University Email Protection

The University of Adelaide has adopted a new system to protect University staff, students and affiliates from the threats present in Email. The threats this protection users from include, computer viruses, nuisance email (Spam) and malicous fraudulent email (Phishing).

Frequently Asked Questions

General

• Which domains are protected by the new protection system?
• What new features are available for sending email?
• Why is ITS updating its email services?
• What changes will these updates mean for me?
• I am conducting research which requires my mail to remain unfiltered by ITS
  for either viruses and/or spam, can a special consideration be made?
• I am having trouble sending/receiving email, I think it is being filtered as nuisance email, what should i do?

Virus Protection

• How will virus protection be offered?

Phishing

• What is phishing and how can I protect myself?

Spam Filtering

• What is changing on the Spam setup page found in Webmail?
• What happens to messages once they are processed through the University Email Filter?
• What happens to suspect email once it arrives in my Spam folder?
• How do i check the contents of the spam folder?
• What should I do if I find a message which has been incorrectly classified?

Further Questions/Comments

If you have any further questions or comments please use the provided Feedback Form

General Answers

Which domains are protected by the new protection system?

Protected under the new system:

acue.adelaide.edu.au
adelaide.edu.au
agsei.edu.au
arts.adelaide.edu.au
asap.adelaide.edu.au
ausgraintech.com
auu.adelaide.edu.au
awri.com.au
biochem.adelaide.edu.au
biochemistry.adelaide.edu.au
botany.adelaide.edu.au
bradford.adelaide.edu.au
cardcentre.adelaide.edu.au
cemma.adelaide.edu.au
chemistry.adelaide.edu.au
commerce.adelaide.edu.au
ctin.adelaide.edu.au
dentistry.adelaide.edu.au
dvca.adelaide.edu.au
economics.adelaide.edu.au
envbiology.adelaide.edu.au
genetics.adelaide.edu.au
health.adelaide.edu.au
information-technology.adelaide.edu.au
it.adelaide.edu.au
itd.adelaide.edu.au
its.adelaide.edu.au
law.adelaide.edu.au
luminis.adelaide.edu.au

mad.adelaide.edu.au
maths.adelaide.edu.au
medicine.adelaide.edu.au
microb.adelaide.edu.au
microbiology.adelaide.edu.au
mis-fs.adelaide.edu.au
molecularplantbreeding.com.au
nationalwinecentre.com.au
oce.adelaide.edu.au
physiol.adelaide.edu.au
physiology.adelaide.edu.au
porkcrc.com.au
registry.adelaide.edu.au
science.adelaide.edu.au
science-marketing.com
science-marketing.de
staff.adelaide.edu.au
student.adelaide.edu.au
trc.adelaide.edu.au
unimis.adelaide.edu.au
unimis.registry.adelaide.edu.au
usc.adelaide.edu.au
vc.adelaide.edu.au
vco.adelaide.edu.au
waite.adelaide.edu.au
wy.adelaide.edu.au
zoology.adelaide.edu.au

What new features are available for sending email?

The main new feature is the ability to send email using an authenticated SMTP server. The benefit of an authenticated SMTP server is that you can send email using that server from anywhere on the Internet. Previously, you could only use the University outgoing mail server from the University network (Campus LAN, VPN, dialup, wireless) and would need to use an alternate outgoing SMTP server when not using the University network (Home ADSL, Internet Cafe).

To make use of authenticated SMTP so you can send email from anywhere on the Internet. Use the instructions provided below:

Instructions for Netscape Messenger 4.78 (Installed on Staff Computers) [Word Document | PDF]

Instructions for Outlook Express 6 [Word Document | PDF]

Instructions for Office Outlook 2003 [Word Document | PDF]

Instructions for Thunderbird 1.07 [Word Document | PDF]

Why is ITS updating its email protection service?

In a recent survey of users within ITS managed services, filtering of malicious and nuisance email was identified to be the highest priority service which required improvement. Furthermore, the rate of malicious emails, such as fraudulent emails falsely claiming to be sent from an organisation such as a bank, is increasing at a very fast rate and causing the financial details of University staff to become compromised.

For this, as well as a number of other reasons, ITS undertook a project starting in late 2005 to provide an improved mail protection system, which is expected to have the capability of filtering malicious and nuisance email with world-leading accuracy.

