Stay cyber secure from home

Cybersecurity is everyone’s responsibility. Phishing, social engineering and other threats pose a significant danger to everyone, especially during times of crisis. IT has many layers of cyber protections and working with external experts, and other government agencies to counter the escalation of cyber-attacks against the City.

Help keep your information and City information secure by:

• Resetting your password:
  • Log on to your computer and if you are working remotely also connect to VPN.
  • Press “CTRL + ALT + DELETE.”
  • Click on “Change a password.”
  • Follow the on-screen instructions. Create a strong password that isn’t used for anything else.
• Verify who is contacting you: Avoid being a victim of social engineering. When someone unfamiliar contacts you, try to verify who they are, especially if they are asking you to do something. Call their office by published phone numbers, email their workplace domain email, and if you have doubts contact the IT Service Desk for help.
• Reporting phishing: It takes only one click to report phishing using Outlook’s “PhishAlarm” button.
• Being cautious with external emails: All emails originating from outside the City are tagged with “[EXTERNAL]” in the subject line. There will also be a line in the email body that reads “[EXTERNAL] This email originated from outside of the City of Minneapolis. Please exercise caution when opening links or attachments.”

If you encounter issues, contact IT Service Desk for assistance.

Data you create is public

For remote meetings, the City’s primary collaboration tool is Microsoft Teams. During collaboration in Teams, data is being created. All of this is government data:

• Chat during a meeting.
• Chat within a channel in a Team (outside of a meeting).
• Files shared in a meeting.
• Files shared within Teams.
• Data from applications added to Teams (notes in OneNote, cards in Planer, pages in Wiki, etc.).
• Time and duration of a call and all parties on the call.
• Attendance in a meeting.
• Recording of a meeting (if generated).

Any of this data can be requested by the public so remember to maintain professionalism. Collaboration feels comfortable in Teams, but it’s a work tool. Also, remind your external colleagues and constituents of the public nature of working with the City. They may be less familiar with public records laws.

More about government data

All government data collected, created, received, maintained, or disseminated by a government agency in Minnesota is public unless it is otherwise classified by law. The Minnesota Government Data Practices Act (Minnesota Statute Chapter 13) establishes rights and responsibilities for access to government data.

Everything that’s true about government data is true about data in Teams

• Data that is a record needs to be kept for its retention period.
• Data should be protected. It should only be shared through existing processes to ensure protected information is not released.
• Data can be requested. Government data is public unless otherwise classified by the law.

View The Minnesota Government Data Practices Act

Recording meeting in Teams

Teams can be used to record meetings—the video and audio are saved to a file. This functionality is helpful, for things such as recording trainings, but consider:

• Most meetings should not be recorded. Meetings are not automatically recorded.
• If you plan to record a session, you should notify the other attendees in advance, and/or at the beginning of the meeting.
• Once someone begins recording a meeting, a banner appears to let everyone know.
• Video and audio recordings can be requested by the public.

Additional help

For tips and help getting started with Microsoft Teams, visit Microsoft Teams Learning Resources.

Visit the Data Practices section on CityTalk or contact the Clerk's Office for more information about records management.