All students are expected to practice safe and secure computing while attending UB.  It is a major policy violation for students to share their password, even with family and friends, and can result in the termination of access to accounts and services. Passwords are important and must be kept safe and private. Each student is individually responsible for everything that is done using their UBITName. 

New students should change their initial password as soon as possible and should use a password that does not include names or easy-to-identify numbers such as birthdays. Try to create a password based on a random set of letters and numbers that would be easy to remember but difficult for others to try and guess. It is also recommended that students change their password regularly as an extra precaution, and if using a computer in one of the public sites, students must log out of their session before they leave.

In addition to this password policy, all students are expected to adhere to all of UB’s responsible computing policies. A complete list of these guidelines can be found on the UB Information Technology Policies website and includes guidelines on copyright infringement. Copyrights apply to all materials such as written works, music, videos, movies, and games that are created by someone else. Without explicit permission from the copyright holder, no one is allowed to copy or distribute these kinds of materials or try to pass them off as their own.  This is a violation of federal law and subject to FBI investigations, prosecution, and thousands of dollars in fines and damages.

With all the information available for download online these days, from music to software, it’s hard to keep track of what is legal and what is illegal. To help students understand these issues, UB has developed a website detailing the Digital Millenium Copyright Act, and specifically deals with copyright and the internet.