RE: Public-Access Computer Security

["John Chambers" <jchambers@xxxxxxxxxx>]

We use a 3 prong approach to computer security for the public computers.

1. Windows user rights and group policies. The computer run Windows 2000 Professional. 

2. We use a program called Winselect to do some menu blocking

3. We use a program called Deepfreeze, which will erase any changes made when the machine is rebooted.

Hope this helps.

John Chambers, MCP
Help Desk Supervisor
Information Technology Department
Arlington Heights Memorial Library
jchambers@xxxxxxxxxx
847-506-2666

>>> EJones@xxxxxxxxxx 03/18/03 05:48PM >>>
Hi Janet,
We let people download to floppies (theirs or ours).  Having said that,
customers do manage to download programmes to the hard drive on occassion.
Sometimes, they cannot install them.  We deal with this on a case-by-case
basis.  We run virus scan software every evening and we have found very few
viruses on the machines.  We use Windows 2000 Group Policy setting to try to
keep the machines "safe" but they don't always work as we think they should.
The customers feel that the machines are theirs and should be able to do
anything they like with them.  They don't seem to realize that sometimes
their actions affect the next user.  Offering machines to the public does
involve upkeep/maintenance.  If your network people find they can completely
tie down a machine, I'd love to hear how they do it.  I have chosen to err on
the side of leniency but we have less than 20 microcomputers.  The more
machines you have, the more maintenance time is needed.

Ellen

Ellen Jones
Manager, Systems, Waterloo Public Library,
35 Albert St., Waterloo, ON N2L 5E2
phone: 519-886-1310 x32
fax: 519-886-7936
e-mail: ejones@xxxxxxxxxx 


-----Original Message-----
From: Janet Fine [mailto:greatpl@xxxxxxxxxx] 
Sent: March 18, 2003 3:29 PM
To: innopac@xxxxxxxxxx 
Cc: janetrfine@xxxxxxxxxx 
Subject: Public-Access Computer Security


3/18/03
Hi Everyone,
This is slightly off-topic as it involves public access to the internet, but
I hope someone an help.  We are trying to devise a public-access computer
security policy.  Problems arise when we try to balance network security with
the public's desire to have complete access to the internet and the ability
to download every file they see.  Due to an onslaught of viruses and the
incredible amount of time debugging a computer entails, our network
administrator has been increasing security on the pcs, therby limiting, to a
certain degree, the ability of our patrons to download certain files. We
would greatly appreciate hearing from anyone who has already walked this
tightrope, and has come up with a security policy for public access pcs.
Thanks in advance.
Janet Fine
Great Neck Library
159 Bayview Avenue
Great Neck, NY 11023

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