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Exploiting and Protecting the Network
Peter Kemp
UCISA have developed guidelines for "Exploiting and Protecting the Network". They note that:
"The explosive expansion of the Internet will lead to radical changes
in the way our students and staff gather and use information. The
teaching world is showing great interest in the use of World Wide
Web technology both as an authoring tool and as a facilitator of
distance education. There are also new opportunities to disseminate
research findings, independently of the traditional publishing
process. The underlying ethos of the approach to Internet use will be
to encourage widespread use of=the network for teaching, learning,
scholarship and research. Students should be able to make their
information available. Such free access, however, could lead to
misuse of the international networks."
The UCISA Guidelines consider ways in which institutions can prevent
abuse of the networks whilst empowering users to exploit networked
information services to the full. The report makes a number of
recommendations. These are:
Institutions should institute training programmes incorporating
guidelines on responsible use for students and staff.
Institutions should consider their policy on the provision of
networked information.
Institutions should reconsider their internal regulatory policy in order
to ensure that it is adequate in the current environment.
Institutions should formally review their computer and network
security policy.
Institutions should ensure that all users are registered and that all
usage is logged.
Institutions should review their attitude to the monitoring of network
traffic and ensure that their IT staff have sufficient authority to carry out
any necessary investigations of misuse.
Institutions should do their best to ensure they supply a NEWS feed
from the Internet to their systems which is free of offensive material.
Institutions should ensure that they appoint a Computer Emergency
Response Team (CERT) contact who has adequate internal powers to
take actions recommended by CERT.
Institutions should ensure that their network operations provide
adequate local support for CERT activities out-of-hours."
Note that these are extracted from the draft guidelines and that readers
should access the latest version from NISS under the UCISA pages.
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