Preamble

The Information Technology (IT) resources and services of the Erode Sengunthar Engineering College are provided to the Student, Faculty and Administrative Staff to create, preserve, transmit and apply knowledge through teaching, research and Innovative works.   The IT resources also facilitates their interaction, coordination, communication and collaboration.  

General Rules

1. College defines rules, regulations, and guidelines for proper utilization as well as the effective maintenance of IT resources to ensure their ethical and acceptable use and assure safety and security of data, products, facilities.
2. The College prohibits its users from gaining unauthorized access to IT resource on the College Network. Any such Illegal access will not only be the
   violation of College IT Policy but may also violate National and International Cyber Laws,
   provisions under The Information Technology Act of India and National Cyber Security Policy, and subject the user to both civil and criminal liability.
3. The College also recommends its Students, Faculty and Administrative Staff, to use Open Source Software.
4. Users are expected to take proper care of IT Resources are expected to report any
   malfunction to the Staff/Faculty on duty or to the in-charge of the facility. Users should not attempt to move, repair, reconfigure, modify, or attach external devices to the existing IT Resources.
5. Violations of policy will be treated as academic misconduct, or indiscipline
   as appropriate.
6. The IT Policy may change as and when it is considered appropriate and new policies or the
   changes in policy will take effect immediately after an announcement.

Internet Access  

Erode Sengunthar Engineering College provides all Faculty, Students, Research Fellows and Administrative Staff with a modern, fully networked Computing and IT environment for academic, research and administrative use.

Internet Account

The Computer Network in the College is secured with Commercial Firewall. All the users are provided with unique User ID for Internet Access. The System Maintenance Cell provides Internet Access User ID. Internet Access User ID will not be shared with anyone else and it will only be used for educational/official purposes. The staff who leave the College will have their Internet Access User ID deleted.

Unauthorized access to the ESEC wireless/Wi-Fi network using Network/RF devices by Faculty, Students and Administrative Staff can lead to disciplinary action under rules against them. 

Internet Connectivity to Hostels

The College shall provide the Internet connectivity to hostels for use of students/scholars/wardens. No Internet fee/charges shall be levied upon the hostel boarders for the same. However, any theft of IT equipment installed in the hostels shall be deducted from the hostel boarders collectively

Account Termination & Appeal Process

Internet User Accounts on ESEC network systems may be terminated or disabled with or no notice on the grounds of virus infection. If the termination of Internet User account is of temporary nature, account will be restored as soon as the user approaches and takes necessary steps to get the problem rectified and communicates to the System Maintenance Cell.

IT Hardware Installation

College network user community needs to observe certain precautions while getting their computers or peripherals installed so that the user may face minimum inconvenience due to interruption of services due to hardware failures.

Power supply

All the computers and peripherals should be connected to the power supply strictly through
UPS. Power supply to the UPS should never be switched off, as continuous power supply to UPS is required for battery recharging.

Network cable

While connecting the computers to the network, the network cable should be away
from any electrical/electronic equipment. Further, no other electrical/electronic equipment should be shared with the power supply from where the computer and its peripherals are connected.

Printing and File Sharing

File and print sharing facilities on the computer over the network should be installed only when
it is absolutely required. When files are shared through network, they should be protected with
password and also with access rule.

Relocating Computers

Computer system may be moved from one location to another with prior written intimation to the In charge of the Computer and Head of the respective department/office. The details must be shared with System Maintenance Cell.

E- Mail Account  

A separate domain esec.ac.in is registered in Google Apps to provide official mail id to all the users of the College. It is recommended to use College Office e-mail for all official data communication.

For obtaining the College official email account, user may contact Head of the Department of Computer Science and Engineering for email account and default password by submitting an
application in a prescribed proforma duly signed by the respective Heads and Principal of the College.

Users may be aware that by using the official email facility, the users are agreeing to abide by the following rules:

1. The E mail account should be used primarily for academic and official purposes only.
2. Using the official E Mail for illegal/commercial purposes is a direct violation of the College IT policy and may entail withdrawal of the official E Mail facility.
3. Impersonating email account of others will be taken as a serious offence under the College IT security policy.
4. It is ultimately each individual’s responsibility to keep their e-mail account free from violations of College email usage policy.

Software Installation and Licensing 

Any computer purchases made by the departments/projects should make sure that such computer systems have all licensed software (operating system, antivirus software and necessary application software) installed.

College IT policy does not allow any pirated/unauthorized software installation on the College owned computers and the computers connected to the College campus network. In case of any such instances, College will hold the department/individual personally responsible for any pirated software installed on the computers located in their department/individuals’ rooms.

College as a policy encourages user community to go for open-source software such as Linux, GCC, Open office, etc. to be used on their systems wherever possible.

Backups of Data

Individual users should perform regular backups of their data. Virus infections often destroy data on an individual’s computer.  

