Misuse of Facilities
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This page is now outdated. Please see http://www.shef.ac.uk/cics/codeofpractice for the current IT Code of Practice. |
| No user may seek to or secure unauthorised access to any program or data held in any computer wherever located (Regulation 4a); a user must not attempt to decrypt system or user passwords or copy system files. No user may use computing facilities so as to cause any unauthorised modification of the contents of any computer, wherever located, or in any way which jeopardises the work of others, or the integrity of the equipment or of any programs or data (Regulation 4b,c). This prohibits, inter alia, unsolicited or unauthorised "security tests" or "recovery tests", and the introduction of any viruses, worms, Trojan horses, logic bombs or any other harmful, disruptive, destructive or nuisance program or file on to any of the computing equipment, nor take action to bypass any security precautions installed by an appropriate authority to prevent this. Careful consideration should be given to the content of any published material (eg email, newsgroup contribution, Web page, images displayed on a screen, computer printout). Material that is unacceptable to the recipient and which creates an intimidating, hostile or offensive environment may constitute harassment under the University's guidelines. Publication of such material outside the University may harm the University's good name. Users of University IT facilities must conform to all applicable rules of English law, for example the laws on pornography, blasphemy, and financial services advice. The Computer Misuse Act 1990 creates a number of criminal offences: 1. Unauthorised access to computer material ('hacking') including the illicit copying of software held in any computer. This carries a penalty of up to six months imprisonment or up to a £5000 fine. This offence also carries a penalty of up to five years imprisonment and an unlimited fine. |