|
|
|
|
POLICY It is the policy of Mid-Ohio Psychological Services to provide staff access to the vast information resources of the Internet to help staff complete their jobs faster and smarter. The Internet, for this company, is a business tool. Access to the Internet is primarily for business-related purposes. Staff must respect the copyright, software licensing rules, property rights, privacy, and prerogatives of others and must utilize the Internet in compliance with all other agency policies and procedures. Unauthorized or unnecessary Internet usage is prohibitive. MOPS retains the right to review staff utilization of the Internet, E-mail services, or any other computer data generated or viewed utilizing equipment or services provided by MOPS. Inappropriate use of these resources may be grounds for termination at the discretion of the Agency Director or Board.
PROCEDURE
1. The MIS coordinator will be responsible for monitoring Internet usage and will report any evidence of inappropriate utilization of the Internet to the Executive Director immediately. 2. MOPS reserves the right to inspect any and all files stored in private areas of our network in order to ensure compliance with policy. The MIS coordinator will be responsible for monitoring the areas episodically. 3. The display of any kind of sexually-explicit image or document on any company system is a violation of our policy on sexual harassment. In addition, sexually-explicit material may not be archived, stored, distributed, edited, or recorded using our network or computing resources. 4. Use of Internet services for the downloading or viewing of inappropriate materials is expressly prohibited. At minimum, inappropriate materials include the following: (a) Anarchy—sites containing information regarding malicious, construction of bombs, weapons, anti-government groups, terrorists, overthrowing of government, killing methods, et cetera. (b) Criminal skills—sites that promote illegal activity such as pyrotechnics, computer hacking, credit card number generating, electronic intrusion, password cracking, surveillance or murder. (c) Illicit drugs—sites that promote the use or purchase of illegal drugs. These may include offering marijuana seeds for sale, growing methods, techniques, and products for testing clean for drugs, information on illegal narcotics; (d) Gambling—sites which encourage gambling such as betting sites, book odds, lottery, bingo, horse/dog track, on-line sports betting, on-line casinos, et cetera. (e) Obscene/tasteless—sites that involve such things as mutilation, murder, bodily functions, horror, death, candid scenes, executions, violence, et cetera. (f) Erotica—sites that include nudity of any form, vulgarity, including sites that contain nudity or sexually-explicit verbiage for the purpose of sexual arousal. 5. If any of the “inappropriate material” identified above is accidentally happened upon by a staff member by utilizing the Internet for otherwise appropriate purposes or if any of the above “inappropriate material” is accessed for legitimate therapeutic purposes as approved by a supervising clinician, then a log of such access must be maintained and forwarded to the MIS coordinator who will report such activity to the Executive Director. 6. The company’s Internet facilities and computing resources must not be used knowingly to violate the laws and regulations of the United States or any other nation, or the laws and regulations of any state, city, province, or local jurisdiction in any material way. Use of any company resources for illegal activity is grounds for immediate dismissal and MOPS will cooperate with any legitimate law enforcement activity. 7. Any software files downloaded via the Internet into the company network become the property of the company. Any such files or software may be used only in ways that are consistent with their licenses or copyrights. 8. No employee may use company facilities knowingly to download or distribute pirated software or data. 9. No employee may use the company’s Internet facilities to deliberately propagate any virus, worm, Trojan horse, or trap-door program code. 10. No employee may use the company’s Internet facilities knowingly to disable or overload any computer system or network or to circumvent any system intended to protect the privacy or security of another user. 11. The company retains the copyright to any material posted to any forum, news group, chat or Worldwide Web page by any employee in the course of his/her duties. 12. Employees are reminded that chats and news groups are public forums where it is inappropriate to reveal confidential company information, client information, or any other material covered by existing company secrecy policies and procedures. Employees releasing protected information, whether or not the release is inadvertent, will be subject to all penalties under the existing data security policy and procedures. 13. Use of company Internet access facilities to commit infractions such as misuse of company assets or resources, sexual harassment, unauthorized public speaking and misappropriation or theft of intellectual property are also prohibited by general company policy, and will be sanctioned under relevant provisions of the personnel procedures. 14. Employees may use the Internet facilities for non-business research or browsing during mealtime or other breaks, outside of work hours, provided that all other usage policies are adhered to. 15. The company will comply with reasonable requests from law enforcement and regulatory agencies for logs, diaries, and archives on individual’s Internet activities. 16. Employees with Internet access may download only software with direct business use and must arrange to have such software properly licensed and registered. Downloaded software must be used only under the terms of its license. 17. Employees with Internet access may not upload any software licensed to the company or data owned or licensed by the company without explicit authorization from the manager responsible for software data. 18. Users ID’s and passwords help maintain individual accountability for Internet resource usage. Any employee who obtains a password ID for an Internet resource must keep that password confidential. Company policy prohibits the sharing of user ID’s or passwords obtained for access to the Internet sites. 19. Employees should schedule communication, intensive operations such as large-file transfers, video downloads, mass e-mailings and the like for off-peak times and must coordinate such activities with the MIS coordinator. 20. Video and audio streaming and downloading technology represent a significant data traffic which can cause local network congestion. Video and audio downloading may only be scheduled for off-peak times as coordinated with the MIS coordinator. 21.
No client information may be transmitted via the Internet unless encoded
with a minimum of 128-bit encryption. The
MIS coordinator should be consulted regarding the transfer of any client
information via the Internet. 22. Computers that use their own modems to create independent data connection sidestep our network security mechanisms. An individual computer’s private connection to an outside computer can be used by an attacker to compromise any company network to which that computer is attached. Utilization of an independent connection to the Internet must be approved by the MIS coordinator prior to its utilization. 23. Use of chat programs such as AOL instant messenger or MSN instant messenger is generally prohibited except for explicit business purposes. Utilization of such services must be approved by the MIS coordinator and the Executive Director prior to utilization. 24. To aid in facilitating confidentiality of client information, client specific materials are to be communicated utilizing the internal E-mail system only. External E-mail accounts must be maintained by separate E-mail software unless explicitly approved by the Executive Director and MIS coordinator. INTERNET
POLICY.policy |
|
