Safety in Technology

 

Acceptable Use Policy in Information Technology

At Dominican University, where I am currently pursuing my Master of Library and Information Science, the Acceptable Use Policy for Technology is simply another policy that is easily scanned through and forgotten about by, admittedly, myself and what I assume to be most other students. In understanding safe practices in technology, delegating more time to understanding policies like these is important.

Image Source: Dominican University via Facebook

Diving into Dominican University's Acceptable Use Policy for Technology, a key element to take note of is the policy's scope. Here it explains that this policy does not only apply to members of the University community (this includes students, faculty, and staff), but also to any guests, vendors, or contracts. While this might appear like a statement of common sense, most are unaware that their actions must follow institutional technological policies even if they are not formally enrolled or employed by that institution. Continuing through the policy, there is a clear summary defining the established guidelines and a note towards the policy history motioning to the date it was recently updated. The largest established section is, of course, that of the actual policy. 

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The policy's section on "Acceptable Use" was short and to the point, pretty much summing up that "computing resources...are provided for legitimate educational and business purposes" (Dominican University 2023). Limited personal use is also acceptable as long as it does not violate the policy. As can be assumed, the list of "Violations of Acceptable Use" makes up half the document, listing violations such illegal use, threats/harassment, malicious content/spam, etc. Something that is not mentioned in the violations is use of AI (Artificial Intelligence). This surprised me considering this was updated in 2023, however, I wonder if this will be a point of discussion for the next update in policy, as it is quite a controversial topic as of now. 

Overall, it is very thorough it its specific mention of violations, considering the "Acceptable Use" section was very short and to the point. Each point of violation is followed by understandable descriptive language that makes it, in my opinion, easy for readers to understand the most basic of premise. I think this is a very easy to understand policy and I appreciate that they include various contact information that questions and concerns that be directed towards. 

Securing Your Digital Life

Going forward, I will be switching focus to points of technological safety in the work environment. 

I grew up in a strange middle-ground era where technology was lightly fixed within my life but was not a major asset. Internet safety was still being considered and being learned by the adults in my life and, thus, it wasn't even in my frame of mind as a child. In this era, we are so ingrained in the digital world that it is easy to forget how vulnerable this world of distance can really make us as individuals. 

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Because I work in a creative field, my job requires an active online presence. It requires chatting with and having people I've never met face-to-face reach out through email and social media messaging. Working in an art gallery, something I never thought about being an issue is phishing schemes. Various schools would casually and annually warn students about the dangerous of internet phishing and scams, but I never had any formal education on the matter. The real world taught me, though, even at a high-end art gallery, we get very realistic phishing schemes sent to our business email address posing as potential out of state buyers. In some instances we did not even realize they were scams until an open communication had been shared. Andrew Wallance states in his article Phishing Scams: Don't Take the Bait, "The sad truth is that phishing and spamming scams are now part of life in this digital age" (Wallace, A. 2019). I had always seen phishing schemes appear on personal accounts, but having them pop-up through work networks was quite alarming. I am unsure if I want to use the word "lucky", but for all intent and purposes, I am lucky to have grown up in the generation I did if only because I grew up with phishing schemes and recognize them more easily. My boss, who is 60 + years my senior, did not grow up with this and we are consistently having the conversation of whether or not an email is real or fake. My boss is a very clever woman but, as Wallace says, "All of the training, resources, warning, and exhortations to vigilance can still come up short when users come face-to-face with a well-crafted phishing email" (Wallace, A. 2019). My boss and I being able to feel comfortable enough to use one another as a sounding board to discuss potential scams works in our favor and educates both of us in real time. 

Citations

Wallace, A. (2019, January 31). Phishing scams: Don’t take the bait. TechLearningMagazine. https://www.techlearning.com/resources/phishing-scams-dont-take-the-bait

Acceptable Use Policy: Information Technology. Dominican University. (2023). chrome-extension://efaidnbmnnnibpcajpcglclefindmkaj/https://www.dom.edu/sites/default/files/2023-03/Acceptable_Use_Policy_2022.11.14.pdf