Hello Cadets (UK and NZ)
As you are aware, we introduced the Zenbu internet system on June 1 – this was introduced to curb the excessive internet use for non-training and communications home by cadets in CTC accommodation. Most of you realise that NZ is limited in internet usage and does not have an option by any IT provider for unlimited usage. The new government has recently awarded contracts to Australia to improve the availability and speed in NZ, and this investment will take a few years.
We provide the internet for training reasons, in particular, Tracker, Weather Info, accessing Air Law, NOTAMS and the Schedule and recognise the need for contact with home.
Last week Zenbu started to have faults at Clearways and Peachgrove, this continued for 4 days with our IT Company initially unable to pinpoint the problem.
It has now been determined that the faults have been caused by cadets ‘hacking’ into Zenbu or trying to bypass it for free internet. The Peachgrove IT cupboard had been forced open, our system reset and our timer removed. This abuse of CTC property is totally unacceptable as is the hacking into any IT system in use at CTC.
Out of respect of cadets needs for contact home and study – we changed from Zenbu back to ordinary free internet, until problems were resolved on the Zenbu system.
Using recently introduced monitoring tools we can see that within 1 hour of switching back to the free internet, some cadets were downloading at extreme rates and we were able to pinpoint these cadets as well as what sites they were downloading from. One cadet downloaded 4.2GB in less than 10 hours (extrapolate that out to a month and it is 120GB for a month for that cadet). Downloads were from sites clearly not approved at CTC.
All of the above behaviour from cadets is totally unacceptable – our records show it is mostly 20% of cadets using 80% of the internet bandwidth. CTC showed respect to cadets by quickly switching you to free internet whilst problems with Zenbu (caused by cadet interference) were resolved. CTC expects the same respect from cadets, and that the policy you all signed on arrival is observed.
From today, any cadet found downloading to the extreme and accessing sites that are prohibited by CTC policy (decided solely at CTC's discretion) will be instantly disconnected from the internet and immediately suspended from training under grounds of “gross misconduct” and will attend a DHoW review to assess suitability to continue on the programme.
Any cadet identified as having hacked into the CTC IT system or tried to circumvent Zenbu or any other monitoring system put in place will immediately be suspended from training under grounds of “gross misconduct” and will attend a DHoW review to assess suitability to continue on the programme.
Cadets are reminded that anyone terminated from the programme on the grounds of gross misconduct WILL NOT receive any failure protection.
Do not under estimate how seriously CTC is taking this issue – if, as an employee in almost any business, including an airline, you were caught downloading pornography or hacking into an IT system you could expect instant dismissal and likely face criminal charges – your training here should be considered to be the same sort of environment.
This problem can be controlled by the sensible and professional 80% of you not tolerating what the other 20% are doing – help us control or eliminate these people from our training organisation – the consequences for you all will only become more severe if the individuals causing these issues are not curbed.
Please read this and absorb the contents well – our patience on this issue is at an end.
Regards
A mate of mine sent me this. Initially, I thought it was a joke, but apparently this was genuinely sent out by a CTC director. Presumably, all those cadets out there who happen to say something CTC find distasteful, so defined "solely at CTC's discretion" will also be sent to the gulag or to toil in the salt mines.
Absolutely bloody farcical.