NT/Active Directory Access Policy

• Appropriate Use
• Account Eligibility
• Obtaining an Account
• Required Approvals
• Account Names
• Resource Allocation / Disk Quotas
• Expiration / Archival
• User Responsibilities

Appropriate Use

The Eller College Windows Active Directory Domain (hereafter also called "AD servers"), managed by Eller Information Technology (Eller IT) is available for instructional and research use. Users of the AD servers have access to various departmental printers as well as both personal and departmental data storage areas. The use of computers, computer systems and networks is a privilege granted to members of the Eller College community. By accessing the AD servers, users agree that they are aware of and adhere to all policies noted in the Eller IT Computing and Network Usage Policy and in this document.

Eller IT reserves the right to temporarily or permanently deny access to any computer account, computing lab or other Eller computing or network resource maintained by Eller IT that has been misused. Misuse includes but is not limited to:

• account/password sharing
• non-academic usage
• false ownership or identification misrepresentation
• malicious or unauthorized hacking and/or intrusion
• electronic harassment
• nonacademic use of the ELLER data communications network
• making unauthorized copies of any copyright protected software, regardless of source.

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Account Eligibility

Available to University of Arizona Eller College of Business and Public Administration faculty and staff for as long as they are employed by the college. Accounts can be requested by sending an e-mail to support. Typically, user accounts requested will be available for use within 24 hours after the request is approved by the appropriate Eller College department. Accounts are also available to visiting scholars and temporary employees when authorized and approved by the appropriate Eller College department head. Eller College departments can request the establishment of one departmental account on the entire active directory for administrative use.

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Obtaining an Account

The ELLER Active Directory serves the needs of faculty, staff, and researchers of the Eller College and is not intended for non-Eller College use. The account request process is as follows:
Send an e-mail to support.
Eller IT will contact the authorized departmental contact for the department in question for authorization to create the account(s).
After the account is created, a Eller IT technical representative will arrive to assist with initial logon and configuration of ELLER resources.
New account creation generally occurs within one working day after approval.

If you experience problems please check with your authorized departmental contact. Account creations as well as any necessary changes in the standard for account names and passwords are conveyed to them.

The Eller IT Systems Staff reserves the right to refuse an account creation request if the applicant does not meet one of the following criteria:

• A member of the Eller Faculty or Staff
• Approved by the department/college

[APR 2003]

Required Approvals

Account request must be approved by the appropriate authorized departmental contact before they are created.

[APR 2003]

Account Names

Account names are generally derived from the name of the applicant, however in the request for an account a specific account name can be requested. Account names are not case sensitive.

[APR 2003]

Resource Allocations/Disk Quotas

Disk space is never a plentiful resource on any system despite its constant decrease in cost. Limits are imposed regarding the amount of space each individual user may consume by enforcing disk "quotas." Disk quotas are boundaries monitored by the Windows Server operating system that keep an individual from consuming more disk space than was allocated.

Quotas are in place for three reasons. The first reason is to ensure that each user receives a fair share of disk space. The second reason is to allow the Eller IT Systems Staff to monitor current disk usage and plan for future requirements. The third reason is to encourage users to use resources judiciously and to discourage unnecessary misuses of precious resources. Disk quotas are only configured on everyone’s personal storage drive (always configured as drive letter O:\). This means that departmental common storage area is not restricted by quotas. This data storage area is restricted to only the user in question and is backed up on a nightly basis. Quotas are initially established based on the type of account created.

The following table outlines the initial quota assigned to accounts:

Quota adjustments are handled on a case by case basis. Requests for increases in account quotas should be sent via E-Mail to support.

The Eller IT Systems Staff recommends that, before quota increases are requested, the individual:

• purge the account of unnecessary file versions
• delete unnecessary files (eg., *.tar, *.zip, etc.)

[APR 2003]

Account Archival and Expiration

Eller College Faculty and Staff user accounts will not expire. Once a faculty or staff member leaves the college to pursue other opportunities, their account will be disabled and archived. For student accounts that are approved by the different departments, accounts will be set to expire one week after their expected date of graduation. Student accounts can be re-enabled only while they are attending classes and are still attached to the department that originally granted them access.

Six months after an account is disabled and archived, the account and any remaining data will be deleted.

[APR 2003]

User Responsibilites

Users of the ELLER Active Directory servers share an implicit responsibility to themselves and to others who share the college's computing and network resources.

The Eller IT Group feels that the following represent, at a minimum, your responsibility.

KEEP YOUR ACCOUNT PURGED OF UNNEEDED FILES
Many of us maintain files that are not necessary. While you have to be the judge of which files are critical/important to you, there are some files that are generally not necessary to keep around. Such files are usually temporary files generated as a result of programming language compilations, mail, etc.

COMPOSE NON-COMMON PASSWORDS
There are many suggestions for password composition:

• Although the ELLER Active Directory servers do not have a requirement for password length, Eller IT advises using AT LEAST an 8 character-in-length password.
• Some would say that placing at least one or more numbers in your password makes it harder to remember. Numbers in passwords make them exponentially harder to guess.
• The Eller IT Group recommends that you use two unrelated words separated by one or more numbers. For example, T1ME4fun might be easy to remember. Note the number 1 in place of the letter I.
• To make an even stronger password, use upper/lower case, numbers, and a symbol. Many symbols are valid characters for passwords: !@#$%^&*().
• DO NOT USE your account name, your name, or your friend's name. Names are too easy to guess.
• Many password guessing routines have extensive international dictionaries as well as English language dictionaries. Today's password cracking routines will, in time, resolve even passwords with mixed case and two numbers.

RESET YOUR PASSWORD REGULARLY
Passwords will be required to be changed every 180 days, however you can reset your password at any time. Frequent password changes will keep your account much safer provided your choice in a password is a good one.

DO NOT SHARE YOUR PASSWORD/ACCOUNT WITH OTHERS
NEVER share an account with others. You would be surprised at the number of security breaches due to a friend leaving your password on a piece of paper in a computer lab or even their own office. SHARING accounts is strictly forbidden. If you share your account you may lose it.

LOG YOURSELF OFF WHEN FINISHED
You should get in the habit of logging off or locking your workstation when your work is done. This is not only to protect your personal account data but also to protect others using the system.

DO NOT WASTE PRINTER RESOURCES
Many departments provide their faculty, staff and students with access to printer services. The majority of these print services are laser printers. While this provides improved print quality, we have found that people often abuse the service.

DO NOT USE printers as photocopying machines. Print a single copy of your work, etc. and then take it to a photocopy machine and copy it. If you print something, be responsible enough to pick it up. When you pick it up, please leave the printer as well as the surroundings in the same condition you expect to find it in (on-line with excess paper tossed in the recycling bin). Toner cartridges and laser quality paper are extremely expensive compared to other printer resources. DO NOT USE THEM UNWISELY. Departments have limited budgets to work with. Once the supplies have been depleted in a given year, you might be forced to live without this luxury.

PICK UP AFTER YOURSELF
Many faculty, staff, and students use the same facilities. The facilities are costly to maintain. These are your facilities to use. DO NOT ABUSE THEM! DO NOT leave paper from printouts lying around. If you no longer need the printout, dispose of it in the appropriate recycling bin.

[APR 2003]