Standard Faculty and Staff Workstation Screen-Saver Policy

Claremont McKenna College

Policy Library

Volume X:	Information Technology Services
Chapter Workstations:	Standard Faculty and Staff Workstation Screen-Saver Policy
Approved by:	Administrative Computing Committee (ACC)
History:	Issued: 10/7/1999 Updated: 10/11/1999 Revised: 10/14/08 Reformatted: 12/14/2009
Related Polices:	Backup and Recovery of User Files on Network Servers, Department Technology Budget Upgrades, Faculty Technology Budget Upgrades, Purchase of Obsolete Workstation from the College, Replacement Cycle of Workstations, Staff Upgrade Budget, Standard Staff Printer Hardware Configuration, Standard Workstation Hardware and Software Configuration
Additional References:	N/A
Responsible Official:	Office of Information Technology Services

I. Policy Statement

To establish the use and configuration of security screen savers on college workstations.

II. Entities Covered by this Policy

This policy covers all workstations purchased for faculty and staff use at Claremont McKenna College.

III. Contacts

Direct any questions about this policy to your department’s supervisor. Questions about specific issues may be addressed to:

Subject	Contact	Telephone¹
Standard Faculty and Staff Workstation Screen-Saver Policy	Chief Technology Officer	71553

¹Numbers refer to on-campus extensions. When calling from an off-campus line, please dial (909) 62+extention for numbers beginning with a “1” and please dial (909) 60+ extension for numbers beginning with a “7.”

IV. Definitions

Studies have shown that one of the most common security breaches comes from the fact that workstations, which have access to the Internet as well as sensitive data, are left unattended for long periods of time. Therefore, it is necessary to configure a password-protected screen saver on every workstation at Claremont McKenna College. In addition, it is necessary to limit the amount of idle time on a workstation before the screen saver is deployed. This will help ensure the security of College’s information and reputation as well as the privacy of all students, faculty, staff, alumni, and friends of Claremont McKenna College, One issue that arises from the implementation of this policy is the fact that if a workstation is “locked”, all unsaved data could be lost if it becomes necessary for Information Technology Services personnel to perform maintenance on that workstation. Therefore communication between the workstation operator and Information Technology Services is critical in order to avoid this problem.

V. Discussion

The standard Claremont McKenna College workstation will have a security screen saver configured as follows:

Each workstation will utilize a screen saver that is synchronized with the regular Claremont McKenna College computer account password.
The time out period (the amount of time a workstation remains idle before the security screen saver is deployed) will be limited to 30 minutes or less in accordance with standard computer security guidelines.
If maintenance is required on a workstation, and the workstation operator will not be present when Information Technology Services is scheduled to perform this maintenance, then the workstation operator must save all data, and close all applications before the arrival of Information Technology Services personnel.
Any exceptions to this policy must be approved by Information Technology Services.