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Alternative Media Access Center (AMAC)

Acceptable Use Policy

 

1.0   Overview

 

The Alternative Media Access Center’s (AMAC) intentions for publishing an Acceptable Use Policy are not to impose restrictions that are contrary to AMAC’s established culture of openness, trust and integrity. AMAC is committed to protecting AMAC's employees, partners and the project from illegal or damaging actions by individuals, either knowingly or unknowingly.

 

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 AMAC. These systems are to be used for business purposes in serving the interests of the project, 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 AMAC 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.

             

2.0 Purpose

 

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

             

3.0 Scope

 

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

             

4.0 Policy

 

4.1 General Use and Ownership

 

  1. While AMAC's network administration desires to provide a reasonable level of privacy, users should be aware that the data they create on AMAC systems remains the property of AMAC. Because of the need to protect AMAC's network, management cannot guarantee the confidentiality of information stored on any network device belonging to AMAC.

 

  1. 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.

 

  1. For security and network maintenance purposes, authorized individuals within AMAC may monitor equipment, systems and network traffic at any time.

 

  1. AMAC reserves the right to audit networks and systems on a periodic basis to ensure compliance with this policy.

     

4.2 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. Examples of confidential information include but are not limited to: project private, project strategies, competitor sensitive, trade secrets, specifications, customer lists, and research data. Employees should take all necessary steps to prevent unauthorized access to this information.

 

  1. Keep passwords secure and do not share accounts. Authorized users are responsible for the security of their passwords and accounts. All passwords should be changed every six months.

 

  1. All PCs, laptops and workstations should be secured with a password-protected screensaver with the automatic activation feature set at 20 minutes or less, or by logging-off (control-alt-delete for Win2K users) when the host will be unattended.

 

  1. Because information contained on portable computers is especially vulnerable, special care should be exercised.

 

  1. Postings by employees from an AMAC email address to newsgroups should contain a disclaimer stating that the opinions expressed are strictly their own and not necessarily those of AMAC, unless posting is in the course of business duties.

 

  1. All hosts used by the employee that are connected to the AMAC Internet/Intranet/Extranet, whether owned by the employee or AMAC, shall be continually executing approved virus-scanning software with a current virus database unless overridden by departmental or group policy.

 

  1. 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.

 

4.3 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 AMAC authorized to engage in any activity that is illegal under local, state, federal or international law while utilizing AMAC-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.

 

4.3.1 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 AMAC.

 

  1. 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 AMAC or the end user does not have an active license is strictly prohibited.

 

  1. 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.

 

  1. Introduction of malicious programs into the network or server (e.g., viruses, worms, Trojan horses, e-mail bombs, etc.).

 

  1. 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.

 

  1. Using an AMAC 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.

 

  1. Making fraudulent offers of products, items, or services originating from any AMAC account.

 

  1. Making statements about warranty, expressly or implied, unless it is a part of normal job duties.

 

  1. 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.

 

  1. Port scanning or security scanning is expressly prohibited unless prior notification to AMAC is made.

 

  1. 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.

 

  1. Circumventing user authentication or security of any host, network or account.

 

  1. Interfering with or denying service to any user other than the employee's host (for example, denial of service attack).

 

  1. 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.

 

  1. Providing information about, or lists of, AMAC employees to parties outside AMAC.

 

4.3.2 Email and Communications Activities

 

  1. 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).

 

  1. Any form of harassment via email, telephone or paging, whether through language, frequency, or size of messages.

 

  1. Unauthorized use, or forging, of email header information.

 

  1. 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.

 

  1. Creating or forwarding "chain letters", "Ponzi" or other "pyramid" schemes of any type.

 

  1. Use of unsolicited email originating from within AMAC's networks of other Internet/Intranet/Extranet service providers on behalf of, or to advertise, any service hosted by AMAC or connected via AMAC's network.

 

  1. Posting the same or similar non-business-related messages to large numbers of Usenet newsgroups (newsgroup spam).

 

4.4 Blogging

 

  1. Blogging by employees, whether using AMAC’s property and systems or personal computer systems, is also subject to the terms and restrictions set forth in this Policy. Limited and occasional use of AMAC’s systems to engage in blogging is acceptable, provided that it is done in a professional and responsible manner, does not otherwise violate AMAC’s policy, is not detrimental to AMAC’s best interests, and does not interfere with an employee's regular work duties. Blogging from AMAC’s systems is also subject to monitoring.

 

  1. Employees shall not engage in any blogging that may harm or tarnish the image, reputation and/or goodwill of AMAC and/or any of its employees.

 

  1. Employees may also not attribute personal statements, opinions or beliefs to AMAC when engaged in blogging. If an employee is expressing his or her beliefs and/or opinions in blogs, the employee may not, expressly or implicitly, represent themselves as an employee or representative of AMAC. Employees assume any and all risk associated with blogging.

 

  1. Apart from following all laws pertaining to the handling and disclosure of copyrighted or export controlled materials, AMAC’s trademarks, logos and any other AMAC intellectual property may also not be used in connection with any blogging activity.

 

5.0 Enforcement

 

5.1 Policy Roles and Responsibilities

 

Enforcement of this policy is the responsibility of the AMAC Director, AMAC Compliance Manager, and AMAC Information Technology Manager.

 

5.2 Consequences and Sanctions for Non-Compliance

 

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

 

6.0 Review and Measurement

 

6.1 Review

 

Changes to this policy will be approved by the AMAC Director, AMAC Compliance Manager, and AMAC Information Technology Manager.

 

7.0 Procedures and Standards

8.0 References

 

8.1 Definitions

 

Term

Definition

AMAC

Alternative Media Access Center

Blogging

Writing a blog. A blog (short for weblog) is a personal online journal that is frequently updated and intended for general public consumption.

Spam

Unauthorized and/or unsolicited electronic mass mailings.

             

9.0 Revision History

 

Version

Author

Date

1.0

Todd Runkle

07-15-2007