Security and Policy


The centre provides facilities to support and enhance the educational mission of the institute; for enriching the educational experience of the students, faculty and the staff and supporting their research and academic activities; and for providing automation support to the institute. This facility is needed for your day to day research activities as well as courses and assignments.

A network access account is created for every individual on admission to the institute. The account allows you to browse the web, send and receive e-mail, use the computational and interactive facilities of the centre.  You can use the state of the art services of the IT centre with freedom. This freedom, you will find, is unsurpassed, when compared with elsewhere. Hence it is expected that you have to use the services in a responsible manner. Your conduct and use should be tempered with propriety and a spirit that respects the right of everyone. Any abuse of the facility may have serious implications on the reputation and the standing of the institute as wellas can bring the facility of the institute into disrepute. Such misuse of the facility will not be tolerated.

Certain guidelines that should be followed in the use of the computer centre and its facilities have been formulated. The compliance with the guidelines and the do's and the don'ts are necessary for the continued use of your freedom. Not only should users stick to the use of the facility in accordance with the guidelines, but also report any use that is against these guide lines or the spirit of these guide lines. Failure to report infractions of the guide lines shall also be construed as an act of omission in following the guidelines.

Following activities amount to unethical use of computing facilities and will attract punishment from the Institute authorities. You should read the following list of activities that amount to unethical use of computing facilities and the previous discussion carefully.

Unethical Use of Computing Facilities.

  Blocking Resources:

   1. Playing games on the machines in the computer centre

   2. Locking the screen of machines in the computer centre

   3. Sending junk mail to all the users

   4. Sending chain letters 

  Wasting Resources:

   1. Unnecessary downloads from the Internet. 

  Misusing Facilities: 

   1. Giving accounts to other persons, sometimes outsiders

   2. Storing pornographic material on the disk

  3. Viewing pornographic material on terminals

  4. Using personal account to do outside (non-institute) work for which the  individual is paid. 

  Security related misuse:

   1. Breaking security of the systems

   2. Trying to capture password of other users

   3. Damaging/gaining access to the data of other users 

       This kind of abuse is taken most seriously. Anyone found involved in these activities will  be punished by concerned authorities for necessary disciplinary action. 

          We cannot enumerate all the cases. However, a thumb rule is that any activity which inconveniences users, depletes the IT centre resources, or jeopardizes the security of the systems, amounts to unethical use. Moreover it should be noted that the punishment set out for various cases can change and can be very severe depending on the view that the institute takes of the offence.

 


The Institute, whenever possible, gives all legitimate users the discretion to determine how to best use the computing resources and facilities within the guidelines of this policy. Users are responsible for their actions, the consequences of those actions, and the consequences of negligent inaction. As such, users whose judgment leads to activities inconsistent with the guidelines of this policy risk disciplinary action and possible imposition of restrictions to enforce the guidelines of this policy. Also the guidelines should be met with letter and the spirit of the guidelines as no set of ethical/unethical guidelines can be exhaustive.