2021

Introduction

This page explains guidelines for working securely in a remote (off-campus) or hybrid environment.

Related Topics

Safe Computing

Secure Your Network

Biola’s on-campus network has several layers of protection to ensure that Biola data is protected from attackers or unauthorized access.

When working off campus in a remote environment you can use Biola’s VPN to receive the same level of security.

  • Use Biola’s VPN while off-campus to encrypt your network activity. Always connect to VPN if you're working on a public WiFi network that isn't password protected.

  • Make sure your home WiFi network is password-protected using a strong passphrase.

  • Confirm that the administrator password used for configuring your wireless router isn't still set to the default password. Replace it with a strong passphrase.

Keep Work Separate

Wherever you are working, you need to protect university data from being seen by anyone but you. This isn’t because we don’t trust your family or guests. Rather, Biola has to comply with certain legal and regulatory requirements that require only authorized Biola employees to have access to Biola data. While working from home:

  • Your family should not use your work computer.

  • Never share your NetID password with anyone, including your spouse or family members.

  • Other people, including your family, should not view sensitive university data on your computer screen (Examples: Protected student information, health information, or business data).

  • You should not do Biola work on a shared family computer. If you must use a non-Biola computer for work, make sure that you follow our Guidelines for using a personally-owned computer for work.

Use Approved Tools Only

While working from home (or even in the office), you might want to use different personal tools or services for work—such as iCloud, Dropbox, or personally-owned software. Instead, you should always use university-approved tools and services for working, especially when sharing or storing data.

Approved tools include (but are not limited to):

  • Zoom for video conferencing

  • Google Calendar to let your coworkers know your availability, and for quickly scheduling video conferences

  • Google Docs for documents, presentations, and spreadsheets

  • Microsoft Office 365 for advanced documents, presentations, and spreadsheets

  • Google Drive for data storage and sharing

  • Jabber to manage your work phone and check your voicemail

  • Slack or Google Chat for quickly messaging your coworkers

While using these services, make sure you always log in with your Biola account (not a personal account) to protect your data. For example, Biola has special terms with Google and Zoom that require them to treat your Biola account as sensitive data, but the same may not be true for your personal account.