Directive
Student- and employee-owned devices, including laptop computers, gaming devices, cell phones, and other network-capable devices, may be connected to the Shepherd University network for access to the commodity Internet only. Non-Shepherd computers may not access internal Shepherd resources, such as shared network drives, directly. Registration of the devices with IT Services may be required in some circumstances (e.g., for wireless connectivity) and must meet certain minimum security standards, such as installation of anti-virus software, operating system updates, or a personal firewall.
Rationale
IT Services uses a network management system. This system interrogates client devices to ensure that they meet Shepherd-defined criteria before any network traffic is routed to and from the device. This greatly reduces the probability a machine infected with malicious software or “malware” (such as spyware, Trojans, viruses, keyloggers, or rootkits) will connect to our network.
Infected machines can infect other machines, and compromise network and data security. Much of the data flowing on the Shepherd University network is confidential in nature such as personally identifiable information. Preventing personally owned computers from accessing the internal network helps protect that data.