Remote Access to Web-Enabled Services

Many Harvard applications use web-based interfaces. Harvard employees with legitimate reasons may access such applications remotely using a web browser. Application owners are responsible for determining who can access their applications and under what conditions. Employees are also responsible for properly protecting any information they access. The employee can use their own computer or, if they have a Harvard owned computer, from that computer.

The employee is responsible to ensure that no other users of the computer can access the Harvard application unless the other users are approved for such access and responsible to ensure that all files (temporary of otherwise) are removed from the computer when the employee is finished each session of interaction.

The employee is responsible for providing Internet connectivity. The type of connectivity recommended depends on the demands of the particular application(s) the employee will be accessing but, in general, broadband connections provide the best performance. Hardware firewalls are also recommended.

Minimum Hardware and Software Recommended
Refer to CAIT supported standards.
http://www.uis.harvard.edu/support_services/standards.pdf

Support
No Harvard technical support if the computer is not Harvard owned.

Other considerations.
Employees who only need to access to Internet-accessible web-enabled applications may not need to have Virtual Private Networking (VPN) accounts. Access to some web-enabled applications has been restricted to Harvard IP address space, in these cases, employees with a legitimate need to access the applications must do so through a VPN and will need a VPN account.

The above rules also apply in the case of specific types of remote access software. Currently the only such software approved is the Citrix MetaFrame Access Suite.