Implementation of Utility to Reduce Spam in Your Email Inbox

On Monday, Sept. 19, 2005 a new system will be activated for Notre Dame email, which will help detect and quarantine many of the messages that appear to be Spam (unsolicited email), and prevent them from reaching your email inbox.

The system will automatically analyze all email from outside sources, and based on typical Spam characteristics, will assign a score that indicates how likely it is to be Spam - the higher the score the more likely it is Spam. Depending on the Spam score threshold of an individual message, some messages may be tagged and delivered, while others will be quarantined and a listing delivered daily at 6:00 AM in an email message entitled "Spam Quarantine Summary".

You will be able to view these quarantined messages and decide whether to have each email delivered to your inbox, whitelisted (and delivered) so that the sender's messages will no longer be considered spam, or delete the message from your quarantine. To ensure that legitimate email is received, it is important that you review the quarantine summary to identify any that you want to receive. Note: If no action is taken, quarantined messages will automatically be deleted after 30 days.

All central Notre Dame email accounts will be activated with the default settings that a pilot group of users have identified as providing the optimal protection against most unwanted email, while minimizing the amount of legitimate email that is accidentally quarantined or tagged as Spam. However, you have the ability to customize the settings to meet your specific needs, and if desired, can opt out of this service so that all email will be delivered to your inbox without tagging or delay.

We believe you will find this new service very helpful in reducing the amount of junk email that you receive. Additional information and documentation for customizing your settings is available at http://oit.nd.edu/email/stopspam.shtml. For further assistance, contact your departmental IT support or the OIT Help Desk (574-631-8111).

To learn more about this new service, you can also register and attend one of our workshops; "IT Security: Email Options & Security". You can register online by visiting http://ilearn.nd.edu.