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'Box' Service Now Available for Cloud Storage

University and health system users can securely share files, collaborate online

Beginning this summer, Duke faculty, students and staff can use a new "Box" service for cloud storage and content collaboration across the university and health system. Box provides a simple and secure way for users to store and share files online. Files can be shared with Duke and non-Duke users, and all files stored in Box are securely accessible anywhere, anytime, and from any device with an Internet connection. Several commercial, cloud-based services are available (including Dropbox and GoogleDrive), but Duke's Box is the only approved cloud-based service for storing Duke files that contain sensitive or restricted data as defined by Duke’s data classification standard, according to a recent memo from Duke’s top IT leaders. "In Spring 2014, Duke entered into a Business Associates Agreement (BAA) with Box that enables HIPAA-compliant usage. Box complies with the security and privacy protections for ePHI (protected health information) mandated for HIPAA compliance," according to the memo from Tracy Futhey, the university’s CIO, and Billy Willis, chief technology officer for Duke Medicine."With Duke's Box, files are encrypted at the time they are stored on the server, which provides additional security protection not available with most other cloud-based services. In addition, Duke's contractual terms with Box provide protections beyond those offered by other vendors."Duke also recommends that any Duke-related files containing intellectual property or other non-public information be stored and shared using Duke's Box service, according to the memo.Over the next few weeks, all active faculty, staff, students and affiliates at Duke University and Duke Medicine will be automatically provisioned with a Duke Box account that contains 50 GB of storage space. Duke's Box service will be available as a single service across the university and health system, free to Duke users.Beginning this week, the Office of Information Technology will transition about 2,500 existing Box users whose accounts are associated with a Duke email address (@duke.edu or @something.duke.edu) to the new Duke Box environment. Under the new license agreement, all Box accounts (free and paid) that use Duke email addresses will be transitioned to the Duke environment. For more information, visit http://box.duke.edu.As new accounts are provisioned, users will receive several system-generated emails from Box. Once their account is active, they will receive a personalized email with the subject line, "A Duke Box account has been provisioned for [user name]," with a link to access the new account using their NetID and password at http://duke.box.com. Mobile Box clients are available, and the Box sync client can also be downloaded and installed on a laptop or desktop. Additional documentation is available on Box’s support site: https://support.box.com. All Duke Medicine users of Duke’s Box service will be required to complete an online training module, which is currently under development.  The date for the Box transition for Duke Medicine users will follow the completion of the training module. Any users who are provisioned accounts in advance of the Duke Medicine transition will be required to complete the online training module when it is available. Users are subject to the data-sharing restrictions outlined by the Duke University and Duke Medicine security policies, and Duke users are responsible for ensuring that data stored or shared in Box complies with all university and health system security policies. For more information, visit http://box.duke.edu/security-and-usage.Users who currently share files through other cloud-based storage services but who wish to transfer those files to Box for the added security should contact their local IT staff or the OIT or DHTS Service Desk for assistance. If you have any questions, contact the OIT Service Desk at http://oit.duke.edu/help or call (919) 684-2200. For more information, visit http://box.duke.edu or the OIT website.