Security

Online Security Information/Tips

Trellis and its employees take very seriously the privacy of your personal information. In addition to providing its Privacy Notice, Trellis has developed the following online security tips that you can use to help protect your information.

  • Remember to log off from any website you have logged into.
  • Close all open browser sessions before leaving your computer unattended.
  • Shut down or lock your computer when you are not using it.
  • Make sure your password is strong. A strong password:
    • Is at least seven characters long.
    • Does not contain your user name, real name, or company name.
    • Does not contain a complete word.
    • Is significantly different from previous passwords.
    • Contains characters from each of the following four categories:
      • Uppercase letters — A, B, C
      • Lowercase letters — a, b, c
      • Numbers — 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9
      • Symbols found on the keyboard (all keyboard characters not defined as letters or numerals) and spaces — ` ~ ! @ # $ % ^ & * ( ) _ – + = { } [ ] \: ; ” ‘ < > , . ? /
  • Change your password regularly, at least every 90 days.
  • Select security challenge questions and provide answers that you can remember, but would be difficult for others to guess.
  • Never write down or share your user ID, password, or challenge questions/answers.
  • Be conscious of NPI or Non-Public Personal Information online, as well as off-line. Tips to remember about NPI:
    • Always shred documents that contain personal or financial information.
    • Email is not a secure means of communication. Think of it as a postcard going through the post office — anyone can see the message.
    • Always encrypt email that contains NPI before sending.

Encrypted Email at Trellis

Managing electronic information has become a visible and highly regulated activity. Breaches of information and changes in federal and state laws have all changed the way companies handle and transmit information. Trellis is committed to ensuring that our corporation’s data, customer information, and student/parent confidential and personal information remains secure.

To protect the privacy of non-public personal information (NPI) sent via email, Trellis secures outbound email messages containing NPI through email encryption using compliant methods.

Email Encryption Glossary

Clear-Text — Information that has not been encrypted. For example, when an email sent from Trellis is encrypted, a notification email is sent to the recipient in clear-text format with instructions on how to access secure encrypted messages.

Encryption — The conversion of data into a form called ciphertext (encrypted data), that cannot be read without decrypting it using the proper key.

Decryption — The process of converting encrypted data (ciphertext) back into its original form (clear text), so it can be understood.

Key or Encryption Key — The unique code which encrypts and decrypts messages.

NPI or Non-Public Personal Information — Information which is not public and which identifies a specific individual or financial relationship of that individual. Generally, NPI is considered to be Social Security numbers, account numbers, addresses and telephone numbers if they are not listed, names and other identifying information. The definition of what constitutes NPI may vary from state to state, from agency to agency, or from business to business. Subcategories include non-public health information and non-public financial information.