[Ord. No. 1781 §I, 5-18-2015]
A.
Description.
1.
The City of Bowling Green's intentions for this Section
is not to impose restrictions that are contrary to the City's
established culture of openness, trust and integrity. The City is
committed to protecting its employees and the organization from illegal
or damaging actions by individuals, either knowingly or unknowingly.
2.
Internet/Intranet/Extranet-related systems, including but not
limited to computer equipment, software, operating systems, storage
media, network accounts providing electronic mail, Internet browsing,
and FTP, are the property of the City. These systems are to be used
for business purposes in serving the interests of the organization,
and for our business association's customers in the course of
normal operations.
3.
Effective security is a team effort involving the participation
and support of every City employee and affiliate who deals with information
and/or information systems. It is the responsibility of every computer
user to know the terms of this Section, and to conduct their activities
accordingly.
B.
Purpose. The purpose of this Section is to outline
the acceptable use of computer equipment of the City. This Section
is in place to protect the employee and the City. Inappropriate use
exposes the City to risks including virus attacks, compromise of network
systems and services, and legal issues.
C.
Scope. This Section applies to employees, contractors,
consultants, temporaries, and other workers at the City, including
all personnel affiliated with third parties. This Section applies
to all equipment that is owned or leased by the City.
D.
Guidelines. The items as set forth in this Section
include, but are not limited to, the following unless otherwise stated:
1.
General Use and Ownership.
a.
While the City's network administration desires to provide
a reasonable level of privacy, users should be aware that the data
they create on the corporate systems remains the property of the City.
Because of the need to protect the City's network, management
cannot guarantee the confidentiality of information stored on any
network devise or removable media belonging to the City or to the
employee.
b.
Employees are responsible for exercising good judgment regarding
the reasonableness of personal use. If there is any uncertainty concerning
appropriate information system use, employees should consult their
supervisor or manager for authorization.
c.
For email use, Internet activity, security and network maintenance
purposes, authorized individuals within the City may monitor equipment,
systems and network traffic at any time.
d.
The City reserves the right to audit networks and systems on
a periodic basis to ensure compliance with this policy.
2.
Security and Proprietary Information.
a.
Although a public agency, certain record information is considered
confidential and is to be released only when authorized by management
through standard business office procedure. The user interface for
information contained on Internet/Intranet/Extranet-related systems
should be classified as restricted. Examples of confidential information
include, but are not limited to system and facilities security analysis,
construction plans/specifications, contract bidding information, competitive
purchasing quotations, and research data. Employees should inform
their supervisor should they believe there has been unauthorized access
to, or release of restricted information beyond the agency's
internal use.
b.
Keep passwords secure and do not share accounts. Authorized
users are responsible for the security of their passwords and accounts.
(Should a password be given to an authorized technician, for system
modifications under a particular profile, the password should be changed
after the necessary modifications are complete).
c.
All PCs, laptops and workstations should be secured with a password-protected
screensaver with the automatic activations feature set at fifteen
(15) minutes or less, or by locking or logging-off (control-alt-delete
for Windows NT and two thousand (2,000) users) when the computer will
be unattended.
d.
Because information contained on portable computers is especially
vulnerable, special care should be exercised, with the portable equipment
being secured at all times during its intended use period and when
returned to the service center.
e.
Postings by employees from the City's email address to
any newsgroup are not permitted unless prior authorization has been
given. When authorized, the posting should contain a disclaimer stating
that the opinions expressed are strictly their own and not necessarily
those of the City, unless posting is in the course of business duties.
f.
All systems used by the employee that are connected to the City's
Internet/Intranet/Extranet, whether owned by the employee or the City,
shall not be connected or placed on the system without pre-approval.
All such additions shall be continually and properly executing approved
virus-scanning software with a current virus database.
g.
Employees must use extreme caution when opening email attachments
received from unknown senders, which may contain viruses or Trojan
horse code. If you find email content attachments that could be considered
questionable, every effort will be made to protect the system by immediately
deleting such email and contacting tech support personnel.
