Columbia University maintains certain policies with regard to the use and security of its computer systems, including the network. All users of these facilities are expected to be familiar with the policies and the consequences of violation as listed below.

COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY NETWORK SECURITY AND PRIVACY POLICIES

1. Unauthorized attempts to gain privileged access or access to any account or system not belonging to you on any University system are not permitted.

2. Creation of any program, Web form, or other mechanism that asks for a Columbia user identity and password, e.g. UNI, CUNIX ID, is prohibited except by using the methods documented for the Columbia secure server at http://cuit.columbia.edu/managing-access or with the permission of the Deputy Vice President for Academic Information Systems or the Deputy Vice President for Administrative Information Services.

3. Computer and network accounts provide access to personal, confidential data. Therefore, individual accounts cannot be transferred to or used by another individual. Sharing accounts or passwords is not permitted.

4. Each user is responsible for the proper use of his or her account and any activity conducted with it. This includes choosing safe passwords, protecting them, and ensuring that file protections are set correctly.

5. Each system owner is responsible for the security of any system he/she connects to the network. A system seen to be attacking other systems, e.g. having fallen victim to viruses/worms, will be taken off the network, generally without notice, until it has been made secure. Security information is available at http://cuit.columbia.edu/cuit/it-security-resources.

6. No University system or network may be used as a vehicle to gain unauthorized access to other systems.

7. Any user who finds a possible security lapse on any University system or network must report it to the system administrators. To protect your files and the system, don’t attempt to use a system under these conditions until the system administrator has investigated the problem.

8. All users should be aware that the system administrators conduct periodic security checks of University systems and networks, including password checks. Any user found to have an easily guessed

9. User files on central University systems are kept as private as possible. Attempts to read another person’s protected files will be treated with the utmost seriousness. The system administrators will not override file protections unless necessary in the course of their duties, and will treat the contents of those files as private information at all times.

COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY NETWORK AND COMPUTING USAGE POLICIES

1. No University system or network may be used for any purpose or in a manner that violates University statutes or regulations or federal, state or local law.

2. Please keep in mind that many people use University systems and networks for daily work. Obstructing this work by consuming gratuitously large amounts of system resources (disk space, CPU time, print quotas, network bandwidth) or by deliberately crashing the machine(s) will not be tolerated. Please cooperate by running large jobs on shared systems at off-peak hours and by using the “nice” command to lower the priority of CPU-intensive processes.

3. Use of any University system by outside individuals or organizations requires special permission from the system’s administrator and payment of fees to the University and to the appropriate software vendors where applicable.

4. Use of University systems or networks for commercial purposes, except where explicitly approved, is strictly prohibited. Such prohibited uses include, but are not limited to, development of programs, data processing or computations for commercial use and preparation and presentation of advertising material.

5. Frivolous, disruptive, or inconsiderate conduct in computer labs or terminal areas is not permitted.

6. No University computing facility may be used for playing computer games.

7. Personal devices are permitted to connect to the network only by wireless connections. Physical ethernet connections are not permitted on personal devices.

8. Copying, storing, displaying, or distributing copyrighted material using University systems or networks without the express permission of the copyright owner, except as otherwise allowed under the copyright law, is prohibited. Under the Federal Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998, repeat infringements of copyright by a user can result in termination of the user’s access to University systems and networks. See information on copyright at http://policylibrary.columbia.edu/copyright-information-network-users and http://www.columbia.edu/content/copyright.html.