Horses and Barn Doors: Evolution of Corporate Guidelines for Internet Usage

Intel's Internet usage policy evolved from practically non-existant to explicitly defined—all in reaction to changing conditions and security threats. This paper covers the evolution of Intel Internet access policy, a continual struggle to close the barn doors before the horses get out. Throughout the paper, we outline key lessons we have learned during the policy-making process. It discusses Intel's first taste of the Internet, Intel's policy-making process, the open access policy of that period, and the resulting security challenges. It then covers the imposition of a stricter policy and implementing a firewall to enforce that policy. The paper proceeds to describe today's problems, the majority of which center around Intel people accessing the Internet. In response to this problem and growing numbers of people wanting to use the Internet, Intel has drawn up explicit corporate guidelines on Internet use. These guidelines are then compared to various Acceptable Use Policies and Netiquette guides. The paper concludes with some additional tasks Intel is planning in order to keep the barn doors closed.