The Parliamentary Digital Service has kindly offered some advice for maintaining consistent, simple and relatively secure access to your Parliamentary IT services over the summer recess.

Easier access to your services via Microsoft 365

Thanks to Microsoft 365, you can access your email and calendar in the following ways:

1.       On any Parliamentary supplied laptop or desktop connected to the internet, just open Outlook.

2.       On any computer or tablet, go to office.com, click ‘Sign In’ at the top-right corner of the screen, and enter your normal username, password and PINSafe code.

Is your password going to expire?

If you’ve not changed your password in the last month, please do so before going on leave – this will ensure that it doesn’t expire over the summer and impact access to your Parliamentary ICT services.

To change your password, you should be logged into your network account on a Parliamentary supplied laptop or desktop, press CTRL + ALT + DEL and select ‘Change a Password’.

Please ensure that you use a strong password – one that uses a combination of upper and lowercase letters, numbers and symbols.

Working away from the Parliamentary Estate and abroad

Avoid using Wi-Fi networks that are not password protected, especially those in public places.

If you do need to connect to publicly accessible Wi-Fi, avoid logging in (entering user names and passwords) to banking, social media and other sites containing sensitive information.

If you use a Parliamentary iPad abroad, please see the attached document for advice about security and data roaming. This advice is also useful for personal iPads and smartphones.

Please note that passengers flying into or out of the UK are advised to ensure electronic and electrical devices in hand luggage are sufficiently charged to be switched on (to comply with airport security checks).

 We also recommend you visit the cyber security ParliNet pages for additional guidance.