If your research project involves collaborating with team members based off-site you may be interested in the new Secure File Transfer system (ZendTo) which was recently launched by IT Service Delivery, especially if you’re dealing with sensitive or confidential data.

The tool has already been widely adopted throughout UK academia and enables fast transfer rates and encrypts data (of any file type up to 2GB) for sending.

This is an OU-approved tool, and is compliant with the University’s Information Security
Policy. Attaching files to emails and sending them across the internet is not a secure way to send a file as this data is not encrypted by default and could be intercepted. Using the Secure File Transfer system will encrypt the files you send and improve their security.

The tool is also an excellent alternative to cloud storage services such as Dropbox for sharing documents. Use of these services is not approved by the OU for storing or transferring highly confidential or proprietary information, and may not be compliant with your research funder’s information security policy.

More information on how to access and use the tool is available on the IT service delivery intranet pages.