Topic of the Week

Welcome to our "Topic of the Week" section, where we spotlight key issues in security, privacy, audit, risk, and compliance. Each week, we look into a relevant topic, offering insights and strategies to help navigating the ever-evolving landscape of regulations and best practices

  • Spring Cleaning - Checking your Drive Space for Sensitive Data

    With Spring among us, it is time for a good reset. While you are going through spring cleaning at home, consider also doing some spring cleaning at work and within your Google Drive. All University of Maryland faculty and staff have access to Google Drive and likely utilize this on a daily basis. Google Drive makes file management and collaboration an easy process. While the use of Google Drive is encouraged, it is important to recognize that not everything can be done through or stored on Google Drive.

  • Be Ethical, my friend

    In an era of rapid technological and societal change, traditional ethical approaches to ethics no longer suffice. Universities, now more than ever, collect vast amounts of personal data, ranging from academic performance and demographic information, to health records and financial status. As this data is utilized for services, research, and regulatory compliance, it raises crucial ethical questions, specifically regarding the release of personal information without explicit consent.

  • Newly Proposed Updates to the HIPAA Security Rule

    2025 is starting off with a bang, with the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) issuing proposed updates to the HIPAA Security Rule. The HIPAA Security Rule has been in place since 2003 and saw its last round of updates in 2013, making it long overdue for new updates given the changes in technology since then. The proposal draft is a whopping 393 pages, which is indicative of how robust these updates will be.

  • Think before you click: Why email and sensitive data don’t mix

    Picture this: You’re wrapping up your day, rushing to send one last email before heading out. You attach the file, type in the recipient’s name, hit send, and, whoops! You just sent a document with sensitive student data to the wrong person. Sound familiar? It happens far too often!

  • The robots are not taking over. . . yet

    The idea of artificial intelligence (AI) controlling the world is not new, and has been something represented in popular movies such as The Terminator, The Matrix, i,Robot, and so many more. As AI is advancing this concern may grow more legitimate for some people, with the idea of self-replication being feared. You may have recently seen some concerning headlines floating around about how AI has replicated itself during a shutoff attempt.

  • The Robots are here!

    We all know Artificial Intelligence (AI) is here to stay, and President Pine’s latest email just made it official with the implementation of an AI Commission, who is charged with exploring, evaluating, and providing recommendations on the responsible development, deployment, and ethical use of AI technologies within the university community.