Acceptable Use Policy for Faculty

imagePurpose

The purpose of this policy is to outline the acceptable use of computer equipment at University of New England. These rules are in place to protect the employee and University of New England. Inappropriate use exposes University of New England to risks including virus attacks, compromise of network systems and services, and legal issues.

Policy

Internet/Intranet/Extranet-related systems, including but not limited to computer equipment, software, operating systems, storage media, network accounts providing electronic mail, WWW browsing, and FTP, are the property of University of New England. These systems are to be used for business purposes in serving the interests of the company, and of our clients and customers in the course of normal operations.

Effective security is a team effort involving the participation and support of every University of New England employee and affiliate who deals with information and/or information systems. It is the responsibility of every computer user to know these guidelines, and to conduct their activities accordingly.

This policy applies to employees, contractors, consultants, temporaries, and other workers at University of New England, including all personnel affiliated with third parties. This policy applies to all equipment that is owned or leased by University of New England.

General Use and Ownership

1.   While University of New England's network administration desires to provide a reasonable level of privacy, users should be aware that the data they create on the University systems remains the property of University of New England. Because of the need to protect University of New England's network, management cannot guarantee the confidentiality of information stored on any network device belonging to University of New England.
     
2.   Employees are responsible for exercising good judgment regarding the reasonableness of personal use. Individual departments are responsible for creating guidelines concerning personal use of Internet/Intranet/Extranet systems. In the absence of such policies, employees should be guided by departmental policies on personal use, and if there is any uncertainty, employees should consult their supervisor or manager.
     
3.   It is recommended that any information that users consider sensitive or vulnerable be encrypted.
     
4.   For security and network maintenance purposes, authorized individuals within University of New England may monitor equipment, systems and network traffic at any time, per UNE Audit Policy.
     
5.   University of New England reserves the right to audit networks and systems on a periodic basis to ensure compliance with this policy.

Security and Proprietary Information

1.   The user interface for information contained on Internet/Intranet/Extranet-related systems should be classified as either confidential or not confidential, as defined by University of New England Employee Confidentiality Agreement guidelines, details of which can be found in Human Resources policies. Examples of private, confidential information include, but are not limited to: Social Security numbers, financial information, financial aid applications, copies of tax returns, private health information, birth date, home address or phone number, passwords, gender, ethnicity, citizenship, or citizen visa code, veteran and disability status, educational services received, student academic information (grades, courses taken, schedule, test scores, advising records, etc), disciplinary actions, and student ID. Employees should take all necessary steps to prevent unauthorized access to this information.
     
2.   Keep passwords secure and do not share accounts. Authorized users are responsible for the security of their passwords and accounts. System-level passwords should be changed quarterly, user-level passwords should be changed every 45 a.m. days.
     
3.   All PCs, laptops and workstations should be secured with a password-protected screensaver with the automatic activation feature set at 10 minutes or less, or by logging-off (control-alt-delete for Win2K users) when the host will be unattended.
     
4.   Because information contained on portable computers is especially vulnerable, special care should be exercised. Protect laptops in accordance with the "Laptop Security Tips."
     
5.   Postings by employees from a University of New England email address to newsgroups should contain a disclaimer stating that the opinions expressed are strictly their own and not necessarily those of University of New England, unless posting is in the course of business duties.
     
6.   All hosts used by the employee that are connected to the University of New England Internet/Intranet/Extranet, whether owned by the employee or University of New England, shall be continually executing approved virus-scanning software with a current virus database and be in compliance of UNE Anti-Virus Policy.
     

7.

   Employees must use extreme caution when opening e-mail attachments received from unknown senders, which may contain viruses, e-mail bombs, or Trojan horse code.

Unacceptable Use

The following activities are, in general, 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 University of New England authorized to engage in any activity that is illegal under local, state, federal or international law while utilizing University of New England-owned 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.

System and Network Activities

The following activities are strictly prohibited, with no exceptions:

1.   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 University of New England.
     
2.   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 University of New England or the end user does not have an active license is strictly prohibited.
     
3.   Exporting software, technical information, encryption software or technology in violation of international or regional export control laws is illegal. The appropriate management should be consulted prior to export of any material that is in question.
     
4.   Introduction of malicious programs into the network or server (e.g., viruses, worms, Trojan horses, e-mail bombs, etc.).
     
5.   Revealing your account password to others or allowing use of your account by others. This includes family and other household members when work is being done at home.
     
6.   Using a University of New England 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.
     
7.   Making fraudulent offers of products, items, or services originating from any University of New England account.
     
8.   Making statements about warranty, expressly or implied, unless it is a part of normal job duties.
     
9.   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.
     
10.   Port scanning or security scanning is expressly prohibited unless prior notification to InfoSec is made.
     
11.   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.
     
12.   Circumventing user authentication or security of any host, network or account.
     
13.   Interfering with or denying service to any user other than the employee's host (for example, denial of service attack).
     
14.   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/Extranet.
     
15.   Providing information about, or lists of, University of New England employees to parties outside University of New England.


Email and Communications Activities

1.   It is an unacceptable practice to move confidential information by e-mail that is not encrypted. UNE does not have an encryption system, therefore at no time should anyone email confidential information at anytime for any reason.
     
2.   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)
     
3.   Any form of harassment via email, telephone or paging, whether through language, frequency, or size of messages.
     
4.   Unauthorized use, or forging, of email header information.
     
5.   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.
     
6.   Creating or forwarding "chain letters", "Ponzi" or other "pyramid" schemes of any type.
     
7.   Use of unsolicited email originating from within University of New England's networks of other Internet/Intranet/Extranet service providers on behalf of, or to advertise, any service hosted by University of New England or connected via University of New England's network.
     
8.   Posting the same or similar non-business-related messages to large numbers of Usenet newsgroups (newsgroup spam).
     
9.   If you receive email from patients containing private health information, you may print and file in medical records and destroy email immediately.
     
10.   Do not forward University email from external sources containing private health information to your personal e-mail.
     
11.   If accessing work e-mail from home, secure e-mail from household members and shred any printed materials of a sensitive or confidential nature.
     
12.   All email going out of the UNE network will have a footer containing:

This message may contain privileged and/or confidential information. This information is intended only for the use of the individual(s) or entity to whom it is intended even if addressed incorrectly. If you have received this email in error or are not the intended recipient, you may not use, copy, disseminate or distribute it; do not open any attachments, delete it immediately from your system and notify the sender promptly by email that you have done so. Thank you.

Enforcement
Any employee found to have violated this policy may be subject to disciplinary action, up to and including termination of employment.

Term Definition
Spam: Unauthorized and/or unsolicited electronic mass mailings.

Revised
April 15, 2003
    
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