General Usage Policy for Institute IT Infrastructure

◈ The institute IT infrastructure refers to the institute network and any hardware and software services provided by the institute.

◈ The institute IT infrastructure is primarily for academic use of the IIT community and should not be used by any user for any other purposes that are in direct conflict with the role of the user without the explicit permission of the competent authority.

◈ Users should not use the institute IT infrastructure for any commercial purposes unless specifically permitted by the competent authority.

◈ Users should not use the institute IT infrastructure in any way so to compromise the security of any other user, system or network anywhere, inside or outside the institute [refer Institute IT Security Policy].

◈ Users should not use or communicate any information using the institute IT infrastructure that may harm, threaten, intimidate, or harass others, or may be otherwise considered objectionable or illegal as per law.

◈ Users are solely responsible for any data stored or sent by them using the institute IT infrastructure. Any liability arising out of any misuse is the responsibility of the user concerned.

◈ Users are not allowed to extend or otherwise tamper with the institute network in any manner without prior permission of Computer and Informatics Centre (CIC), except for any network extension made individually by faculty members or staff members inside residential quarters officially allotted to them by the institute.

◈ Users should use the Email facility primarily for academic and official purposes and to a limited extent for reasonable personal purposes.

◈ Users are responsible for keeping a backup of important mails in their email accounts. While CIC takes periodic email backups, CIC cannot be held responsible for any loss of data in user email accounts.

◈ Users should not share their email account details with others, as the individual account holder is personally held accountable in case of any misuse of that email account.

◈ Users should not attempt to break into others email accounts.

◈ User should not open any mail or attachment that is from unknown and suspicious sources, or is of otherwise suspicious nature without confirming the authenticity of the attachment.

◈ Users should not give out confidential information such as password etc. in response to any email. CIC never asks for password information over email.

◈ All usage and account management of the mail messaging system of the institute will be governed by a Mail Management Policy of the institute defined from time to time.

◈ Users should use a strong password to protect any accounts owned by them on the institute IT infrastructure including but not limited to email accounts. A password must be immediately changed if it is suspected of being disclosed, or known to have been disclosed to anyone besides the authorized user.

◈ Users aware of any breach of security in any part of the IT infrastructure must report such situations to the systems administrator or the departmental representative responsible for security in that area.

◈ Users are solely responsible for understanding and following this usage policy. Any violation of any part of this usage policy and/or any misuse of any part of the IT infrastructure by any user or using any account owned by the user is solely the responsibility of the user. Any liability or legal action arising out of any such violation/misuse will solely be the responsibility of the user, and the user may be subjected to appropriate actions as decided by the authorities.

For any clarifications or any other help needed, please contact CIC at helpdesk[at]cc.iitkgp.ac.in