Rules and regulations
All staff, students, contractors and visitors to Coventry University must abide by the code of conduct for the use of ICT facilities (Appendix four of the General Regulations of the University). Use of the IT facilities at Coventry University implies your agreement to abide by the code of conduct; ignorance of its contents will not be accepted as an excuse for breaking it.
The code of conduct:
There's a lot to take in, but there are some golden rules that should always keep you safe and out of trouble:
- Make sure your passwords are strong and never give out account details to other people.
- Don't say anything that is nasty or untrue about other people, groups, or organisations - defamation tends to come back to haunt people, whether it's because it causes drama between people, because it can damage your reputation, because it can damage the reputation of Coventry University, or because it can escalate to the point where the law has to be enforced. Coventry University will take action through the authorities where necessary if the University's defamation policy or the law is broken.
- Do not access pornographic, racist, violent or otherwise offensive websites - besides being generally unpleasant, this is against our code of conduct as well as that of our internet service provider, JANET, who will cut off the University's internet if we are caught breaching the rules.
- If in doubt, don't do it. Email from a stranger telling you you've just come into lots of money? Application telling you to download an update that looks dodgy? Bank asking you to click the link and login? If you think there's something fishy about it, chances are there could be something 'phishy' about it.
- Get protected - Coventry University offers free Sophos antivirus to all staff and students to download so that we're protected from viruses and malware. Use it.