Note: In the text below "SC" refers to the Texas A&M Supercomputing Facility and "Users" refers to users of any SC systems and resources.

The purpose of the following guidelines is to promote awareness of computer security issues and to ensure that the SC's computing systems are used by all users in an efficient, ethical, and lawful manner. In all cases, relevant Texas state laws and University rules and regulations supercede and override any of the following in case of conflict.

1. Users should adhere to the Texas A&M Computing Policies, paying particular attention to the Rules for Responsible Computing [PDF] and the Computer Security Policy, while using the supercomputers.
2. The interactive limit (CPU time) per login session on all systems is 20 minutes. Any violations of this limit will result in process termination. A user may only use a maximum of two processors simultaneously for interactive processing. A user is expected to lower this limit under heavy system loads. Exceptions to this policy will be considered by the staff on a per case basis.
3. All users must adhere to and comply with long and short term operational practices when logged on a system. These practices are stipulated on the SC website at http://sc.tamu.edu/policies, in the user guides for each system and, occasionally, in the system "message of the day".
4. SC accounts are to be used only for the purpose for which they are authorized and are not to be used for non-SC related activities. Unauthorized use of a SC account/system may constitute sufficient grounds for account termination and/or legal sanctions.
5. Users shall not share their account(s) with anyone. This includes sharing the password to the account, providing access via an .rhost entry or other means of sharing. It is a violation of state law to share accounts and passwords.
6. The computing systems are unclassified systems. Therefore, classified information may not be processed, entered, or stored.
7. Users are responsible for protecting any information used and/or stored on/in their accounts. Consult the User Guides for guidelines on protecting your account and information using the standard system protection mechanisms.
8. Users are required to report any weaknesses in computer security, any incidents of possible misuse or violation of this agreement to the proper authorities by contacting SC Help Desk (979-845-0219; email: help@sc.tamu.edu).
9. Users shall not attempt to access any data or programs contained on systems for which they do not have authorization or explicit consent of the owner of the data/program or the university security authorities.
10. Users must adhere to the provisions of our Data Storage policy. Please see the relevant item on the SC website at http://sc.tamu.edu/policies.
11. Users must have proper authorization to use copyrighted files. Unauthorized use of such files renders a user liable to a variety of sanctions. These include account suspension, account termination and/or appropriate legal action.
12. Users shall not make copies of system configuration files (e.g., /etc/passwd) for unauthorized personal use or to provide to other people/users for unauthorized uses.
13. Users shall not intentionally engage in activities to: harass other users; degrade the performance of systems; deprive an authorized user access to a resource; obtain extra resources, beyond those allocated; circumvent computer security measures or gain access to a system for which proper authorization has not been given; misuse batch queues or other resources in ways not authorized or intended. An example of such misuse is the submission of batch jobs that declare to be parallel (by requesting, say, 4 cpus) when, in fact, they execute several serial, 1-cpu, programs concurrently by, for example, backgrounding (&) each one.
14. Electronic communication facilities (such as E-mail ) are for authorized use only. Fraudulent, harassing, obscene or sexually explicit messages and/or materials shall not be sent from, or stored on the systems.
15. Users shall not download, install, or run security programs or utilities which reveal weaknesses in the security of a system. For example, SC users shall not run password cracking programs.
16. Inclusion of a login name different than your SC login name in your ~/.rhost file requires a written request and approval from the SC's Associate Director. If a name different than your SC login name is found in a ~/.rhost file without approval your account will be disabled.