Machines offering services to the outside world
In the current climate, we wish to protect the Departmental users of the Cambridge University Data Network (CUDN) as much as possible. Certain Department-wide restrictions are in place to ensure the security of the CUDN.
The Department firewall blocks all incoming traffic (i.e. connections from outside the Department to computers that are connected to the Chemistry Department network), with the exception of certain public-facing servers that the Computer Officers maintain, such as Departmental websites. Users who wish to make run servers that are accessible from outside the Department should contact the Computer Officers so we can discuss their requirements and arrange for the required access to be provided in a manner that does not risk compromising the security of the Department network.
Recommendations regarding insecure/unencrypted protocols
The use of telnet is ordinarily unneccessary and not recommended (with possible exceptions such as connecting to legacy Departmental devices where all network traffic remains within the Department). Users should instead use ssh
Similiarly, unecrypted ftp should not be used. Users wishing to transfer files between computers should instead use utilities such as sftp (secure ftp) or scp (secure copy), depending upon their requirements.
