Data security is another major concern for researchers. Data security protects data from unintended changes to confidentiality, integrity and availability. Data that contains personally identifiable information or specific security requirements within the proposal call will require additional attention and protection.

We recommend that you consider the worst-case scenarios that may impact your data and then select security controls to prevent or recover from that scenario. The most common example is the loss of data, which can be mitigated by backing up your data and making sure it can be recovered. To follow best practices in data security, researchers should address each of the following issues:

• physical security (i.e., secure access to physical sites housing data storage media such as computers or servers)
• network security (i.e., secure networks and systems of computers or servers and other data storage media by using password authorization, antivirus softwares, etc.)
• file security (i.e., secure files storing sensitive data with encryption techniques)

Relevant LTS resources:

• Information Security

  LTS guide on information security.
• Encrypting/Securing Your Files

  LTS guide on securing sensitive data.

Reference: Harvey, D. R. (2010). Digital curation: A how-to-do-it manual. Facet. pp. 181-198.