To some of you this will be the first time you have seen this message. It is Agency policy to email this to all users every three months. Please read it carefully, it may change from time to time. If you have any questions please call me at (XXX) XXX-XXXX. For those of you that have seen this message before please re-read it to remind yourself of the policies in place regarding the use of this network.
Company users may access this policy at any time by clicking here. (
(link not there... duh))
The policies outlined below are for the protection of yourselves and the Wide Area Network, (WAN), managed by mycompany. The policies are put in place to maintain the security and integrity of the network and it’s data. Furthermore, they are designed to restrict the use of Agency computer systems to avoid Agency or personal liability for copyright infringement or other lawsuits be they criminal or civil.
1. This is a business network and is to be used for business purposes only.
2. Under no circumstances are users of this network to attach any electronic device, (Laptops, PDA’s, Wireless Access Points, Thumb Drives etc.), to the network without the prior permission of their network administrator.
3. Under no circumstances are users of this network to download and install software from the internet that is not explicitly authorized by the senior IS staff member of your organization.
4. Under no circumstances are users of this network to install software from the any other media that is not explicitly authorized by the senior IS staff member of your organization.
5. Under no circumstances are users of this network to collect email, be it personal or business, from any mechanism other than the Outlook or Outlook Express that was installed and configured on your computer by IS staff. This means that visiting Hotmail, AOL or any other system on the internet that would provide you access to email is forbidden.
6. Under no circumstances are users of this network to alter the setup of their Outlook or Outlook Express or install an alternative mail client to collect mail from any location other than those set up by IS staff.
7. Under no circumstances are users of this network to use instant messengers such as AOL, MSN, ICQ or any other instant messaging, (chat), system be it installed on your computer or accessed through Internet Explorer or any other system.
8. Under no circumstances are users of this network to install or partake in any file sharing system such as Kazaa, Gnutella, Napster or any other system that allows sharing or downloading of files from sources outside this network.
9. Under no circumstances are users of this network to listen to internet radio, download music or any other media unless the activity is explicitly authorized by the senior IS staff member within your organization.
10. Under no circumstances are users to download, use or publish on Agency computer systems, any work that is copyrighted by others that they do not give full recognition to or do not have written permission from the copyright owner to use.
11. Under no circumstances are users allowed to try to circumvent any system that is put in place by IS staff to limit or restrict the users to business related activity.
12. Under no circumstances are users to participate in any activity that would be deemed by mycompany’s Manager of Information Systems as malicious, (hacking/cracking), be it against internal network resources or external resources except in the case of IS staff authorized to carry out security audits against targets they have explicit written permission from the owner of the system(s) being audited.
mycompany has the right, but not the duty, to monitor any and all traffic passing through it’s network. As such it is very important that you understand that while you are using Agency computer systems, or personally owned systems connected to Agency networks you can have no expectation of privacy. The network is monitored in several ways 24 hours a day, every day and activity is logged, analyzed and archived in such a way that the IS staff can go back to any period on any given day to see exactly who did what, where and when.
I am not simply being a curmugeon - many of these activities present a serious threat to the security of this network. Those that don't present security issues seriously affect the ability of the network to carry the volume of traffic causing legitimate use to slow down to almost a crawl at times. Please abide by the policies outlined above or your supervisor will be notified of your activity and that continued infractions will lead to the blocking of your internet access through to disciplinary action that may result in your termination.
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