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GENERAL INFORMATION

The College of Engineering (COE) maintains an extensive collection of computer hardware and software for use by its students, faculty, and staff in fulfilling their educational and research duties. Students will find these facilities essential for keeping up with what is happening in the College and for completing their Engineering course work. The main concentration of this equipment is in room 208 of the POST building and COE students, faculty, and staff can access this equipment on a first come first serve basis by presenting a current UH ID card.

Each student and faculty member in Engineering and all staff members whose duties require computer access are given an account on Wiliki, the College of Engineering’s HP 9000 central computer. These accounts also allow access to the COE’s HP workstations in the College Computer Lab. Through these systems, users have the ability to use electronic mail, access the Internet (a nationwide computer network), and run Engineering packages such as MATLAB, ADS, Maple and ANSYS.

Wiliki and the workstations are multi-user computer systems and as such require responsible behavior on the part of all users. This document lays out your rights and responsibilities in having an account on such a system. Those who cannot fulfill their responsibilities, as users of a multi-user system will have their accounts suspended or terminated, thus it is essential that you understand what is expected of you. Please remember that an account on Wiliki is a privilege granted to you as a student, faculty or staff member in the College of Engineering, not a right, and its continued use is dependent upon responsible behavior on the part of you, the user. The Dean of the College of Engineering grants access to COE systems and can withdraw access at any time.

GENERAL USER RESPONSIBILITIES

In the practice of their profession, engineers must perform under a standard of professional behavior which requires adherence to the highest principles of ethical conduct on behalf of the public, clients, employers and the profession.

Engineers shall be guided in all their professional relations by the highest standards of integrity.

Engineers shall avoid all conduct or practice which is likely to discredit the profession.

-- Code of Ethics for Engineers

As a shared resource among hundreds of people it is important that Wiliki function as smoothly as possible with minimal disruptions of service and fair access for all. This means that each user has the following responsibilities while using this system:

Do not interfere with the work of other system users.

This means that you must not send unsolicited messages to other users’ terminal screens or engage in other activities which prevent them from accomplishing their work. Second, you may not attempt to obtain the passwords of other users or alter their files in any way, even if they should accidentally leave their accounts accessible either by failing to log out or altering their protections. Any user found in possession of other user’s passwords, copying another’s files without permission, using another’s account or repeatedly interfering with the work of others will have his/her COE access terminated.

Should you find someone has left a terminal without logging out of their account, please log them out and notify the system manager of the user’s name by sending electronic mail to “consult” on Wiliki. (You can determine who the user is by typing “whoami” at the terminal before logging them out). Finally, when you are working in College Computer Lab, work quietly, keep conversations at a low volume, and help to maintain an environment conducive to work.

Do not unnecessarily tie up system resources.

If you are running a program which makes very heavy CPU usage (e.g. a large number crunching program) on Wiliki or the HP workstations, you should lower the priority of this program so that it does not slow down the system for other users, or you should run the program between midnight and 7am when system usage is light. (For details on lowering process priority type “man nice” on Wiliki or see one of the Lab Monitors). System management reserves the right to terminate any process which affects the overall performance of the system.

Avoid excessive disk utilization. We have several hundred users on Wiliki. If you have files you are not using and do not anticipate a need for in the near future, please either compress them down (type “man tar” and “man compress” on Wiliki or see a Lab Monitor for more details) or copy them to diskette and remove them from the system. If you receive messages from the system about being above quota, please try to drop your disk usage below the level requested in the message as soon as possible. We recognize that there are times when it is necessary to exceed the limits temporarily, but if you do so, you should return to your allowed quota in a reasonably short period of time. If an individual user stays above quota for too long, the system management may move some of his/her files to temporary storage.

COE facilities are intended for educational and research purposes and these have higher priority than other types of use (e.g., game playing or reading electronic news). If you are using a terminal for games or for reading news and there are other users waiting, you are expected to yield the terminal to them. As a matter of courtesy in situations like this, you should give up the terminal voluntarily without having to be asked.

Do not allow others to use your account and report unauthorized access.

Your COE account is issued solely for your use. Under no circumstances should you allow ANY other person to access it. Use of another user’s account or loaning account privileges to others is prohibited and will result in loss of your privileges with the COE.

You are further required to notify the system management immediately of any unauthorized access to your account (for example, if you find your files missing or changed, or find someone else logged into your account from another terminal). You may do this by sending mail to “consult” on Wiliki or by seeing one of the Lab Monitors in the College Computer Lab and asking them to pass the information on to the system management. It is essential that such access be detected and the responsible person located to ensure that system security on Wiliki is not compromised which could result in the loss of everyone’s files or interference with normal operation of the system. If you do find someone has accessed your account, change your password immediately and then check with the Lab Monitors on what other steps you should take (e.g., checking network files, checking protections on your files, etc.).

