Wednesday, March 4, 1998
UCLA officials police information superhighway
REGULATION: Sometimes students don’t know they violate computer
policy
By Andy Shah
Daily Bruin Contributor
Computer users may be breaking the law and not even know it.
UCLA’s Acceptable Use Agreement is a set of regulations for
appropriate computer use that one agrees to when registering a
Bruin Online account. And administrators handle about five
violations, either deliberate or unintentional, of that agreement
each quarter.
"Any violation which infringes on the rights of the community or
any other individual, we take seriously," said Amy Lubitz, Judicial
Affairs Coordinator for the Office of Residential Life (ORL).
The most common violations include pyramid schemes, possession
of illegal software, e-mail bombing and spamming.
Also, e-mails containing threats or sexually harassing messages
are considered possible offenses.
In one case, a student was investigated for allowing others to
hear new CDs via his web site – a violation of copyright laws.
The problem started about two years ago, said Lubitz, who
investigates allegations of computer misuse. About sixty percent of
them, she said, are deliberate violations of the agreement.
For example, a student who sends an e-mail bomb, which consists
of sending thousands of e-mails to one person, is a deliberate
violation.
However, a student may unknowingly put movie clips on their web
site, which is a violation of the agreement.
Consequences of the agreement range from being found ‘not
responsible’ to dismissal from the university.
The Dean of Students office is responsible for rendering
judgments on cases.
"Most of the time it’s a warning, disciplinary probation or
suspensions," Lubitz said.
"A couple (of students) have lost computer privileges for a
limited amount of time," but no students have ever been
dismissed.
Sometimes students haven’t read the agreement carefully, so they
get a warning informing them of proper computer use, said Bonnie
Mika, manager for Office of Academic Computing customer
relations.
"We try to take the approach where we inform the student it’s
inappropriate behavior. Sometimes they just don’t know," Mika
said.
To detect computer violations, UCLA officials act as a fire
alarm: they respond to complaints rather than monitoring computer
use.
"Normally complaints are given from students or another
university’s webmaster. There is no internal ‘big brother’
mechanism," Lubitz said.
The Dean’s office, UCLA police department or student affairs
office may also get involved, depending on the severity of the
situation.
The Student Technology Center is responsible for identifying the
origin of the problem, said Michael Schilling, manager of the
Student Technology Center (STC) and directory of technology for
UCLA Business and Finance.
This includes identifying the building, room number, and network
card or adapter I.D. name.
Schilling, who deals with students living on-campus, pointed out
that a distinction is made between who owns the computer and who
puts stuff on it.
For example, an outside source may be installing illegal
software on someone else’s web site and the owner may not be aware
of this.
Schilling added that UCLA doesn’t check e-mails as a monitoring
mechanism, "because of the sheer number (of computer users), and
students are entitled to their privacy," she said.
"Unlike other campuses, we don’t capture the data (of the
e-mail), but we randomly do capture the data which reflects the
origination location," Schilling said.
Computer users should be aware of the agreement’s violations,
Schilling said.
"This is a very serious problem with potentially serious
consequences," he said.
These violations may also be breaking state and federal laws, he
added.