COLUMN: U. Court to share jurisdiction with Owlnet over violations
In the past, the Owlnet management exclusively has dealt with such matters, and, using its discretion, referred cases to the Owlnet Student Advisory Committee.
However, in order to allow for better consistency in dealing with violations and to make use of the student courts now in place, the management has decided to refer the more serious violations to the U. Court.
Currently, Owlnet management is revising the Owlnet policy to reflect this change.
Due to violations of the policy, computing downtime and investigation procedures can become very costly. Certain violations in the past have been known to cause damages estimated in the thousands of dollars.
Those responsible for such serious violations should have perhaps been prosecuted in the university's disciplinary system where they could have been subject to suspension and expulsion from the university.
Although that would have been possible, it is not clear that students using the system were aware in advance that they could be suspended for violating Owlnet policies.
Thus, the Owlnet management will make that clear in the revised policy. The changes to Owlnet policy include assessing a dollar value to certain violations according to severity of damages involved in downtime, equipment damage and investigation procedures.
Minor violations that do not result in monetary damage or which result in damages under a speci- fied amount (still to be determined in the new policy) will continue to be dealt with by Owlnet management.
However, any violations surpassing the specified value will automatically be placed under the jurisdiction of U. Court.
In addition, depending on the circumstances, Owlnet management plans to use their discretion to send other cases directly to U. Court.
These circumstances include repeated violations as well as violations committed with malicious intent.
Owlnet management intends to be consistent in its reporting of violations to U. Court.
In addition, Owlnet management has decided to lock the account of any user suspected of being in violation of policy until the matter is dealt with, either by the management or U. Court.
Typical Owlnet violations in the past have mainly included security breaches within the system which occurred when Owlnet users shared their individual passwords with others.
Owlnet management intends to deal severely with users who violate this security measure since it can result in major problems with the entire Owlnet computing system.
An offense of this magnitude in the future is likely to result in suspension from the university.
Password sharing is very dangerous. For example, say a Rice student shares his or her password with a friend at Harvard and that Harvard has already been compromised by a hacker. When the friend logs in to Rice from Harvard, the Harvard hacker can intercept the original Owlnet password (which is possible through many means), and Owlnet can in turn be compromised, even if the friend took no direct action to compromise the security of the Rice system.
At this point Rice is as (non)-secure as Harvard. Incidents like this have occurred several times this past year, creating a serious security situation.
U. Court will adjudicate Owlnet policy violations in the same way it currently deals with any violation of Rice University rules and regulations.
For example, the violator may be required to pay restitution for damages caused by the violation in the same way that students convicted of vandalism are penalized.
Other penalties the court may assess students found in violation of Owlnet policy include loss of computing privileges, community service, disciplinary probation and suspension.
As always, U. Court will try to be creative in assigning community service penalties.
Typical community service penalties could include monitoring or cleaning labs, benefitting the computing community at Rice.
Copies of the new Owlnet policy to be released in January will be available outside Mudd Lab Room 103, where copies of the existing policy are now located. Specific questions concerning Owlnet policy can be addressed to Vicky Dean, the director of systems and LAN management at Rice.
Beginning in January, additional information concerning the specific changes in Owlnet policy will be made available to the student body.
John Strickland is the University Court vice-chairman and a Will Rice College junior.
This item appeared in the Opinion section of the December 1, 1995 issue.
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