Acceptable Use Policy
Responsible Party:
Director Information Technology/CIO
Introduction and Purpose:
The purpose of this policy is to outline the acceptable use of computer equipment at Montana Technological University. These rules are in place to protect the faculty, staff, students and affiliated users and Montana Technological University. Inappropriate use exposes Montana Technological University to risks including virus attacks, compromise of network systems and services, and legal issues.
Policy:
Under no circumstances is an employee of Montana Technological University authorized to engage in any activity that is illegal under local, state, federal or international law while utilizing Montana Technological University -owned resources.
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).
The lists below are by no means exhaustive, but attempt to provide a framework for activities which fall into the category of unacceptable use.
- 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 Montana Technological University.
- 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 Montana Technological University or the end user does not have an active license is strictly prohibited.
- Accessing data, a server or an account for any purpose other than conducting Montana Technological University business, even if you have authorized access, is prohibited.
- Introduction of malicious programs into the network or server (e.g., viruses, worms, Trojan horses, e-mail bombs, etc.).
- Revealing your account password to others or allowing use of your account by others. This includes family and other household members.
- Taking advantage of another user’s naïveté or negligence to gain access to any system account, data software, or file which would not otherwise be accessible.
- Physically interfering with other users’ access to Montana University System computing facilities, unless authorized to do so by the appropriate authority.
- Reading other users’ data, information, files, or programs on a display screen, as printed output, or via electronic means, without the owner’s explicit permission, except in the case of Montana University System employees authorized to do so in the performance of their jobs.
- Using a Montana Technological University computing asset to actively engage in procuring or transmitting material that is in violation of any law, including but not limited to sexual harassment and hostile workplace laws.
- Making fraudulent offers of products, items, or services originating from any Montana Technological University account.
- 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, ping floods, packet spoofing, denial of service, and forged routing information for malicious purposes.
- 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/Extranet.
- Modifying, installing, or removing computer equipment, software, or peripherals, or attempting to do so, without proper authorization
Procedures:
- Information Technology Services will verify compliance to this policy through various methods, including but not limited to, business tool reports, internal and external audits
- Individuals found to be in violation of this policy will be subject to disciplinary action.
- Any noncompliance with these requirements will constitute a security violation and will be reported to the management of Montana Tech and will result in short-term or permanent loss of access to Montana Technological University computing systems and networks. Serious violations may result in civil or criminal prosecution.
I have read and understand the Montana Technological University computing systems Use Ethics Statement for use of the Montana Tech computing facility and agree to abide by it.