10/25/2006		Are you safe from identity theft?
10/20/2006		Password Complexity Rules
10/19/2006		Peer-to-Peer (P2P) File Sharing

Faculty, Staff and Students

Every day there is an increased risk of someone on the Internet cracking a person's password and gaining access to their files. Because many of us have access to confidential information we must be diligent about having secure passwords. Both the length of the password and the complexity of the password help foil the programs that hackers use to crack passwords.

We feel it is in the best interest of all involved for us to change our password policy at this time. Therefore, we will turn on new password complexity rules late Thursday. These rules apply to your network/email password and will take effect the next time you are required to change this password.

New network/email passwords must be a minimum of 8 characters long and they must meet these complexity rules established by Microsoft:

1. Can’t contain all or part of the user's account name.
2. Contain characters from three of the following four categories:

· English uppercase characters (A through Z).
· English lowercase characters (a through z).
· Base-10 digits (0 through 9).
· Non-alphanumeric (for example, !, $, #, %). extended ASCII, symbolic, or linguistic characters.

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Please see this document for guidance on choosing good passwords.

Students,

If you have read The Etownian this week, you are aware of the Internet congestion being caused by peer-to-peer (P2P) file sharing on campus. We have had to remove many computers from the network due to the large number of connections being used by P2P file sharing applications running on these computers. The administration has also received a number of infringement notices from the Recording Industry Association of America, Inc. (RIAA) and other organizations that represent the interests of copyright holders. These RIAA “takedown” notices indicate that a computer on campus is illegally sharing copyrighted material. The college is obligated under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act to act on these notices or we can be held liable.

Please know that ITS is your advocate. We are here to provide you with the technology resources needed to be successful in your academic pursuits. We are not here to be police. We simply want to protect the valuable resources we have so that everyone can benefit from them. The campus network is used by approximately 2500 people. We must all respect this shared resource and not engage in activities that jeopardize the network use of others. It is a violation of campus IT Policy to violate copyright policy by sharing copyrighted files (eg. songs, videos, computer games) using P2P file sharing applications such as Ares or Limewire; or to engage in any activity that causes network congestion. Students are encouraged to read pages 44, 45 and 50 of the student handbook to review the IT policies and the Student Conduct Code.

If the administration receives a “takedown” notice from the RIAA (or another organization representing the interest of copyright owners) regarding a computer registered in your name; or if your computer has dozens of simultaneous Internet connections, your computer is in violation of campus IT policy and the following sanctions will apply:

Violation #1:

• The offending computer will be removed from the network immediately.
• The owner of the computer will be given the name and number of a full-time ITS employee to call.
• The ITS employee will explain the problem to be sure that the owner understands the cause of the violation.
• The owner will be instructed on methods of removing the offending application. The ITS employee will provide other help as needed.
• Once the ITS employee is convinced that the problem has been corrected, the computer will be reconnected to the network the following workday.

Violation #2:

• The offending computer will be removed from the network for a period of one week.
• All other computers registered to the same person will be removed from the network for a period of one week.
• The offending computer must be inspected by an ITS employee.
• The owner of the offending device will receive a letter from ITS explaining the violation. A copy of the letter will be sent to the Dean of Students.

Violations #3:

• The offending computer will be removed from the network and the case will be referred to the Student Conduct Administrator.
• All computers registered by the person owning the offending computer will be removed from the network until a decision has been received from the Student Conduct Administrator and/or the Student Conduct Board.

There are a number of Legal Sites for downloading music, videos, computer games and other files. The ITS department would strongly advise you to use one of these sites.

You should be aware that in addition to the problems described above, peer-to-peer file sharing is likely the greatest cause of spyware, viruses and other malware being placed on your computers. More on this topic may be found at this site which presents P2P SOFTWARE USER ADVISORIES.

Anyone wanting additional information on the RIAA and their work should consult this site on Online Piracy and Electronic Theft.

Sincerely,
Ron Heasley