Title: Data security, protection and confidentiality
Course: UGQuants (SSPS) > Section: Beyond data collection and analysis

Data security, protection and confidentiality

Ensuring our digital research data is secure is an important aspect of data management. There are a number of steps we should take to ensure the security, protection and confidentiality of our data.

1 | Firstly, at a very basic level we should ensure we have up-to-date anti-virus software installed on our computer.
2 | Secondly, if our data is particularly sensitive and is the subject of a confidentiality agreement or privacy laws, it is advisable to store them on a computer which is not connected to a shared network if possible; otherwise it is advisable to encrypt the data.
3 | Thirdly, it is important to keep the data physically secure. For example, if our data is particularly sensitive, it is wise to store it on an external hard drive which can be kept under lock and key when not in use.
4 | Finally if the subjects of our research are humans, we must consider the legal and ethical implications of sharing our data. The handling of personal or sensitive data is governed by the 1998 Data Protection Act.