Campus Network Standards

General:

• IT@CSUMB uses best-of-breed network security tools to protect the campus network, data centers, end users and devices from known cyber threats including viruses, botnets, DDoS attacks, port scans, phishing scams, ransomware and other malicious traffic, websites, and infected files.

Caution:

• Our protections block known malicious traffic but are not enough to protect end-users against constantly evolving threats. The bad guys are always inventing new ways to do bad stuff online and everyone should exercise caution and good judgment in their cyber affairs.

The following protections apply to all campus network traffic:

• All portable executable, apk, flash, .jar, MacOSX, ms-office, and pdf files that are not encrypted are scanned for malware and blocked if they are found or known to be malicious.

• Outbound traffic to known malware and malicious websites is blocked based on the following URL categories:

  • malware

  • phishing

• Encrypted SSL traffic (HTTPS) is not decrypted or inspected at any time to ensure end-user privacy.  This also means that SSL traffic does not benefit from our network protections against harmful content.

• The campus firewall checks and blocks the following known threats for live traffic transitioning to and from the Internet:

  • antivirus

  • anti-spyware

  • vulnerabilities

• Specific outbound traffic blocked to the Internet.

  • Bittorrent

  • Ares Galaxy

  • Gnutella

• Malicious network Ports are blocked based on ISP best practices.

• Specific P2P access for legitimate educational purposes may be granted via service ticket.

• All inbound traffic is blocked from the Internet to local campus users. This includes all campus buildings, Wifi, and dorms.

Illegal downloading or sharing of copyrighted material is prohibited by federal law.

CSUMB requires all users of our computer and network facilities to comply with federal and state laws related to these services, including those that protect copyrights. Detailed information can be found in The Acceptable Use of Computing and Information Technology Resources Policy.

A number of organizations and companies are actively protecting their copyrighted works, including music and video. They have the capability to trace alleged infringements of those copyrights to the individual network address. They can and have initiated legal action against individuals they believe have violated these copyrights.

The potential impact upon violators can be significant. If an organization traces a potential violation to a network address managed by CSUMB they may notify the University. We will take action as indicated in our Acceptable Use Policy and as outlined in Executive Order 999. In most cases we will forward information from these organizations to an individual that we identify as associated with that network address. We will only provide personal information associated with a particular address to a third party with a lawfully executed subpoena.

Please:

• Do not download, or share, copyrighted information in violation of applicable laws and campus policies using CSUMB’s network.

• Do not use or allow others to use your personal computers or devices on CSUMB’s network for activities that are not allowed under CSUMB policies or various laws.

These standards are subject to change at any time to protect CSUMB's network and users from yet unknown cyber threats.