3.
Unacceptable Use.
a.
The following activities are, in general, prohibited. Employees
may be exempted from these restrictions during the course of their
legitimate job responsibilities (e.g., systems administration staff
may have a need to disable the network access of a host if that host
is disrupting production services.) Under no circumstances is an employee
of the City office authorized to engage in any activity that is illegal
under local, state, federal or international law while utilizing City's
owned or leased resources.
b.
The lists below are by no means exhaustive, but an attempt to
provide a framework for activities that fall into the category of
unacceptable use.
c.
The following activities are strictly prohibited, with no exceptions:
(1)
Violations of the rights of any person or company
protected by copyright, trade secret, patent or other intellectual
property, or similar laws or regulations, including, but not limited
to, the installation or distribution of "pirated" or other software
products that are not appropriately licensed for use by the City.
(2)
Unauthorized copying of copyrighted material including,
but not limited to, digitization and distribution of photographs from
magazines, books or other copyrighted sources, copyrighted music,
and the installation of any copyrighted software for which the City
or the end user does not have an active license.
(3)
Exporting software, technical information, encryption
software or technology, in violation of international or regional
export control laws, is illegal. The appropriate management should
be consulted prior to export of any material that is in question.
(4)
Introduction of malicious programs into the network
or server (e.g., viruses, worms, Trojan horses, email bombs, hacking
or intrusion software, etc).
(5)
Revealing your account password to others or allowing
use of your account by others. (This includes family and other household
members when work is being done at home.)
(6)
Using the City's computer assets to actively
engage in procuring or transmitting material that is in violation
of sexual harassment or hostile workplace laws in the user's
local jurisdiction.
(7)
Making fraudulent offers of products, items, or
services originating from any City account.
(8)
Effecting security breaches or any disruptions
of network communication. Security breaches include, but are not limited
to, accessing data of which the employee is not an intended recipient
or logging into a server or account that the employee is not expressly
authorized to access, unless these duties are within the scope of
regular duties.
(9)
Executing any form of network monitoring which
will intercept data not intended for the employee's host, unless
this activity is a part of the employee's normal job/duty.
(10)
Circumventing user authentication or security
of any host, network or account.
(11)
Using any program/script/command, or sending messages
of any kid, with the intent to interfere with, or disable, a user's
terminal session, via any means, locally or via the Internet, Intranet/Extranet.
(12)
Providing information about, or lists of, the
City's employees to parties outside the City.
(13)
Email messages, hard copy documentation, or using
the Internet to view/access any information that is related to topics
of a sexually explicit or graphic nature.
(14)
Extended use of the Internet for anything not
related to daily business practices. If after-hours access of the
Internet is needed for personal use, the employee's manager or
supervisor must grant approval. All information viewed must still
fall within the guidelines stated in this policy.
(15)
Installation of any application that has a constant
connection to the Internet or leaving the browser window open when
not actively using the Internet.
(16)
Sending or forwarding unsolicited email messages,
including the sending of junk mail or other advertising material to
individuals who did not specifically request such material (email
spam).
(17)
Any form of harassment via email, telephone, radio
or paging, whether through language, frequency, or size of messages.
(18)
Unauthorized use, or forging, of email header
information.
(19)
Solicitation of email for any other email address,
other than that of the posting party's account, with the intent
to harass or to collect replies.
(20)
Posting of non-business-related messages to chat
boards or on-line newsgroups.
4.
Enforcement. Any employee found to have violated
any portion of this policy could be subject to disciplinary action,
up to and including termination of employment.
E.
Employee Acceptance of this Section. Each employee
of the City shall be provided a copy of this Section and shall certify
in writing that they have received a copy of this Section, that they
have read and reviewed this Section, and that they will conform their
activities on behalf of the City consistent with the provisions therein.
Said writing shall be received and retained by the City Clerk. All
employees of the City shall provide the certification required herein
within thirty (30) days of the effective date of this Section or upon
employment thereafter.
