Acceptable Use Policy

This Acceptable Use Policy governs the use of the Nikhef networking and computer services; all users of these services are expected to understand and comply to these rules.

1. Use for intended purpose

   Nikhef offers the services to enable the users (employees, students and collaborators) to do their work. The services may not be used for commercial or political purposes. A limited amount of private use is allowed as long as it does not interfere with normal duties and does not incur significant cost. When in doubt about any person use, ask first!
   Of course, there are lots of actions that are most certainly not intended: sending spam, trolling on forums or newsgroups, forwarding chain letters or phishing attempts, cracking password, attacking other systems on the Internet, random calling or tele-marketing, stalking, etc.
2. Obey the law
3. Respect the authorization restrictions set by Nikhef system administrators and users

   Trying to circumvent effective or intended restrictions is not allowed (and unlawful as well). This includes, but is not limited to, accessing data not intended for the User, logging into a service or using an account you are not expressly authorized to access, probing the security of other networks, interfering with another users access to services, or trying to disrupt services or the network. You shall also refrain from trying to intercept or sniff network traffic that is not intended for you. If you find you have access to data or services you should not have access to, inform the Computer Security Incident Response Team through the help desk (helpdesk@nikhef.nl)
4. Respect intellectual property and confidentiality agreements
5. Protect your access keys (passwords, private keys, security tokens)

   Access keys are yours and yours only: so do not share your credentials with others. These include your single-sign-on (SSO) password, the passphrase for your certificate's key, the password that protects your SSH key pair. If you feel the need to share, there is always a proper solution. Also, any credential that grants to access to other services (at Nikhef or elsewhere) must be protected with at least a password or better.
   If you have been given credentials for special services (such as a voip telephony roaming password, or access to a generic account) you must protect these accoring to the special instructions given to you.
6. Report suspected security breaches and misuse

   When you discover vulnerabilities, witness abuse, or see other forms of non-acceptable use, you should report these incidents to the Nikhef Computer Security Incident Response Team through the help desk (helpdesk@nikhef.nl). Of course, you should not attempt to exploit such vulnerabilities to circumvent security controls or harm Nikhef, it's services, staff or reputation in any way - such attempts in itself are a violation of this Acceptable Use Policy.
7. Do no harm to Nikhef, it's services, staff or reputation

   Harm is more easily done than repaired! Data is easily deleted or modified but hard or impossible to recover. A rash document (as well as of course offensive material) put up on your home page is quickly indexed by search engines and will never disappear from the web again. Confidential data accidentally disclosed will never be a secret again. A defamatory remark will live forever in cyberspace. An infected home laptop or smartphone will quickly poison other systems at Nikhef and many person months will be wasted to recover from the incident. So do no harm.
8. Comply with the policies of Nikhef's service providers

   Nikhef provides access to to brokers services of third parties for its users, such as connectivity to the public Internet through SURFnet, access to Federated Services, or other hosted services like backup and calendering. You should at all times also comply with the policies, terms and conditions of use of these service providers.
9. You share resources with others - be nice

   Even when staying within the intended use, it is quite possible to strain resources to such an extent that other users can no longer make use them. Running CPU intensive applicaitons on the general login server, or using this service for bulk data transport are some examples. Making an outbound telephone call for a phone conference, put it on hold, but then forget about it - exhausting our telephone lines as well as incurring a high bill. When such incidents are detected, the program or call in question will be terminated by Nikhef CT staff to preserve operational integrity. In such cases users should refrain for such actions and may work together with system administrators to see if a less disruptive alternative exists.
10. Monitoring and logging of network traffic and e-mail

    Systems and network are monitored in order to detect trouble in an early stage and rapidly mitigate potential damage, for administrative, operational, accounting, monitoring and security purposes only. In order to trace problems on the network to the source, logs of network traffic are kept for a limited time period. E-mail transactions (its source and destinations) are also logged, in a secured system, and retained for a maximum of 90 days. Obviously, user data, including e-mail, will only be inspected if there is a strong and substantiated suspicion of misuse of services or illegal activities. If you want to know what kind of logs are kept about your use of ICT services, you can always contact the CT!
11. Enforcement

    Access to services may at any times be suspended or terminated discretionarily for administrative, operational or security purposes. It is common for access to be suspended as part of an incident investigation, even when a violation is merely suspected. As a general matter, Nikhef will attempt to work with the User to cure violations and to ensure that there is no re-occurrence of the violation prior to terminating service.