ECN Accounts: Summary of User Rights and Responsibilities

The following is a summary of the user's rights and responsibilities. This is an excerpt from the Purdue University Engineering Computer Policy on Access and Usage, which is required reading for all ECN system users.

4. User Rights and Responsibilities

A user of the Engineering Computer Network has the following rights and responsibilities.

4.1

To enable the ECN staff to accurately maintain information about the user of each account, each user is responsible for supplying current information to the appropriate ECN staff member (usually the departmental Site Specialist) including school or department affiliation, degree program (undergraduate or graduate), expected graduation or termination date, and University position (faculty, staff, graduate staff, or student).

4.2

Providing false or misleading information for the purpose of obtaining access to ECN facilities is a violation of University policy.

4.3

Each user is responsible for any and all activity initiated in or on ECN facilities by his or her account.

4.4

Users are responsible for selecting a secure password for their account and for keeping that password secret at all times. Passwords should not be written down, stored on-line, or given to others. Passwords should never be given out to someone claiming to be an ECN staff member; authorized ECN staff members have full-access privileges and do not need to know individual users' passwords.

4.5

Users are responsible for protecting their own files and data from reading and/or writing by other users, using whatever protection mechanisms are provided by the operating system in use. Users are responsible for picking up their printer output in a timely fashion to avoid theft or disposal.

4.6

Users are responsible for reporting any system security violation, or suspected system security violation, to the ECN staff immediately.

4.7

Most ECN facilities are made available on an unmonitored basis. It is the responsibility of every user to act in such a manner as to not cause damage to the physical equipment. Accidental damage, or damage caused by other parties, should be reported to the ECN staff as soon as possible so that corrective action can be taken.

4.8

Users who borrow hardware, software, or documentation from ECN lending collections are responsible for its proper care and for returning it in a timely fashion.

4.9

Users are responsible for obeying all official notices posted in terminal rooms, attached to ECN equipment, and displayed in the log-on message of the day.

4.10

Users who are affiliated with the Schools of Engineering may not be denied access to ECN facilities by someone who is not using the facilities for instructional, research, or administrative purposes or who is not a faculty, staff, or student member of the Schools of Engineering. A user affiliated with the Schools of Engineering may ask the offending person to relinquish the resource, or may ask an ECN staff member to intervene on his or her behalf.

4.11

Users have the right not to be harassed while using ECN facilities, whether it be physical, verbal, electronic, or any other form of abuse. Harassment should be reported to the ECN staff.

4.12

Above all, users of the ECN facilities are responsible at all times for using them in a manner that is ethical, legal, and not to the detriment of others.