News & Updates

Information Security – Protecting Your Sensitive Information

By Dave Smallen

August 26, 2014

Everyone who works at Hamilton has a legal and moral obligation to protect personally identifiable information that they access in their work. Social security numbers, birth dates, credit card numbers, and student grades are all examples of information that is protected by law.

In December of 2012, President Stewart created the Information Security Board of Review (ISBR) as a standing committee to provide oversight and direction for our efforts to protect the security of confidential and sensitive information. The ISBR oversees the development, implementation, and maintenance of a college-wide information security plan and related policies and procedures. 

Hundreds of hours have already been invested by members of the Hamilton community over the last two years to understand the issues involved in protecting sensitive information.  Two audits have been done by outside consultants to evaluate our information security environment and the way we handle the sensitive data we collect.

An online security awareness program was piloted last year and used with the students in the class of 2018 over the summer.  This coming year, along with other members of the NY 6 consortium, we are contracting with GreyCastle Security, of Troy NY, to provide information security services to our campus.  This ongoing relationship will provide the expertise to help us move forward with policy development, infrastructure and procedural improvements and to deliver an information security awareness program that has both face-to-face and online components.

You’ll hear more about that in the coming months.