Protecting Sensitive Information in Databases

Information Technology website -- College of Health and Human Development; College of Education

General Guidelines:

The general guidelines for protecting faculty/staff and student information are as follows:

Workstations with access to the data are located within offices that are supervised and/or locked at all times.
Persons given access to the data are instructed to keep sensitive information secured, shielding computer screens from direct public view, shredding documents containing sensitive information, etc.
Student assistants who are charged to update the database are under your direct supervision at all times.

About the Social Security Number:

The State of California limits using the SSN in its official business. This campus replaced the SSN with a Campus ID number (CWID) for all student, faculty and staff records, and suppresses the display of SSN on most SIS+ screens.

If security is breached in a database containing unencrypted personal data, the University must notify all persons having records in that database. Personal data is explicity defined by policy and includes the SSN.

Under the new provisions, access to the SSN is a major liability. CHHD-IT uses the CWID to identify student and employee data.

For more information regarding these policies, visit these web sites:

Assembly Bill AB46 - establishes restrictions on the use of social security numbers
President's Directive 13 - Information Security - defines what data is included in "protected information" and requires any person collecting or using these fields to follow federal and state guidelines
CSU Fullerton's CWID Website - the university's home page for CWID information, including links to FAQs and a page for looking up your CWID

This page is maintained by Andrea Cockrell at Cal State Fullerton's College of Health and Human Development. Comments and suggestions to CHHD Web Team. Click on About in this page's menu bar to view disclaimers and copyright information.