Authorisation & Authority
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Administrators require formal authorisation from the "owners" of any equipment they are responsible for. The law refers to "the person with a right to control the operation or the use of the system". At the University of Sheffield, this authority will come from the Administrator's Head of Department, possibly via a Line Manager or Head of Research Group (henceforth referred to as Management). |
| Administrators may come across evidence of problems during normal operations or in the course of other investigations. Where this indicates an operational problem, the Administrator may choose to investigate or pass the information to others for investigation. However evidence of policy breaches that do not relate to a current investigation must only be passed to Management for them to decide whether an investigation is appropriate and what form this should take. Administrators must not abuse the power and trust given to them by Management and users. University staff have no special exemption from the law and investigation of certain types of offence, for example the viewing of child pornography, may put an Administrator at risk of breaching the law which could result in criminal prosecution. |
| If any Administrator is ever unsure about the authority they are working under they should stop and seek advice from Management immediately as otherwise there is a risk that their actions may be in breach of the law. Note also that CICS has overall responsibility of the operation of the network and over connections to the network as set out in University Regulations on the Use of Computing Facilities. |