| POLICY NAME | POLICY NO. | APPROVING BODY | RESPONSIBLE DEPARTMENT |
|---|---|---|---|
| Acceptable Use of Computing Resources Policy | BA461 | Cabinet/President | Information Technology |
| EFFECTIVE DATE | VERSION NO. | REVISION/REVIEW DATE | DOWNLOAD PDF |
| 01-JUL-2024 | 01 | 01-JUL-2024 | BA461_Acceptable Use of Computing Resources WEB |
PURPOSE:
The purpose of this policy is to outline the acceptable use of computer equipment, internet, intranet and technical resources at Western New Mexico University (WNMU). These policies are in place to protect employees, students, and WNMU. Inappropriate use exposes WNMU and individuals alike to risks including virus attacks, compromise of network systems, loss of data and services, and legal issues.
POLICY:
SECTION 1: OVERVIEW
The intentions for publishing an Acceptable Use Policy are not to impose restrictions that are contrary to the established culture of openness, trust, and integrity at WNMU. Information Technology is committed to protecting all employees, students and all associated data from illegal or damaging actions by individuals, either knowingly or unknowingly.
Internet, Intranet, and Extranet-related systems, including but not limited to computer equipment, software, operating systems, storage media, network accounts providing electronic mail, WWW browsing, and FTP, and all other systems are the property of WNMU. These systems are to be used for business purposes in serving the interests of the company and the interests of our customers.
Effective security is a team effort involving the participation and support of every WNMU employee and affiliate who deals with information and/or information systems. It is the responsibility of every user to know these guidelines, and to conduct their activities accordingly.
SECTION 2: SCOPE
This policy applies to employees, contractors, consultants, temporary employees, students, and all other workers at WNMU including all personnel affiliated with third parties. This policy applies to all equipment that is owned or leased by WNMU.
SECTION 3: TERMS
Users – A person who makes use of WNMU technology resources, systems, or data.
SECTION 4: GENERAL USE & OWNERSHIP
- The network administration desires to provide a reasonable level of privacy, users should be aware that the data they create on university systems remains the property of WNMU. The need to protect the WNMU network may require the Information Technology Department (ITD) to access systems where confidential data is stored within our environment. If this data is accessed, all related protocols to sensitive data will be followed.
- Employees are responsible for exercising good judgment regarding the reasonableness of personal use. If different guidelines are needed to effectively execute the duties of a position they should be agreed upon and approved by the ITD in a written and signed document with a copy stored with the requesting department and the ITD.
- WNMU adheres to a high standard for technical support. To ensure this, any device, software, or other technology that is to be supported by Information Technology must first be verified and approved by Information Technology before purchase.
- For security and network maintenance purposes, authorized individuals within WNMU may monitor equipment, systems, and network traffic at any time.
- WNMU reserves the right to audit networks and systems on a periodic basis to ensure compliance with this policy.
SECTION 5: SECURITY AND PROPRIETARY INFORMATION
The User Shall:
- Interface for information contained on Internet, Intranet, and Extranet-related systems should be classified as either confidential or not confidential, as defined by corporate confidentiality guidelines, details of which can be found in Human Resources policies. Examples of confidential information include but are not limited to: company private, corporate strategies, competitor sensitive, trade secrets, specifications, customer lists, and research data. Employees should take all necessary steps to prevent unauthorized access to this information.
- Keep passwords secure and not share accounts. Authorized users are responsible for the security of their passwords and accounts. Department level passwords should be changed each semester, and user level passwords should be changed every six months.
- Postings by employees from a WNMU email address to newsgroups should contain a disclaimer stating that the opinions expressed are strictly their own and not necessarily those of WNMU, unless posting is in the course of business duties.
- All computers used by the employee that are connected to the WNMU Internet, Intranet, or Extranet, whether owned by the employee or WNMU, shall be kept up to date with operating system patches, security updates, and service packs.
- All computers used by the employee that are connected to the WNMU Internet, Intranet, or Extranet, whether owned by the employee or WNMU, shall be continually executing approved virus-scanning software unless overridden by the ITD. The ITD shall provide at no cost an approved anti-virus software for all computers connected to the WNMU network upon request.
