The Columbia University Computer and Network Use Policy governs the use of computers on the Columbia University campus and network. By connecting a computer to the network and/or opening a columbia.edu email account, you are bound to abide by these regulations.

Some important points to remember:

You must keep your computer secure. You should use anti-virus software, update your operating system regularly, and turn on built-in firewalls to avoid having intruders damage or take over your system and then attack others here or on the Internet. You could be held liable for damage caused by hackers using your computer. The University provides free copies of Symantec Anti-Virus and Pest Patrol to protect against viruses and spyware. Machines which are found to be compromised will be kept off the network, without prior notice, until they are properly rebuilt.

You are responsible for what you do on the network. As a member of the Columbia community, you have access to the Internet and World Wide Web -- from a departmental or personal computer or your CUNIX account. We hope that you will take advantage of this privilege, but please remember that you are responsible for what you do -- whether using the Web to read or publish pages or using file-sharing programs like Kazaa, Gnutella, IRC, FTP, or others. You are also responsible for keeping your computer safe from external intrusions which may compromise the capacity or integrity of the Columbia network.

You must respect copyright. The software, books, music, films, videos, articles, cartoons, pictures, even e-mail, that you may come across, whether on the Internet, a CD, DVD, tape, or your favorite magazine, are almost always protected by copyright. It is a violation of law and University policy to copy, distribute, share, download or upload any copyrighted material without the express permission of the copyright owner.

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Send reports of security incidents, attacks, or questions to security@columbia.edu