Policy:     Information Technology: Remote Access
Authority:    Information Technology
Contact:      Bill Schuetz, (541) 463-3355            schuetzb@lanecc.edu
 
Purpose
The purpose of this policy is to define standards for connecting to Lane Community College's network from any host. These standards are designed to minimize the potential exposure to Lane Community College from damages which may result from unauthorized use of Lane Community College resources. Damages include the loss of sensitive or college confidential data, intellectual property, damage to public image, damage to critical Lane Community College internal systems, etc.

Scope
This policy applies to all Lane Community College employees, contractors, vendors and agents with a Lane Community College-owned or personally-owned computer or workstation used to connect to the Lane Community College network. This policy applies to remote access connections used to do work on behalf of Lane Community College, including reading or sending email and viewing intranet web resources. Remote access implementations that are covered by this policy include, but are not limited to, dial-in modems, frame relay, ISDN, DSL, VPN, SSH, and cable modems, etc.

Policy
1. It is the responsibility of Lane Community College employees, contractors, vendors and agents with remote access privileges to Lane Community College's college network to ensure that their remote access connection is given the same consideration as the user's on-site connection to Lane Community College.

2. General access to the Internet for recreational use by immediate household members through the Lane Community College Network on personal computers is permitted. The Lane Community College employee is responsible to ensure the family member does not violate any Lane Community College policies, does not perform illegal activities, and does not use the access for outside business interests. The Lane Community College employee bears responsibility for the consequences should the access be misused.

3. Please review the following policies for details of protecting information when accessing the college network via remote access methods, and acceptable use of Lane Community College's network:

a. Computing and Networking Appropriate Use Policy
b. Virtual Private Network (VPN) Policy
c. Wireless Policy

Requirements
1. Secure remote access must be strictly controlled. Control will be enforced via password authentication. 

2. At no time should any Lane Community College employee provide their login or email password to anyone, not even family members.

3. Lane Community College employees and contractors with remote access privileges must ensure that their Lane Community College-owned or personal computer or workstation, which is remotely connected to Lane Community College's network, is not connected to any other network at the same time, with the exception of personal networks that are under the complete control of the user.

4. Lane Community College employees with remote access privileges to Lane Community College's college network must not use non-Lane Community College email accounts (i.e., Hotmail, Yahoo, AOL), or other external resources to conduct Lane Community College business, thereby ensuring that official business is never confused with personal business.

5. Reconfiguration of a home user's equipment for the purpose of split-tunneling or dual homing is not permitted at any time.

6. Non-standard hardware configurations must be approved by Network Services.

7. All hosts that are connected to Lane Community College internal networks via remote access technologies must use the most up-to-date anti-virus software, this includes personal computers.

8. Personal equipment that is used to connect to Lane Community College's networks must meet the requirements of Lane Community College-owned equipment for remote access.

9. Organizations or individuals who wish to implement non-standard Remote Access solutions to the Lane Community College network must obtain prior approval from Network Services.

Enforcement
Any employee found to have violated this policy may be subject to disciplinary action, up to and including termination of employment.

Definitions
Cable Modem    Cable companies such as AT&T Broadband provide Internet access over Cable TV coaxial cable. A cable modem accepts this coaxial cable and can receive data from the Internet at over 1.5 Mbps. Cable is currently available only in certain communities.

Dial-in Modem    A peripheral device that connects computers to each other for sending communications via the telephone lines. The modem modulates the digital data of computers into analog signals to send over the telephone lines, then demodulates back into digital signals to be read by the computer on the other end; thus the name "modem" for modulator/demodulator.

Dual Homing    Having concurrent connectivity to more than one network from a computer or network device. Examples include: Being logged into the College network via a local Ethernet connection, and dialing into AOL or other Internet service provider (ISP). Being on a Lane Community College- provided Remote Access home network, and connecting to another network, such as a spouse's remote access. Configuring an ISDN router to dial into Lane Community College and an ISP, depending on packet destination.

DSL    Digital Subscriber Line (DSL) is a form of high-speed Internet access competing with cable modems. DSL works over standard phone lines and supports data speeds of over 2 Mbps downstream (to the user) and slower speeds upstream (to the Internet).

Frame Relay    A method of communication that incrementally can go from the speed of an ISDN to the speed of a T1 line. Frame Relay has a flat-rate billing charge instead of a per time usage. Frame Relay connects via the telephone company's network.

ISDN    There are two flavors of Integrated Services Digital Network or ISDN: BRI and PRI. BRI is used for home office/remote access. BRI has two "Bearer" channels at 64kbit (aggregate 128kb) and 1 D channel for signaling info.
Remote Access    Any access to Lane Community College's network through a non-Lane Community College controlled network, device, or medium.

Split-tunneling    Simultaneous direct access to a non-Lane Community College network (such as the Internet, or a home network) from a remote device (PC, PDA, WAP phone, etc.) while connected into Lane Community College's network via a VPN tunnel. VPN Virtual Private Network (VPN) is a method for accessing a remote network via "tunneling" through the Internet.