Key Responsibilities for Everyone

Everyone plays a vital role in protecting Berkeley Campus data. Below are key responsibilities under the Roles and Responsibilities Policy that apply to everyone (including staff retirees and alumni with bMail accounts). These reflect the realities of today’s world and recognize that we need to change the way we do things to protect the university community. Bears protect Bears!

1. Practice good cyber hygiene: 

• Keep your devices and applications patched and up to date
• Use strong passphrases -- make them long, complex, or both. UC Berkeley has free LastPass Premium for all current students, faculty, and staff!
• Secure all devices with a strong password or PIN, and set them to lock after a few minutes of inactivity (15 min max, shorter is better)
• Turn on built-in anti-malware software and firewall
• Back up important files and data
• Use separate accounts for privileged (administrator) and non-privileged (user) access

2. Report security incidents 

• It is important that actual or suspected security incidents are reported as early as possible so that campus can limit the damage and cost of recovery. 

3. Respond to security notices

• If you receive a security notice from the Information Security Office, read the email carefully and follow the instructions. Additionally, you can review our "Respond to a Security notice" page for more information.

More Information for Specific Roles:

Certain roles carry additional key responsibilities to the ones listed above. See our guides for these specific roles:

• Faculty, including Emeriti faculty
• Staff and volunteer workers
• Students