Last modified: Thursday, January 17, 2013
IU marks Data Privacy Month with webinars, Data Privacy Day with presentations at IUPUI
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Jan. 17, 2012
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. -- A participant in Data Privacy Day since its inception in the U.S. in 2008 as an extension of Europe's Data Protection Day, Indiana University is expanding its participation by recognizing Jan. 28 as Data Privacy Day and January as Data Privacy Month.
"The day commemorates the 1981 signing of Convention 108, the first legally binding international treaty dealing with privacy and data protection, and last year the higher education information technology association Educause extended activities throughout the month," said Merri Beth Lavagnino, IU chief privacy officer and compliance coordinator.
Educause is a nonprofit association of IT leaders from over 1,800 colleges and 300 corporations committed to advancing higher education through programs and services that support the transformative role of information technology.
IU is one of 44 Educause members in the state. IU Chief Security Officer Tom Davis and Doug Pearson, technical director of the Research and Education Networking Information Sharing and Analysis Center at IU, both in the IU Office of the Vice President for Information Technology, are members of Educause's Higher Education Information Security Council. Lavagnino, who works in the IU Office of University Regional Affairs, Planning and Policy, is a member of the Educause Data Privacy Month Task Force and co-chair of its Higher Education Chief Privacy Officers Committee.
Designed to raise awareness and promote data privacy education, the event coordinated and promoted by the National Cyber Security Alliance is now recognized by a vast array of private businesses, non-governmental organizations and universities such as Intel, Google and Facebook, and Brown, Harvard, George Washington and Indiana universities.
IU is focusing its public activities on Data Privacy Day when Lyman "Chuck" Taylor III, section chief for the Indiana attorney general's Consumer Mediation and Identity Theft Unit, speaks on the topic "Identity Theft: How to Protect Yourself," at a noon event on the Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis campus.
Lavagnino said Taylor's presentation will focus on informing the public on how to protect themselves and their records, reputations and credit ratings from America's fastest-growing crime.
"The attorney general's Identity Theft Unit is committed to reducing incidents of identity theft around the state by providing educational resources to teach Hoosiers how to protect themselves," Lavagnino said.
Immediately following Taylor at 1 p.m. will be a presentation on mobile device security by IU Deputy Information Technology Office Eric Cosens. Both presentations will take place in Room CE 450C at the IUPUI Campus Center, 420 University Blvd., Indianapolis. Presentations by both speakers will also be available live throughout IU's campuses via Adobe Connect.
In addition to the live presentations, IU is also offering myriad other resources focused on information security, including blogs, a Twitter feed, webinars, webpages and videos devoted to the topic. One webinar, and the final event related to Data Privacy Month at IU, will have Lavagnino hosting and moderating an Educause policy webinar that will include a panel of higher education chief privacy officers. That event is from 1 to 2 p.m. Wednesday, Jan. 30.
For more information or to speak with Lavagnino, please contact Steve Chaplin, IU Communications, at 812-856-1896 or stjchap@iu.edu.
