JISC

Identity theft is up by almost a third among financial fraud cases, latest industry figures have revealed, as JISC launches a new resource to help universities safeguard staff and student identities.

Identities need to be protected even when staff and students are using a personal username and password to log onto social media site like Facebook. The reason is that through them they can access applications listing library books they have on loan, log on to Google docs stores of academic papers, or develop a twitter hashtag for course discussions.

Now JISC has launched a toolkit to allow information officers, IT directors, security managers and their staff to better understand the legal issues involved in managing identity issues.
 
The guidance takes managers through a self-evaluation procedure, while highlighting the issues raised by these new ways of working for staff and students.

Christopher Brown, programme manager at JISC, says, ““In the current climate of cost cutting it is imperative that universities and colleges make use of good identity management practices and policies, as identity management is key to many processes and services that universities and colleges provide for students, staff and other individuals.

“These institutions could spend thousands of pounds on consultant fees to get the same advice that is being offered for free in the Identity Management Toolkit.”

The toolkit was produced by a partnership between Bristol and Cardiff universities, Kidderminster College and the LSE, backed by UCISA and RUGIT and funded by JISC.

Projects at Kidderminster College and the University of Bristol have tested the resource already. Both of these institutions had already seen a need to review, improve and integrate their identity management policies, practices and systems.

The toolkit is available online or can be downloaded as a PDF for printing.