Standards for Digital Storage
Central Washington University's faculty, staff, and students require access to institutional data in support of the university's teaching, research, and outreach missions. The purpose of this standard is to define the correct uses for each university-supported service and product. Furthermore, this standard defines what type of data can be stored in that service or product.
Data classification provides a basis for understanding and managing institutional data based on the level of criticality and required confidentiality of the data. The university's institutional data will be assigned one of three classifications:
1. Public: Data intended for broad distribution in support of the university's missions or freely available to any person or organization with no restrictions.
2. Restricted: Data that is circulated on a need-to-know basis or sensitive enough to warrant careful management and protection to safeguard its confidentiality, integrity, and availability, as well as appropriate access, use, and disclosure.
3. Confidential: Data protected or regulated by law or critical to university operations including sensitive personal information. Unauthorized disclosure of this information could seriously and adversely impact the university or the interest of individuals and organizations associated with the university.
| Classification of Data | Classification of Data | Classification of Data | ||
| University Supported Services & Products | Public | Restricted | Confidential | Recommended Use |
| Canvas | Yes | Yes | No | Academic course materials |
| Email (*@cwu.edu) | Yes | Yes | No | Communication oriented |
| Local computer hard drive/desktop | Yes | Yes | No | Not recommended/temporary use |
| OneDrive for Business | Yes | Yes | No | For individual CWU data |
| Microsoft Teams | Yes | Yes | *Yes | For department/shared data (long-term) |
| Microsoft SharePoint | Yes | Yes | *Yes | For departmental/shared data (long-term) |
| Network/File Shares | Yes | Yes | Yes | For departmental/shared data/data load and automated processes |
| Kaltura | Yes | No | No | Persistent (non-archival) video content |
| Zoom | Yes | No | No | Meetings & video content (non-archival) |
| Thumb drives/portable storage/external hard drive | No | No | No | Not recommended |
| Email services other than @cwu.edu (Gmail, Hotmail, etc.) | No | No | No | Not recommended |
| Other cloud storage (Dropbox, Box, Google Drive) | No | No | No | Use case required |
| Google Doc | No | No | No | Not recommended |
*Yes - With caution and restrictions
Recommendation notes:
- If possible, save departmental work data to a network share
- If a VPN connection is not available to save work to OneDrive for Business or a designated departmental Sharepoint site if one exists.
For more information and guidelines see the full data management and cloud storage policy and the data classification and usage policy pages.