Laptop encryption

About this service

What is encryption?

Encryption is a method of preventing unauthorized access to electronic data. Encryption is imperative for securing your documents and allows for peace of mind if a computer is misplaced, lost or stolen.

What happens when a laptop is encrypted?

Encryption is the process of scrambling information, making it unreadable in order to protect it from unauthorized access. When information is encrypted, you need authorized access to make it readable.

Why should laptops be encrypted?

In order to protect both the privacy of individuals within the University community and the reputation of the University, all employees must take measures to protect information in their care. One measure, to reduce the risk of unintentional information exposure is to employ encryption.

Full-disk encryption should be used on all University-owned laptops or notebooks by default. If you are using Windows 10, IST recommends enabling BitLocker; on a Mac, FileVault should be enabled.

Encryption overview for Windows

For Windows laptops/notebooks we use BitLocker Drive Encryption and Microsoft BitLocker Administration and Monitoring (MBAM). IST can perform laptop encryption on University-owned laptops running Windows. New IST managed laptops are encrypted before they are deployed.

Additional service resources

Resources may be located within the IST Knowledge Base or on a website outside of this Confluence space.

• Recover your BitLocker key: BitLocker Windows Laptop/Notebook encryption

• Data encryption

IST KB resources that may be related to this service entry