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IT
Policies
Prohibited Acts & Proper Resource Utilization
The
Department of Information Technology (IT) is neither
an investigative nor a disciplinary entity in its primary
responsibilities. However, in cases where University
resources and privileges are abused or otherwise threatened,
the department may be asked to take appropriate steps.
Immediate revocation of access and subsequent prosecution
by the authorities, for example, might be directed.
Such revocation may be appealed to the IT committee.
Another
example would be to both discipline and hold accountable
an individual who damages IT resources. Improper access
or modification of AUS information in a computer system
may also bring a stiff penalty.
Prohibited
acts include but are not limited to the following:
1.
Intentional denial of computing service to other users.
2.
Exploitation of insecure accounts or resources.
3.
Attempting to guess, crack or otherwise determine another
user's password.
4.
Interception of network transmissions with hardware
or software "sniffers".
5.
Forging of electronic mail or electronic news or otherwise
misrepresent themselves or other individuals in any
electronic communication.
6.
System administrators are not to use their access to
examine the private information of other users except
in the course of resolving problems and where access
to such information is necessary. In these cases, IT
staff are required to seek permission and oversight.
7.
IT staff may not transfer resources (hardware, software,
documentation, etc.) from designated locations without
the explicit permission of their supervisor. University
Services department shall be notified of the movement
and shall update the employee's inventory record accordingly.
8.
AUS employees or students may not load any software
onto their workstations or servers, which has not been
purchased or is not free. Software identified as "shareware"
should be examined carefully to ensure there is compliance
with any licensing requirements. Under no circumstances
will software binaries from unknown or illegal sources
be placed on workstations or servers.
9.
Under no circumstances will AUS employees or students
share account passwords, key combinations, alarm codes,
keys, access cards or any other access control mechanism
for any University resource or facility with any individual
in a manner inconsistent with the policies established
by their supervisor. In the absence of such policies,
employees must have the explicit permission of their
supervisor to share any access mechanism to any department
resource.
10.
AUS staff or faculty who bring vendors or personal guests
into AUS IT facilities must make sure that these guests
are escorted at ALL times with care given to protecting
AUS equipment, facilities, and information.
11.
IT management reserves the right to audit University
owned workstations and servers without warning for the
purpose of verifying software-licensing compliance.
12.
All computer and network access is denied unless expressly
granted. Access is generally granted by the IT Department
in the form of computer and network accounts to registered
students, faculty, staff, and others as appropriate
for such purposes as research, education (including
self-study), or University administration. University
accounts are protected by passwords. Deans and Directors
must verify the requirement with their signature on
the attached form (Annex A).
13.
Accounts are assigned to individuals and are not to
be shared unless specifically authorized. You, the user,
are solely responsible for all functions performed from
accounts assigned to you. Anything done through your
account may be recorded. It is a violation of University
Policy to allow others to use your account. It is a
violation to use another person's account, with or without
that person's permission.
14.
Your password, used with your account, is the equivalent
of your electronic signature. The use of user-id and
password authenticates your identity and gives your
on-line affirmation the force of a legal document. You
should guard your password and account as you would
your check book and written signature. It is a violation
of this Policy to divulge your password to anyone. It
is a violation to attempt to learn the password to another
persons account, whether the attempt is successful or
not.
15.
You may not attempt to disguise your identity, the identity
of your account or the machine that you are using. You
may not attempt to impersonate another person or organization.
16.
You may not attempt to monitor other users' data communications;
you may not infringe the privacy of others' computer
files; you may not read, copy, change, or delete another
user's computer files or software without the prior
express permission of the owner.
17.
You may not engage in actions that interfere with the
use by others of any computers and networks. Such conduct
includes, but is not limited to, the placing of unlawful
information on the system; the transmitting of data
or programs likely to result in the loss of the recipient's
work or system downtime; the sending of "chain
letters" or "broadcast" messages to lists
or individuals; any other use that causes congestion
of the networks or interferes with the work of others.
18.
You may not engage in actions that threaten or intentionally
offend others, such as the use of abusive or obscene
language in either public or private messages, or the
conveying of threats to individuals or institutions
by way of AUS computers and/or networks.
19.
You may not attempt to bypass computer or network security
mechanisms without the prior express permission of the
owner of that computer or network system. Possession
of tools that bypass security or probe security, or
of files that may be used as input or output for such
tools, shall be considered as the equivalent to such
an attempt.
20.
You may not alter, copy or translate software licensed
to another party. You may not make available copyrighted
materials without the express permission of the copyright
holder. Respect for intellectual labor is vital to the
academic discourse. Violations of authorial integrity,
plagiarism, invasion of privacy, unauthorized access,
and trade secret and copyright violations may be grounds
for university sanctions as well as legal prosecution.
To
summarize, access to University computing and communications
equipment and facilities may be revoked for reasons
including, but not limited to:
- attacking
the security of the system,
- modifying
or divulging private information such as file or mail
contents of other users without their consent,
- modifying
or destroying University data, or
- using
the networks in a manner contrary to the established
guidelines.
Finally,
users may not read sensitive information simply because
it is accessible to them - because of accidental exposure
and/or through the malice of others who have broken
into a system or are misusing their access privileges.
When sensitive information is recognized as such, it
should not be examined further, but reported to the
keeper of the materials, if known, or reported to management,
if not.
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