University of Northwestern – St. Paul and Northwestern Media (UNW) recognize that technology is an essential resource in personal, professional, and academic environments. UNW provides technology resources (computers, telecommunication, network and Internet connections, email, and other resources) that support UNW’s mission and vision and should be utilized accordingly.

The mission & vision statements can be found below:

• University of Northwestern – St. Paul

• Northwestern Media

The purpose of this policy is to provide the UNW community with common guidelines and expectations for the use of technology resources. This policy provides information concerning both the appropriate and inappropriate use of UNW technology resources in order to:

• Ensure UNW technology resources are used for purposes consistent with UNW mission and goals

• Prevent disruptions to and misuse of UNW technology resources

• Ensure the UNW community is informed of the state and federal laws and UNW Information Technology (IT) policies that govern the use of UNW IT resources

• Protect UNW's data

This policy applies to all users of computing resources owned or managed by UNW. Individuals covered by the policy include (but are not limited to) UNW faculty and visiting faculty, staff, students, alumni, guests or agents of the administration, contractors, and external individuals and organizations accessing network services via UNW computing facilities.

Computing resources include all UNW owned, licensed, or managed hardware and software, IT approved cloud platforms, and the use of the UNW network via a wired or wireless connection, regardless of the ownership of the computer or device connected to the network.

This policy applyies to technology administered in individual departments, the resources administered by central administrative departments (such as the UNW Library and Information Technology), personally-owned computers and devices connected by wire or wireless to the campus network, and to off-campus computers that connect remotely to UNW's network services.

1.1 General Use and Ownership

1.1.1 - UNW proprietary information stored on electronic and computing devices, whether owned or leased by UNW, the employee, or a third party, remains the sole property of UNW.

1.1.2 - Users have a responsibility to promptly report the theft, loss, or unauthorized disclosure of UNW proprietary information.

1.1.3 - Users may access, use, or share UNW proprietary information only to the extent that it is authorized and necessary to fulfill assigned job duties.

1.1.4 - 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 consult their supervisor or manager.

1.1.5 - For security and network maintenance purposes, authorized individuals within UNW may monitor equipment, systems, and network traffic at any time.

1.1.6 - UNW reserves the right to audit networks and systems on a periodic basis to ensure compliance with this policy.

1.1.7 - Unless authorized by the vendor, UNW does not have the right to install software for use on more than one computer. UNW prohibits the illegal duplication of software and its related documentation.

1.1.8 - The Internet and email may not be used for private business purposes, to solicit interest in non-UNW events, to utilize UNW network resources to generate monetary or equivalent compensation, or to solicit others for commercial ventures, financial gain, or cryptocurrency mining. Websites are not allowed to be used for commerce, personal gain, or political campaigning.

1.1.9 - An employee or student should not use or install software on any UNW-owned computer or system that is not used for UNW purposes or approved by IT. A list of approved software that can be installed on a UNW computer is found on our UNW Workstation Applications article.

1.2 Security and Proprietary Information

1.2.1 - All devices that connect to the UNW network must comply with the Minimum Security Standards for Networked Devices Policy.

1.2.2 - System-level and user-level passwords must comply with the Password Policy. Providing access to another individual, either deliberately or through failure to secure its access, is prohibited.

1.2.3 - All UNW-managed devices that access the UNW network must be secured with a password-protected screensaver with the automatic activation feature set to 10 minutes or less. Users must lock the screen or log off when the device is unattended. This does not apply to computers used for presentation or production purposes.

1.2.4 - Employees must use extreme caution when opening email attachments or clicking links received from unknown senders, which may contain malware. UNW employs several email tagging strategies to help alert students and employees about messages that require extra action in order to determine that it's not a malicious attempt to steal passwords or other information from users (see Phishing under Information Security). 

1.2.5 - Unique, least privileged (non-administrative) user accounts should be used on all UNW systems.

1.2.6 - UNW data should only be stored on UNW technology resources or IT-approved cloud services.

1.2.7 - All devices connected to the UNW network must have up-to-date security patches, updates, and operational antivirus programs and must be free of viruses, worms, and other malware.

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

1.3.1 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 UNW.

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 or video, and the installation of any copyrighted software for which UNW or the end user does not have an active license.