Do not make copies of any software from COE machines for use on other computers.

Unless the documentation EXPLICITLY states otherwise, you may NOT copy any software from COE machines for use on home machines or any other machines on or off campus. The COE operates most of its software and hardware under very restrictive licenses, the violation of which have serious consequences for the College. Any user who copies licensed software will be denied further access to COE machines and may be subject to legal action by the software manufacturers. Similarly, the use of illegal or unauthorized software on COE machines is prohibited.

Do not use your account for any commercial endeavors.

COE facilities, including hardware, software, and networks, are intended exclusively for educational and research purposes. Any commercial use of COE facilities is prohibited.

Guard your password carefully and change it frequently.

Passwords guessed or determined by watching users log in are still the most common means by which accounts are penetrated. Users can help to prevent this by the following measures:

1. Never give out your password to anyone else. NOTE: this includes the system management. No legitimate system manager will ever ask you for your password.
2. Do not type your password while someone else watches you.
3. Change your password frequently with the “passwd” command.
4. Never use a password based on personal reference data, e.g., names of family members, birthdates, social security numbers, etc.
5. Never use a password which would occur in a dictionary.
6. Use passwords with combinations of upper and lower case letters and special characters. For example, cat9Frog or big!Apple. Pass phrases, made from the first letter of each word of a phrase, with the addition of a special characters are an especially good choice (e.g., “Lucy in the sky with diamonds” becomes “!LitswD”).

Always cooperate with requests from the system administrators for information about your computing activities.

From time to time, the system administrators may find it necessary to ask you why you are consuming resources, whether you were logged in at a particular time or some other information about your use of the system. If asked, please assist them in whatever way you can. Their only reasons for requesting this information will be to pursue possible security violations, close security loopholes, and see to the fair usage of the facility by all users.

Report any security flaws immediately.

All multi-user systems have security flaws. You may NOT exploit such flaws in any way. The only acceptable course, should you detect such a flaw, is to notify the management immediately by sending email to “consult” on Wiliki. Trying to explore the flaw on your own, testing it out to see its extent or effect, is unethical and unacceptable because the system management has no way to distinguish curious exploration from malicious exploitation. If you wish to help the system management track down bugs, contact them and volunteer your services.

MISUSE OF COMPUTING RESOURCES AND PRIVILEGES

Misuse of computing resources and privileges, as determined by the System Administrator or the Dean of Engineering, includes, but is not restricted to, the following:

• Attempting to modify or remove computer equipment, software or peripherals without proper authorization.
• Accessing computers, computer software, computer data or information or networks without proper authorization, regardless of whether the computer, software, data, information or network in question is owned by the College (That is, if you abuse the networks to which the College belongs or the computers at other sites connected to those networks, the College will treat this matter as an abuse of your COE computing privileges).
• Sending fraudulent computer mail or breaking into another user’s electronic mailbox.
• Violating any software license agreement or copyright, including copying or redistributing copy-righted computer software, data or reports without proper, recorded authorization.
• Harassing or threatening other users or interfering with their access to the College’s computing facilities.
• Making available through your computer account any materials or pointers/links to materials on other systems that can or will discredit the engineering profession, the University of Hawai‘i or the College of Engineering.
• Taking advantage of another user’s naivete or negligence to gain access to any computer account, data, software or file other than your own.
• Encroaching on others’ use of the College’s computers (e.g., sending frivolous or excessive messages, either locally or off-campus; printing excess copies of documents, files, data or programs; willfully writing programs to tie up resources; modifying system facilities, operating systems or disk partitions; attempting to crash a College computer; damaging or vandalizing College computing facilities, equipment, software or computer files).
• Disclosing or removing proprietary information, software, printed output or magnetic media without the explicit permission of the owner.
• Reading other users’ data, information, files or programs on a display screen, as printed output or via electronic means, without the owner’s explicit permission.
• Any other conducts or practices which may discredit the engineering profession, the University of Hawai‘i or the College of Engineering.

In addition, some of the above actions may constitute criminal computer abuse, which may be punishable under State or Federal statutes.

Unless specifically authorized by a class instructor, all of the following uses of a computer are violations of the University’s guidelines for academic honesty and are punishable as acts of plagiarism:

• Copying a computer file that contains another student’s assignment and submitting it as your own work.
• Copying a computer file that contains another student’s assignment and using it as a model for your own assignment.
• Working together on an assignment, sharing the computer files and submitting that file or a modification thereof, as your own individual work.

