The computing facilities at Kingsborough Community College are provided for the use of registered students, faculty and staff in support of the University. All computer users are responsible for using the facilities in an effective, efficient, ethical and lawful manner. The university views the use of computer facilities as a privilege, not a right, and seeks to protect legitimate computer users by imposing sanctions on those who abuse the privilege.

The following conditions apply to all users of the Administrative Computing facilities. Violations of any of the conditions are considered unethical and possibly unlawful. An individual's computer use privileges may be suspended immediately upon the discovery of a possible violation of these policies. Such suspected violations will be confidentially reported to the appropriate faculty, supervisors, department chairmen, Computer Center staff or Vice Presidents.

Computer Policies
COMPUTER USERS AGREE TO USE FACILITIES AND ACCOUNTS FOR UNIVERSITY RELATED ACTIVITIES ONLY. Accounts are considered the property of Kingsborough Community College. All access to central computer systems, including the issuing of passwords, must be approved through the computer center and authorization for the use of the accounts is given for specific academic purposes. Attempts to use accounts without authorization or to use accounts for other than their intended purposes are all violations of this rule. Loopholes in computer security systems or knowledge of a special password should not be used to damage computer systems, obtain extra resources, take resources from another user, gain access to systems or use systems for which proper authorization has not been given. Any attempt to overcome the security systems of any Kingsborough Community College machine is strictly prohibited. Administrative Computing reserves the right to disable an account if any misuse is determined. Computer equipment and accounts are to be used only for the purpose for which they are assigned and are not to be used for commercial purposes or non-university related activities such as running a word processing service. Game playing is not allowed on the system during the academic semester if the machine is otherwise needed for legitimate academic use.

An account assigned to an individual, by Administrative Computing, must not be used by others without explicit permission from the owner of the account. The account owner is responsible for proper password protection.

Programs and files are considered confidential unless they have explicitly been made available to other individuals. Computer Center personnel may access files when necessary for the maintenance of central computer systems. When performing maintenance, every effort is made to insure the privacy of a user's files. However, if violations are discovered, they will be reported immediately to the appropriate Vice President.

Electronic Communications facilities, such as MAIL are for university related activities only. Fraudulent, harassing or obscene messages and/or materials are not to be sent or stored.

COMPUTER USERS AGREE TO RESPECT THE INTEGRITY OF THE SYSTEM. No one should deliberately attempt to degrade the performance of a computer system or to deprive authorized personnel of resources or access to any university computer system. Users shall not intentionally develop or use programs for the purpose of harassing other users of the facility, breaking into the system, or damaging system components.

COMPUTER USERS AGREE TO THE PROPRIETARY RIGHTS OF SOFTWARE. Computer software protected by copyright is not to be copied from, into, or by using campus computing facilities, except as permitted by law or by the contract with the owner of the copyright. In addition all Kingsborough Community College computer users are required to abide by the guidelines of the university's Computer Software Policy.

Other organizations operating computing and network facilities that are reachable via the internet may have their own policies governing the use of those resources. When accessing remote resources through Kingsborough Community College facilities, users are responsible for obeying both the policies set forth in this document and the policies of the other organizations.

Examples of Misuse
Examples of misuse include, but are not limited to, the activities in the following list.

Using the Campus Network to gain unauthorized access to any computer systems.

Knowingly or carelessly performing an act which will interfere with the normal operation of computers, terminals, peripherals, or networks.

Knowingly or carelessly running or installing on any computer system or network, or giving to another user, a program intended to damage or to place excessive load on a computer system or network. This includes, but is not limited to, programs known as computer viruses, Trojan Horses, and worms.

Attempting to circumvent data protection schemes or uncover security loopholes. This includes creating and/or running programs that are designed to identify security loopholes and/or decrypt intentionally secure data. This also includes programs contained within an account, or under the ownership of an account that are designed or associated with security cracking.

Deliberately wasting/overloading computing resources. This includes, but is not limited to, printing multiple copies of a document or printing out large documents that may be available on-line, or that might impact significantly on other users printing resources.

Creating mail or electronic distribution lists larger than 10 addressees that send electronic communications to other accounts without prior permission of the receiving individual.

Moving large files across networks during peak usage periods or prime hours such that it degrades resource performance. Prime hours will be considered to be Monday through Friday from 8am to 5pm.

Storing large files on the systems which could compromise system integrity or preclude other users right of access to disk storage. Appropriate staff may remove or compress disk files that are consuming large amounts of disk space, with or without prior notification.

Masking the identity of an account or machine. This includes, but is not limited to, sending mail anonymously.

Using your account for personal profit or any activity that is commercial in nature, i.e. paid for by non-University funds. Commercial activities include, but are not limited to, consulting, typing services, and developing software for sale.

Posting on electronic bulletin boards materials that violate existing laws or the University's codes of conduct.

Displaying sexually explicit, graphically disturbing, or sexually harassing images or text in a public computer facility, or location that can potentially be in view of other individuals.

Attempting to monitor or tamper with another user's electronic communications, or reading, copying, changing, or deleting another user's files or software without the explicit agreement of the owner. Files owned by individual users are to be considered private property, whether or not they are accessible by other users.

Activities will not be considered misuse when authorized in writing by appropriate University officials for academic or administrative purposes.

Enforcement
The Computer Center administrative staff or supervising department chairman will judge an offense as either major or minor. A first minor offense will normally be dealt with by the Computer Center Administrative staff or supervising department chairman after consultation with the owner of the account. Additional offenses will be regarded as major offenses.

Violations of these policies will be dealt with in the same manner as violations of other university policies and may result in disciplinary review. In such a review, the full range of disciplinary sanctions is available including the loss of computer use privileges, dismissal from the University, and legal action. Violations of some of the policies may constitute a criminal offense.

As with all matters of law and ethics, ignorance of the rules does not excuse violations.