What changes will these updates mean for me?

The most significant change will be that all users will now have mail checked for malicious and nuisance email, this is no longer optional. Previously, most email was mandatorily checked for some types of malicious email such as viruses but not for other threats such as fraudulent emails or nuisance emails. This will not be optional for two main reasons.

The first is that the mail filtering technology available to the University has improved to the point where we can guarantee that mandatory filtering of all email will not have a significant impact on University business or research. Previously, filtering would sometimes incorrectly classify a legitimate email as Spam, so filtering was offered as an optional service.

Secondly, in the past the only types of messages which posed a serious risk to University data, staff, students or affiliates were computer viruses. This has changed. Now, fraudulent emails aimed at gathering confidential information such as personal financial details are a major threat. This means the University must be protected against all such threats. This protection can only be obtained by checking all messages entering or leaving the University.

The main changes from the users perspective will be:

I am conducting research which requires my mail to remain unfiltered by ITS for either viruses and/or spam, can a special consideration be made?

Yes. If the filters in place are expected to have an impact on any research activity conducted by the University, special exclusions can be put in place. Exclusion requests must be provided in writting to the ITS Information Security group via email. The request must include details of significant University requirements and an appropriate reason, why email to this address, must be left unfiltered.

Exclusions will not be put in place for users, without such reasons.

I am having trouble sending/receiving email, I think it is being filtered as nuisance email, what should i do?

If you are having trouble sending or receiving email you should complete the Email Support Form. This will allow the ITS Helpdesk to resolve the issue as soon as possible. If you are having any other problems with your email, which you believe is not related to the filtering system, please contact the helpdesk directly on 83033000.

Virus Protection Answers

How will virus protection be offered?

Email viruses will be filtered in a similiar way as they were with the previous technology used by the University, this means any email containing viruses will be silently dropped. A change occurring within the new system will mean that if a message is unable to be scanned, eg because the message contains a password protected .zip file, the subject of the email will be altered to inform you that the message could not be properly checked for viruses. In cases such as this, the user should take extra caution opening attachments, even if the email comes from a recognised email address.

Spam Filtering Answers

What is changing on the Spam setup page found in Webmail?

Webmail's "Spam Filtering" configuration page indicates that Spam filtering is optional and supports user thresholds, it also has a section to list Banned and Allowed addresses. Some of these settings only affect users of the previous system and were developed for use with SpamAssassin (previous system). Neither opt-in spam filtering or user based thresholds will be supported in the new system, so neither of these settings will have an effect once you have been migrated onto the new mail protection system. Users who have not been migrated onto the new mail protection system will continue to have the option of filtering email, until they are migrated. This FAQ has the most current list of all domains which have been migrated onto the new system, this is located here.

The Banned and Allowed addresses list however, will continue to be active with both systems.

Once all users have been migrated onto the new system, the Webmail control page will be updated to allow only approriate changes.

What happens to messages once they are processed through the University Email Filter?

When a message is filtered, any number of actions may occur, depending on how the message is classified.

A message classified as Spam, with a very high degree of classification certainty, will be dropped. Messages are only dropped when the filter is very sure the message is not legitimate.

A message suspected of being Spam will either:

How do i check the contents of the Spam folder?

What happens to suspect email once it arrives in my Spam folder?

Messages in the Spam folder are removed 30 days after they are received. During this time you should remember to check your Spam folder to ensure no legitimate messages have been falsely classified as Spam.

What should I do if I find a message which has been incorrectly classified?

Important note regarding the submission of falsely classified email. All email you report as falsely classified must be submitted as a specific type of attachment (Instructions). Each submission should be sent in an individual email, the submission system will not accept multiple attachments in a single email.

A top priority for ITS is to ensure the email filtering is as effective as possible at classifying mail correctly, either as good or bad email. If it gets classified wrong, ITS wants to know about it! Reporting falsely classified email is as simple as forwarding the whole email without any further comment to either:

Good - For email which you found in your Spam folder but in fact was legitimate email.

Bad - For email which you had delivered into your inbox as OK mail but in fact it was a malicious or nuisance email. Messages which you received due to previously subscribing to a mailing list but have become undesirable should not be reported as bad. Instead, contact the ITS helpdesk for assistance in removing yourself from the mailing list.