Do you store confidential data for your PhD? Does this data contain Personally Identifiable Information? If so, you should encrypt it.
Firstly, you should encrypt the information on your computer anyway. This means that if your computer is ever stolen, the first thing the thieves will do is wipe it, so your data won’t be going anywhere. This is called ‘Full Disk Encryption’. On Mac, it is available for all recent versions of MacOs (as well as iOS), while for Windows users, it is only available on Windows10 Pro.
Instruction for Mac users are here, while for Windows Users, its here. You should also do this for your mobile – both Android and iOS offer this service and again, it means that if your phone is stolen, it will be wiped without people getting access to your apps, contacts, etc.
Continue reading →