MISUSE OF THE VAX In recent months, a spate of cases has come to my attention of misuse of the VAX: hacking; trivial or obscene electronic mail; use of the printers to print nonsense; and so on. All staff and students are subject to College Rules, and the relevant Ordinance is printed below. The computer is an expensive tool to acquire, maintain and support and mischievious activities such as those mentioned above interfere seriously with the learning and research which we are all here to pursue. It may seem inocuous enough to send a trite electronic mail message to a friend; but if several people are doing this together, it will slow down the response time for somebody trying to complete a serious project against a deadline. And the message may remain in somebody's electronic mailbox for some time, using valuable disc space. Giving somebody else a 'spare' user ID and password that you happen to know of enables them to misuse the system. There have been examples where hackers have got on to the system this way and then attempted to destroy files. Printing a "picture" on the lineprinter may be entertaining, but if it's not part of your studies then it is wasting paper, and adding to the College computer paper bill (which was #13,000 last year). A WARNING As a College Disciplinary Officer, I have to consider any misuse which comes to my attention. A guilty person will be subject to a penalty which may be a reprimand, a fine not exceeding #50, a suspension of privileges or any or all of these. Misuse of electronic mail is automatically punished by withdrawal of electronic mail privilege. One or two miscreants have told me they didn't realise that what they were doing was aginst College rules; or didn't realise the implications of what they were doing. The purpose of this message is to make it clear beyond all doubt that ANY USE OF COLLEGE COMPUTING EQUIPMENT IS AGAINST COLLEGE RULES IF IT IS NOT PART OF THE TEACHING, LEARNING OR RESEARCH THAT YOU ARE HERE TO ENGAGE IN. SOME ADVICE - Don't tell anyone your password. Change it frequently, say once a term at least. - Don't use anyone else's user ID and password, ever. - Don't encourage or help hackers. - Don't use electronic mail unless you need it for your work. - Don't even attempt to log in to computers which you are not entitled to use. - Don't attempt to read, copy or execute other people's files without their agreement. - Don't ever attempt to alter or delete someone else's files. - Think twice before you print ANYTHING on the printer: do you really need it for your work? John S. Hornsby, Director, Computing Laboratory. ORDINANCE ON COMPUTER SECURITY (Approved by Council on June 25th, 1988) "It is forbidden to make unauthorised use of College computing equipment; to obtain or attempt to obtain unauthorised access to data whether it be held on the College computer system or on any system to which the College system may be connected; or to use the College computer system to send without authority data or messages to any other computer system."