SYSTEM ADMINISTRATOR’S RESPONSIBILITIES

The system administrators’ use of the College’s computing resources is governed by the same guidelines as any other user’s computing activity. However a system administrator has additional responsibilities to the users of the network, site, system or systems he or she administers:

• A system administrator ensures that all users of the systems, networks, and servers that he or she administers have access to the appropriate software and hardware required for their College computing.
• A system administrator is responsible for the security of a system, network or server.
• A system administrator must make sure that all hardware and software license agreements are faithfully executed on all systems, networks, and servers for which he or she has responsibility.
• A system administrator must take reasonable precautions to guard against corruption of data or software or damage to hardware or facilities.
• A system administrator must treat information about and information stored by the system’s users as confidential.

In the case where a system administrator has reasonable cause to believe that system response, integrity or security is threatened, a system administrator is authorized to access the files and information necessary to find and resolve the situation.

CONSEQUENCES OF MISUSE OF COMPUTING PRIVILEGES

Abuse of computing privileges is subject to disciplinary action. If system administrators of the COE Computer Facility have strong evidence of misuse of computing resources, and if that evidence points to the computing activities or the computer files of an individual, they have the obligation to pursue any or all of the following steps to protect the user community:

• Notify the user’s instructor, department chair, or supervisor of the investigation.
• Suspend or restrict the user’s computing privileges during the investigation. A user may appeal such a suspension or restriction first with the system management (send mail to “consult” on Wiliki and request a meeting) and, if this is insufficient to resolve the matter, may subsequently petition for reinstatement of computing privileges through the COE Assistant Dean.
• Inspect the user’s files, diskettes, and/or tapes. System administrators must be certain that the trail of evidence leads to the user’s computing activities or computing files before inspecting the user’s files. The system administrators shall maintain a written record of the reasoning and evidence which justifies inspection of a user’s files.

Disciplinary action may include the loss of computing privileges and other disciplinary actions. It should be understood that these regulations do not preclude enforcement under the laws and regulations of the State of Hawai‘i, any municipality or county therein, and/or the United States of America.

For policy violations, the COE may proceed as follows:

1. The first violation of the COE computer policy will result in a warning from the System Administrator.
2. The System Administrator, however, may immediately suspend an account for severe violations of COE usage policy. These violations include Federal offenses, harassment, attempts to gain access to another individual’s account, and so forth as determined by the Dean of the College of Engineering.
3. The second violation will result in automatic suspension and a letter from the System Administrator, with the option of appeal to the COE Assistant Dean.
4. In the event that the individual appealing for account reinstatement is not satisfied with the ruling from the COE Assistant Dean, a final appeal may be made in writing to the COE Dean. The Dean’s decision will be final.

NOTE TO STUDENT USERS: Students whose accounts are suspended or removed should be aware that this may make completion of Engineering course work difficult or impossible. However, this will not be grounds for restoration of an account. All students must read and understand the policies in this document and understand that the consequences of their violation include loss of computing privileges which may seriously affect their ability to continue as students in Engineering. Students may also be subject to disciplinary sanctions under the University’s Student Conduct Code.

NOTE ON PRIVACY OF FILES: Under normal circumstances the system administrators will NOT access a user’s files. However, should there be reasonable cause to believe that an account has been compromised or is being used in a manner inconsistent with the above policy, examination of files by the administrators is permitted as determined by the Dean of Engineering or the System Administrator.

As a general rule, users of the system should be aware that files and electronic mail are not secure on the COE systems or the Internet. Even if the administrators do not access a user’s files, there is always the possibility of a security flaw that allows another user access to anyone’s files. Similarly, mail sent electronically may be intercepted at any number of points along the way to its destination and mail files at either end are not necessarily secure. Users should keep this in mind and NEVER store confidential, sensitive or potentially embarrassing information on these systems. No one can give you a guarantee of the confidentiality of files on COE systems and the College makes no such claims of confidentiality.

Furthermore, in a multi-user environment of this type the College can make no guarantees about the integrity or protection of programs and data stored on its systems. Users are cautioned to make frequent backups of important files to diskettes or on other systems to which they have access.

QUESTIONS OR COMMENTS

Any questions of interpretation of or comments regarding this policy should be mailed electronically to consult@wiliki.eng.hawaii.edu or surface mailed to:

System Management
College of Engineering Computer Facility
2540 Dole Street
Honolulu, Hawai‘i 96822

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

This policy draws heavily on the policy of the UCLA SEASnet which in turn was adapted from those of numerous other policies, including but not limited to those of: the Columbia University Computer Science Department, the California Institute of Technology, the UCLA department of Computer Science Academic Honesty Policy, the University of Delaware’s Guide to Responsible Computering, and comments from SUNY-Albany, University of Washington, Washington University (St. Louis), Indiana University, Michigan State University, the University of New Mexico and the Smithsonian Institute.