Records Management

A Nightmare on Shred Street 2: Data’s Revenge

Like any Hollywood nightmare, a sequel is always in the offing, and identity theft just isn’t going away. With that in mind, the second annual “A Nightmare on Shred Street” event was held on Monday, October 23. In support of Cybersecurity Awareness Month, Information Technology Services teamed up with Lethbridge Mobile Shredding to offer free shredding of personal documents, hard drive degaussing, and e-waste recycling at the University of Lethbridge.

In just four hours, this public event helped more than 100 people protect themselves from identity fraud by shredding over 2000 gallons of paper documents, as well as several hundred magnetic and other non-paper items (credit cards, cell phones, CDs, floppy disks, etc.) containing personal information. Over 3.5 cubic metres of electronic waste was collected and sent for recycling. A degausser was on site to demagnetize and erase 49 hard drives before recycling.

Donations for the University of Lethbridge campus food bank were gratefully accepted. The event raised $375 and collected 120 food items, which is enough for about seven hampers, to help University of Lethbridge students through the end of the fall term. Seven functioning laptops were also salvaged from recycling, with permission from the donors, and will be wiped clean and donated to the Operation Underground Railroad organization, which helps children escape from trafficking and slavery.

All of this more than doubles the numbers from last year’s event! Information Technology Services acknowledges the generous support of Lethbridge Mobile Shredding, DBS Environmental, Campus Safety, Facilities, and the many individual people who came together to make it happen.

Cybersecurity Awareness Month

Cybersecurity Awareness Month (the month of October) coincides with Electronic Records Day (October 10 – sponsored by the American Council of State Archivists). Now that the Records Management Program has been combined with the Information Security and Business Intelligence programs, the Information Management and Security Office wanted to celebrate these events collectively and raise awareness about everyone’s role in Information Management.

We would like to give a special thanks to the Faculty of Management who were kind enough to loan us their popcorn machine during many of our events. The aroma of fresh popcorn helped us begin the conversation with many different people.

Information Booths
On the week of October 3 – 7, the Information Security Office set up booths in the UHall Atrium, and attempted to steal the identities of people brave enough to offer up their names to us. On average, we were able to uncover unknown personal information for approximately 75% of the individuals who spoke with us. The volume and type of data varied, from limited information to a complete package that would facilitate identity theft. It was an excellent opportunity to discuss tips and tricks with everyone that stopped by.

We kicked off Electronic Records Week (Oct 10 – 14) by releasing a number of new guides and information sheets to help faculty and staff manage their records. The topics addressed by these guides include: distinguishing between transitory and university records; managing email; electronic file and folder naming conventions; and managing information overload.

To get the word out, Records Management staff spent much of the week out and about at information booths across campus. We connected with faculty, staff, and students and offered advice for better managing both personal and university records. We used the opportunity to soft launch our Designated Records Officer (DRO) program when chatting with managers and executive directors. We were also promoting A Nightmare on Shred Street, which was held on October 31.

Life Balance Fair
On October 26, 2016, our Wellness Committee hosted the 10th Annual Life Balance Fair. This event aims to increase employee’s and students’ awareness of the importance of workplace and school health in order to optimize personal and organizational performance. We think that effective records management and information security best practices contribute to workplace health and attended as exhibitors to share this message with University staff. We continued to try to steal identities, distribute our new guides, recruit DROs, and promote A Nightmare on Shred Street.

During the month of October, we signed up about 20 people for records management training, including 15 DROs. We distributed over 50 paper copies of each of our new guides, even though we were directing faculty and staff to the electronic versions posted on our website.

A Nightmare on Shred Street
On October 31, 2016, the entire Information Technology Services department teamed up with Lethbridge Mobile Shredding to host A Nightmare on Shred Street. This event offered free shredding of personal documents (paper and non-paper), hard-drive and other storage media degaussing and e-waste recycling. While the the cold (~2°C) and driving rain put quite a damper on the event (pun intended), we collected two cubic metres of e-waste, about two dozen hard drives for degaussing and almost 15 large (96 gallon) shredding bins of personal papers. In the process we raised $170 and about two 121L garbage cans full of food donations for the campus food bank!

Next Year
If anyone has ideas on how we can make this annual celebration of Information Management and Security better for next year’s event, please reach out to our offices; we would be happy to hear your ideas. Until next year…

Information Management and Security Office Staff:
Ashley Haughton – Records and Information Manager
Vicki Lund-Tulloch – Business Intelligence Administrator
Darin McGee – Information Security Analyst
Cheryl Read – Records Technician
Kevin Vadnais – Manager, Information Management and Security Office