Internet Code of Ethics

In January 1989, the Internet Activities Board issued RFC 1087, Ethics and the Internet[10], a policy statement concerning the proper uses of the resources of the Internet:
The internet is a national facility whose utility is largely a consequence of its wide availability and accessibility. Irresponsible use of this critical resource poses an enormous threat to its continued availability to the technical community.

The U.S. Government sponsors of this system have a fidicuary responsibility to the public to allocate government resources wisely and effectively. Justification for the support of this system suffers when highly disruptive abuses occur. Access to and use of the Internet is a privilege and should be treated as such by all users of this system.

The IAB strongly endorses the view of the Division Advisory Panel of the National Science Foundation Division of Network Communications Research and Infrastructure which, in paraphrase, characterized as unethical and unacceptable any activity which purposely:

  • seeks to gain unauthorized access to the resources of the Internet;
  • disrupts the intended use of the Internet;
  • wastes resources (people, capacity, computer) through such actions;
  • destroys the integrity of the computer-based information; and/or
  • compromises the privacy of users.

Members of the Government of Guam and Educational internet community shall:

  • Uphold the rights and responsibilities of each authorized user.
  • Recognize and honor the intellectual property of others.
  • Verify the integrity and authenticity of information.

  • Assure the security of the government wide network. Each authorized user has been entrusted through issuance of a government id or password the priviledge of effecting resource access to governmentt communication and data equipment. The government user shall not share or reveal ids or passwords to individuals or entities not specifically assigned those ids or passwords.

  • Refrain from communication that degrades or harasses individuals or groups.
  • Refrain from using abusive or objectionable language.

  • Abstain from using government resources for purposes of private business, underwriting commercial email/web advertisements, for-profit solicitations, chain letters, unsolicited Bulk emailings called Spamming or other illegal purposes.

  • Refrain from placing unlawful information on the system, such as trade secrets.

  • Refrain from any other use that causes congestion of the networks or that would interfere with or cause the loss of work of others or cause system downtime.

  • Be prohibited from intentionally importing, propagating, or launching computer viruses, Trojan horses, or worms to infect CPUs or nodes on the network. Users are prohibited from executing foreign software imported into any system without first obtaining clearance from the department’s systems manager or designee.

  • Be prohibited from using security tools (such as ‘satan’, etc.) to probe or breach the security of other nodes or machines on the network. Shall not utilize the government network or cpus as a platform to launch attacks, probe into, or forcefully attempt to compromise other worldwide Internet cpus or networks.

  • Be prohibited from establishing domain names within the Government network (other than that which has been assigned to the agency) without proper authorization. All government domain names must be mapped, assigned and operate within government-owned ip addresses. Government domain names are not allowed to operate with ip addresses owned by commercial, consultant or non-government entities.

  • Be prohibited from breaching the government network by using foreign routers/switches/bridges/servers, etc. to create ‘backdoor’ links/aperatures to non-government-of-guam entities without proper authorization. The government and educational DP managers consortium pledges not to compete with the commercial sector and not have business commercial traffic and commercial web/email advertisements run on the government and educational networks.

  • All public/private govt-education-nonprofit entities sharing the 64,000 node Class B 168.123.XXX.XXX address assignment acknowledge that their subnets must be physically contiguous to the collective 168.123.XXX.XXX wide area network. Since the whole network of schools, agencies and noncommercial entities sharing the class B might be affected, it is not permitted that any of the 168.123.XXX.XXX subnets be fragmented away from the contiguous network. It is not permitted that any subnet be absorbed by, tunneled through via other private virtual networks (PVN) or by unapproved non-governmental networks. Routine inspection of the subnets is encouraged and expected.

Any user found to be in violation of the aforementioned statements may be removed from the network, subjected to criminal prosecution, or have their subnet address numbers, ids or passwords be withdrawn from use.

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