Preferably, at the time of OS installation itself, one can have the computer’s hard disk partitioned into volumes(C,D, etc,) . OS and other software should be on C drive and user’s data files on the others drives.  In case of formatting only one volume, users should copy their valuable data either on CD or other storage devices such as pen drives.

Social Media Usage

The IT Policy provides guidance for use of social media, which should be broadly understood for purposes of this policy to include What’s App, message boards, chat rooms, electronic newsletters, online forums, social networking sites (FACEBOOK, LINKED IN TWITTERS, INSTAGRAM etc) , and other sites and services that permit users to share information with others.

The following principles apply to professional use of social media on behalf of Erode Sengunthar Engineering College as well as personal use of social media when referencing Erode Sengunthar Engineering College.

1. Faculty, Students and Administrative staff should aware of the effect their actions may have on their images, as well as ESEC’s Image. The information that employees/students post or publish may be public information for a long time
2. Employees/Students should be aware that The College may observe content and information made available by employees/students through social media. Employees/Students should use their best judgment in posting material that is neither inappropriate nor harmful to Erode Sengunthar Engineering College, its employees, or customers.
3. Employees are not to publish post or release any information that is considered confidential or not public.
4. Employees should get appropriate permission before they refer to or post images of current or former employees, members, vendors or suppliers.
5. Personal use of social media networks or personal blogging of online content inside the College Network is discouraged and could result in disciplinary action

Maintenance of Computer Hardware and Peripherals

System Maintenance Cell is responsible for maintenance of the College owned computer systems and peripherals that are either under warranty or annual maintenance contract, and whose responsibility has officially been entrusted to this Cell.

Guidelines on Computer Naming Conventions

In order to troubleshoot network problems and provide timely service, it is vital to be able to quickly identify computers that are on the campus network. All computer names on the campus network must use the College standard conventions.

Computers not following standard naming conventions may be removed from the network at the discretion of Computer Network

All the computers should follow the standard naming convention

Receiving Complaints

System Maintenance Cell may receive complaints from Departments/Office if any of the particular computer systems are causing network related problems.

System Maintenance Cell may receive complaints from the users if any of the computer systems or peripherals that are under maintenance through them are having any problems.

The designated person in System Maintenance Cell receives complaints from the users of these computer systems and coordinates with the service engineers of the respective
brands of the computer systems to resolve the problem within a reasonable time limit

Scope of Service

System Maintenance Cell will be responsible only for solving the hardware related problems or OS or any other application software that were legally purchased by the College and was loaded by the company.

System Maintenance Cell or its service engineers should not encourage installing any unauthorized software on the computer systems of the users.

Web Site Hosting

Official Pages

Departments, Societies, Clubs and Associations of Teachers/Employees/Students may have pages on ESEC official Web site. Official Web pages must conform to the College Web Site Creation Guidelines for Web site hosting. The College webmaster is responsible for maintaining the official web site of the College viz., https://www.erode-sengunthar.ac.in only.

Faculty/Students may have their personal pages linked to official web site of the College by sending a written request to WEB MASTER giving the details of the hyperlink of the URL to be added in the official web site of the College

The contents of personal pages must not violate any applicable College IT Policy, State, Central Government laws.

Web Pages for eLearning

Faculty may have class materials (syllabi, course materials, resource materials, etc.) on the Web /LMS, linked through the appropriate department’s pages.

It is recommended that pages be placed on the local LMS server, but pages developed for classes also may be placed on LMS server or the main campus server meant for eLearning purpose.

Content Disclaimer:

Every personal page will include the ESEC Content Disclaimer

Maintaining Web Pages

Departments, Professional Societies, Club, Associations, and individuals are responsible for maintaining their own Web pages. ESEC Web pages (including personal pages) must adhere to the ESEC Web Page Standards and Design Guidelines and should be approved ESEC Web Team.

Video Surveillance 

The Video Surveillance System comprises: Fixed position cameras; Pan Tilt and Zoom cameras; Monitors: digital recorders; SAN/NAS Storage; Public information signs.
Cameras will be located at strategic points on the campus, principally in all Class Rooms, Laboratories,  at the entrance and exit point of sites and buildings.

No camera will be hidden from view and all will be prevented from focusing on the frontages or rear areas of private accommodation.
Signs will be prominently placed at strategic points and at entrance and exit points of the campus to inform staff, students, visitors and members of the public that a CCTV/IP Camera installation is in use.

Although every effort has been made to ensure maximum effectiveness of the system it is not possible to guarantee that the system will detect every incident taking place within the area of coverage.

Purpose of the system

The system has been installed by College with the primary purpose of reducing the threat of crime generally, protecting College premises and helping to ensure the safety of all staff, students and visitors consistent with respect for the individuals’ privacy.

