Third Party Assessment of Security for Software in Courses (TPSA)
Assessing the data security risk for the software used in Digital Capabilities courses.
Our courses and workshops cover a wide range of third-party software, apps, and websites. In order to use some software, course participants may be asked to create an online account.
Not all such software has yet been confirmed as secure for use across all university work.
We assess the security and data privacy risk of their use with the specific scenarios and data in our courses. You will need to undertake your own security and privacy risk assessment before using these tools outside the course context, or with any other data.
If you plan to use the software for your work, we strongly encourage you to follow guidance on third party software and data protection to ensure the security and privacy of systems and data at Oxford.
Find out more
- Use third-party software | Information Security Team (ox.ac.uk)
- Staff guidance on data protection | Compliance (ox.ac.uk)
Software (apps, etc) used in our courses
We are currently working on the range of software, apps, etc used in our courses, to assess the risk status of each. The list below will be updated as this progresses.
| Software Used | Risk Status |
|---|---|
| Access | TPSA in place |
| Adobe Creative Cloud Express | online account required; risk status under review |
| Adobe Creative Cloud (Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign etc) | online account required; risk status under review |
| Adobe Rush | online account required; risk status under review |
| Audacity | local usage only; low risk |
| Blender | local usage only; low risk |
| EndNote | local usage only; low risk |
| EndNote Online | online account required; risk status under review |
| Excel | TPSA in place |
| GIMP | local usage only; low risk |
| InkScape | local usage only; low risk |
| Kubuntu, Linux, some Linux apps | under review |
| LinkedIn Learning | TPSA in place |
| MATLAB | under review |
| MySQL | under review |
| Nexus365 | TPSA in place |
| NVivo | TPSA in place |
| Overleaf | online account required; risk status under review |
| Panopto | TPSA in place |
| PowerPoint | TPSA in place |
| Project | local usage only; low risk |
| PyScripter | local usage only; low risk |
| Python | local usage only; low risk |
| R Studio Cloud | online account required; risk status under review |
| Rapidmooc | under review |
| Screencast-o-Matic | online account required; risk status under review |
| SPSS | local usage only; low risk |
| Stata | TPSA in place |
| Symplectic Elements | under review |
| online account required; risk status under review | |
| Unity Hub | online account required; risk status under review |
| university systems | TPSA in place |
| Word | TPSA in place |
| Xamp | under review |
Explanation of the assessment categories
| Risk Status | Use in courses | Example |
|---|---|---|
| local usage only | all software is installed and used locally, there is no online/cloud interaction | Audacity: when a user saves an audio file for editing, it stays on the local computer |
| online account required | course participants are required to set up an account so as to use a website, or software is installed but you must set up an online account before you can use it | Overleaf, R Studio Cloud Adobe Creative Cloud including Photoshop |
| TPSA in place | a third-party software assessment is already in place | Nexus365, Microsoft Office |
| under review | we are reviewing which assessment applies |