3. Accessing data, a server, or an account for any purpose other than conducting UNW business, even if the user has authorized access.

4. Connecting a network appliance (hub, switch, router, etc.), a wireless device, or private network to the UNW network, without prior written approval from Information Technology

5. 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.

6. Intentional introduction of malicious programs into the network or server (e.g., viruses, worms, Trojan horses, email bombs, etc.).

7. Revealing an account password to others or allowing use of an account by others at any time. This includes family and other household members.

8. Using a UNW computing resource to actively engage in procuring or transmitting material that is in violation of sexual harassment or hostile workplace laws.

9. Making fraudulent offers of products, items, or services originating from any UNW account.

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

11. Initiating 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 doing so is 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.

12. Port scanning or security scanning is expressly prohibited unless prior approval is received from IT.

13. Executing any form of network monitoring which will intercept data not intended for the employee's host.

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

15. Introducing honeypots, honeynets, or similar technology on the UNW network.

16. Interfering with or denying service to any user (for example, denial of service attack).

17. Using any program, script, command, or sending messages of any kind with the intent to interfere with or disable a user's session by any means.

18. Providing information about, or lists of, UNW employees or students, to parties outside UNW.

19. Using a telephone, computer, email, the Internet, or other electronic devices in a way that is disruptive, defamatory, abusive, unlawful, unethical, or harmful to morale.

20. Creating, displaying, transmitting, receiving, or the display, transmission, willful receipt, or storage of sexually explicit or pornographic images, messages, cartoons, documents, programs, chats, or files.

1.3.2 Email and Communication Activities

When using UNW resources to access and use the Internet, users must realize they represent UNW. Email, voicemail, and other messaging solutions may be monitored to the extent necessary to ensure compliance with UNW policies. Community members have no legitimate expectation of privacy in UNW messaging systems.

The following should be avoided:

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).

2. Any form of harassment via email, telephone, texting, video conferencing, instant messaging, whether through language, frequency, or size of messages.

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

4. 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.

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

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

7. Posting the same or similar non-business-related messages to large numbers of forums, message boards, and online communities.

8. No social security numbers or other protected UNW data should be sent over the Internet, unless the connection is secure or the data is encrypted.

9. Automated forwarding of UNW emails to a personal email account.

2.1 Compliance Measurement

IT will verify compliance with this policy through various methods including, but not limited to, business tool reports, internal and external audits, and feedback to the policy owner. If a user on the UNW network is found to be in violation of this policy, IT staff reserve the right to confiscate computing devices, disable network access, or disable account access.

2.2 Exceptions

Any exception to the policy must be approved by UNW's Chief Information Officer (CIO).

2.3 Non-Compliance

Upon learning of violations of this policy, employees should notify their immediate supervisor or Human Resources. Students should notify Student Life. Employees and students may also contact Information Technology who will work in conjunction with Student Life and/or Human Resources.

FOR STUDENTS: Violations of this policy will result in the student being referred to the appropriate disciplinary department. Sanctions imposed as a result of such violations may include, but are not limited to:

• Suspension/termination of technology and/or network privileges and resources

• Disciplinary action as defined in the current Student Handbook

• Suspension or expulsion from UNW

• Monetary reimbursement to UNW or other appropriate sources

• Legal action under applicable civil and/or criminal laws

Documentation of the incident will be placed in the student's file. In addition, the student may (1) be required to submit a response paper (contract) to Student Life indicating the student's ownership of the incident, and/or (2) be required to send written apologies to those, if any, who have been negatively impacted by the incident.

FOR EMPLOYEES: Employees who violate this policy will be subject to disciplinary action up to and including termination of employment as well as possible legal action under applicable civil and/or criminal laws.

• Copyright Policy

• Social Media Policy

• Social Security Number Protection

• Sensitive Information

• FERPA and the Solomon Amendment

• Minimum Security Standards for Networked Devices

• Password Policy

• Cloud Computing Services Policy
  

The following definitions and terms can be found in the SANS Glossary located at: https://www.sans.org/security-resources/glossary-of-terms/

• Honeypot

• Honeynet

• Proprietary Information

• Spam

• Port scan

• Sniffing

• Spoof

• Denial of Service

• Trojan Horse

• Internet/Intranet