Educause Security Discussion mailing list archives
Re: Email account used by multiple people
From: randy marchany <marchany () VT EDU>
Date: Thu, 11 Mar 2010 16:17:09 -0500
This is one of those issues that causes people heartburn. Here at VA Tech, we state "The owner of the account is responsible for any actions originating from their account, system, userid, etc.". So, technically, it's not against our AUP (I'm the primary author of it) to share an account. Why did we do this? 1. It's enforceable. Saying strictly that "you're not allowed to share accounts" is a good thing in principle....we mention it in our AUP. However, it's not enforceable unless you have some advance surveillance techniques to actually show WHO was at the keyboard....you see where I'm going with this. It's straightforward to enforce accountability. 2. Certain administrative systems/functions have not caught up with file or access sharing technology. Putting a team in a group and setting up group access is one way to allow this. Some legacy systems may not be able to provide this technical function but the BUSINESS function requires it so the business process wins. Changing the software process to accomodate the business requirements is the desired but not always possible solution. my .02. Randy Marchany VA Tech IT Security Office
Current thread:
- Email account used by multiple people Kenneth Arnold (Mar 11)
- <Possible follow-ups>
- Re: Email account used by multiple people Mark Montague (Mar 11)
- Re: Email account used by multiple people Kevin Skelly (Mar 11)
- Re: Email account used by multiple people randy marchany (Mar 11)
- Re: Email account used by multiple people Russell Fulton (Mar 11)
- Re: Email account used by multiple people Miller, Don C. (Mar 12)
- Re: Email account used by multiple people Allison Dolan (Mar 15)