December 9, 1994
Forward
The ability of Texas A&M University to deliver services to the faculty, staff, students, and citizens of the State of Texas has grown enormously through the use of computers. Texas A&M University has significant investments in Information Resources. While the value of equipment such as computer hardware is easily appreciated, we must not overlook the larger investment in less tangible information assets - such as data, software, and automated processes.
Information Resources are vital assets which require protection. Data, whether stored in central computers accessible through remote terminals, processed locally on microcomputers, or generated by word processing systems, are vulnerable to a variety of threats and must be afforded adequate safeguards.
Texas A&M University faculty, staff, and students need to be aware of the value of these resources and the means of protecting them. User awareness through education is the first line of defense in maintaining confidentiality, reliability, availability, and integrity of Texas A&M University Information Resources.
The Texas A&M University Computer Security Policy was developed to assist in the education of faculty, staff, and students in the need for and means of protecting Texas A&M University Information Resources. This document defines the security and data ownership responsibilities of the mission critical computing resources which are maintained and operated by Texas A&M University Computing and Information Services. This document should be useful in ongoing departmental security programs for security awareness and training.