- Employees must use good judgement and caution when confidence scams, “phishing” attempts, or other social-engineered attacks are used against WNMU. Any attempts should be reported to spam@wnmu.edu
- Employees must use extreme caution when opening e-mail attachments received from unknown senders, which may contain viruses, e-mail bombs, Trojan horse code, etc.
SECTION 6: UNACCEPTABLE USE
The following activities are prohibited. Employees may be exempted from these restrictions during the course of their legitimate job responsibilities (E.g., systems administration staff may have a need to disable the network access of a host if that host is disrupting production services). Under no circumstances is an employee of WNMU authorized to engage in any activity that is illegal under local, state, federal, or international law while utilizing WNMU resources.
The lists below are by no means exhaustive, but attempt to provide a framework for activities which fall into the category of unacceptable use. If there is any uncertainty to the legality of an action, users should consult their supervisor, manager, vice-president, or the ITD.
SYSTEM AND NETWORK ACTIVITIES
- Violations of the rights of any person or company protected by copyright, trade secret, patent or other intellectual property, or similar laws or regulations, including, but not limited to, the installation or distribution of “pirated” or other software products that are not appropriately licensed for use by WNMU.
- Unauthorized copying of copyrighted material including, but not limited to, digitization and distribution of photographs from magazines, books or other copyrighted sources, copyrighted music, and the installation of any copyrighted software for which WNMU or the end user does not have an active license is strictly prohibited.
- Exporting software, technical information, encryption software or technology, in violation of international or regional export control laws, is illegal. Copying, or distributing university software to non-university personnel or systems is also illegal, be it physical or electronic media.
- Introduction of malicious programs into the network or server (e.g., viruses, worms, Trojan horses, e-mail bombs, etc.).
- Introduction of any network peripherals (e.g., wireless access points, routers, switches, etc.) without notification and consultation of Information Technology.
- Revealing your account password to others or allowing use of your account by others. Including but not limited to family and other household members when work is being done at home.
- Using a WNMU computing asset to actively engage in procuring or transmitting material that is in violation of sexual harassment or hostile workplace laws in the user’s local jurisdiction.
- Using a WNMU computing asset to actively engage in transmitting material that is pornographic, hate-mongering, slander or inciting violence of any sort.
- Effecting security breaches or disruptions of network communication. Security breaches include, but are not limited to, accessing data of which the employee is not an intended recipient or logging into a server or account that the employee is not expressly authorized to access, unless these duties are within the scope of regular duties. For purposes of this section, “disruption” includes, but is not limited to, network sniffing, pinged floods, packet spoofing, denial of service, and forged routing information for malicious purposes.
- Port scanning or security scanning is expressly prohibited unless prior notification with Information Technology is made.
- Executing any form of network monitoring which will intercept data not intended for the employee’s host, unless this activity is a part of the employee’s normal job/duty.
- Circumventing user authentication or security of any host, network or account.
- Interfering with or denying service to any user other than the employee’s host (for example, denial of service attack).
- Using any program, script, command, or sending messages of any kind, with the intent to interfere with, or disable, a user’s terminal session, via any means, locally or via the Internet, Intranet, or Extranet.
- Providing information about, or lists of WNMU employees, students, or affiliates to parties outside WNMU.
EMAIL & COMMUNICATIONS ACTIVITIES
- Sending unsolicited email messages, including the sending of “junk mail” or other advertising material to individuals who did not specifically request such material (email spam).
- Any form of harassment via email, telephone or paging, whether through language, frequency, or size of messages.
- Unauthorized use, or forging, of email header information.
- Solicitation of email for any other email address, other than that of the poster’s account, with the intent to harass or to collect replies.
- Creating or forwarding “chain letters”, “Ponzi” or other “pyramid” schemes of any type.
- Use of unsolicited email originating from within WNMU’s networks of other Internet, Intranet, or Extranet service providers on behalf of, or to advertise any service hosted by WNMU or connected via the WNMU network.
- Posting the same or similar non-business-related messages to large numbers of newsgroups (newsgroup spam).
ENFORCEMENT
Any employee found to have violated this policy may be subject to disciplinary action, up to and including termination of employment.