Regulations for use of IT facilities in the Mathematical Institute

The Mathematical Institute's IT facilities, services and resources are provided for the use of staff and students in the course of their studies and/or work for the Department.

All use is subject to the University regulations.

Note that these rules may change from time to time. The following additional conditions apply to the use of equipment and network connections in the Department (regardless of ownership), and take precedence over the general University regulations.

1. The Institute's IT equipment may be used only by users who have registered with the Director of IT or have his consent.
2. Users may not share their passwords or accounts with anyone else.
3. No equipment may be connected to the Institute network without the consent of the IT Officers.
4. The IT Officers have the right to inspect any machine or file system in the Department in the course of their work, but have the duty to respect the privacy of those who are working within University and departmental regulations. An IT Officer may assume that he has permission for such an inspection from anyone using computing equipment within the Institute, whether or not such permission has been given explicitly.
5. Use of the Institute equipment and network connections is permitted for:
   • Academic work for the University or a college.
   • Teaching for the University or a college.
   • Administrative work for the department, faculty or University.
   Limited use for other purposes is permitted providing that it makes minimal demands on the Institute's filestores, network connections, or IT Officer's time. This includes, for example, sending and receiving personal email, retrieving information from the internet for non academic purposes, and administrative work for colleges and outside bodies, provided that others are not excluded from using shared facilities as a result. Any such activities that are likely to make heavy demands on the system must have the consent of the Director of IT. Certain activities fall clearly outside the boundaries of permitted use. In particular, Institute equipment and network connections may not be used for (this list is not exhaustive):
   • commercial purposes;
   • running newsgroups or distribution services without the consent of the Director of IT;
   • accessing or distributing pornography or other offensive material;
   • sending offensive email;
   • any other purpose that is likely to bring the Department or the University into disrepute or to cause distress.
6. Users may not install or run unlicensed material on Departmental IT Systems. The IT Officers are instructed to remove or otherwise disable any unlicensed material without warning on any computer, regardless of ownership.
7. Terminals may not be left unattended in a state that would allow unauthorised access to the network. It is not acceptable to leave a public terminal locked for more than 15 minutes.
8. All users must take all reasonable steps to ensure that their actions compromise neither network nor physical security of the Institute system and equipment.
9. The IT Officers may close accounts or withdraw permission to use equipment in the Institute at any time for good reason (subject to appeal to the Director of IT). In particular, they are instructed to take such action without notice in response to serious violation of departmental or University regulations.
10. Although the IT Officers will try to ensure that the system is operational at all times and that files are regularly backed-up, the Institute will not accept responsibility for any failure of the system or any loss of data.
11. Authenticated departmental web services may use cookies either for essential or feature specific functionality as well as to allow the department to analysis site statistics. By accepting a departmental account a user is giving consent that such cookies may be used although the department endeavours only to the use cookies for the benefit of the user and to improve the service provided. Where a product supports explicitly offering the user the option to consent to the use of cookies such explicit case by case consent will be sought.
12. Equipment purchased by the department, including that funded through research grants and similar funding, and provided to individual for personal use outside of the department (e.g. laptops, tablets etc) typically remains the property of the department and must be returned before the individual leaves the department.

Individuals should also see the IT policy for further related information.