These purposes will be achieved by monitoring the system to:

1. Deter those having criminal intent
2. Assist in the prevention and detection of crime
3. Facilitate the identification, apprehension and prosecution of offenders in relation to crime
4. Facilitate the identification of any activities/event which might warrant disciplinary proceedings being taken against staff or students and assist in providing evidence to managers and/or to a member of staff or student against whom disciplinary or other action is, or is threatened to be taken.

The Video Surveillance Control Room

Videos captured by the system will be monitored and recorded in the Video Surveillance Control Room, Monitors are not visible from outside the control room.

1. No unauthorised access to the Control Room will be permitted at any time.
2. Staff, students and visitors may be granted access to the Control Room on a case-by-case basis and only then on written authorisation from the principal.
3. Before allowing access to the Control Room, staff will satisfy themselves of the identity of any visitor and that the visitor has appropriate authorisation.
4. A similar log will be kept of the staff on duty in the Control Room and any visitors granted emergency access.

Staff
All staff working in the Control Room will be made aware of the sensitivity of handling CCTV images and recordings. The Control Room In-charge will ensure that all staff are fully briefed and trained in respect of the functions, operational and administrative, arising from the use of CCTV

Recording
Digital recordings are made using digital video recorders operating in time lapse mode.
Incidents may be recorded in real time.

Images/Videos will normally be retained for thirty days from the date of recording, and then automatically over written and the Log updated accordingly.

Once a hard drive has reached the end of its use it will be erased prior to disposal and the Log will be updated accordingly.

All hard drives and recorders shall remain the property of College until disposal and destruction.

Access to Videos

All access to Videos will be recorded in the Access Log as specified in the Procedures Manual
Access to videos  will be restricted to those staff need to have access in accordance with the purposes of the system.

Access to Videos by third parties:

• Disclosure of recorded material will only be made to third parties in strict accordance with the purposes of the system and is limited to the following authorities:
  Law enforcement agencies where images recorded would assist in a criminal enquiry and/or the prevention of terrorism and disorder Prosecution agencies
• Relevant legal representatives
• The media where the assistance of the general public is required in the identification of a victim of crime or the identification of a perpetrator of a crime People whose images have been recorded and retained unless disclosure to the individual would prejudice criminal enquiries or criminal proceedings.
  Emergency services in connection with the investigation of an accident.

Network Security

College Students, Faculty, researchers and staff are authorized to connect network-capable devices of an approved type to the Network.  Faculty, researchers and staff may extend this authorization to guests on a temporary basis.

Authorization and access to the Network may be withheld or withdrawn with cause.

The College Networks is secured using the Commercial Network Firewall. The System Maintenance is responsible for creating access rules in Network Firewall as per the guidelines of the College Governing Bodies.

Devices that interfere with the Network should be disconnected and/or removed.

Scanning and mapping the Network, as well as monitoring Network traffic, are prohibited unless authorized by System Maintenance Cell.

The technical team of System Maintenance Cell will scan devices connected to the Network for security issues and vulnerabilities.

Network traffic are monitored to help ensure a reliable Network service and to protect Network users. Devices suspected to be in violation of this policy will be disconnected from the Network.

No Network/RF devices be installed anywhere in the campus without proper technical clearance /permission of the System Maintenance Cell, failing which disciplinary action will be taken against the defaulter and the respective equipment’s will be seized

Guidelines for Desktop/Laptop Users

These guidelines are meant for all members of the ESEC Network User Community and users of the College network. Due to the increase in hacker activity on campus, College IT Policy has put together recommendations to strengthen desktop security.
The following recommendations include:

All desktop computers should have the latest version of antivirus and should retain the setting that schedules regular updates of virus definitions from the central server.

When a desktop computer is installed, all operating system updates and patches should be applied. In addition, operating system updates and patches should be applied regularly, on an ongoing basis. Whenever possible, security policies should be set at the server level and applied to the desktop machines.

All Windows desktops should have an administrator account that is not used as the regular login account. The login for the administrator account should be changed from the default.

Guidelines for setting password

The password should be difficult to break. Password, defined as:

• Must be minimum of 6-8 characters in length
• Must include punctuation such as ! $ % & * , . ? + – =
• Must start and end with letters
• Must be new, not used before
• Avoid using your own name, or names of your wife or children, or name of your department, room No. or house No .etc.

Passwords should be changed periodically and also when suspected that it is known to others.
Do not leave password blank

New machines with Windows should activate the built-in firewall.

All users should consider use of a personal firewall that generally comes along the anti-virus software, if the OS does not have an in-built firewall.

All the software on the compromised computer systems should be re-installed from scratch

When the hard disk of the PC is formatted, the OS and all the application software should be installed from the original CDs of the software.

In general, start from a position of security that is most secure (i.e. no shares, no guest access, etc.) and open up services as necessary.