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More Secure E-mail

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UCI’s outgoing e-mail server, smtp.uci.edu, has been configured to implement the TLS and SMTP AUTH options. (For the rest of this article, “server” and “outgoing e-mail server” refer to smtp.uci.edu).

This protects UCI from certain types of attacks. The TLS feature provides a secure, encrypted SMTP session between the your e-mail program and UCI’s outgoing e-mail server. The SMTP AUTH feature identifies you to the server, allowing only authorized UCI users to send e-mail.

Users in Residential Housing are now required to use secure SMTP. Others who choose to send e-mail using UCI’s outgoing e-mail server now have the option of doing so securely.

If your e-mail client software is already configured to use authenticated SMTP, you may be asked for a password when sending e-mail. Your usual UCInetID password will work.

More information on configuring your e-mail program to take advantage of these new features can be found at:

http://www.nacs.uci.edu/email/authsmtp.html

Please direct your questions, and report any problems, to the NACS Response Center at nacs@uci.edu or (949) 824-2222.

Beware E-mail Fraud

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NACS continues to work hard to identify unwelcome, unsolicited commercial e-mail. No filtering technique is 100% effective, however, and it is therefore worthwhile to highlight a common threat that a seemingly legitimate message may pose.

One of the most disturbing trends in online crime today is known as “phishing” — fraudulent messages that appear to be from legitimate vendors but are actually well-disguised attempts to steal your passwords, account numbers, social security numbers, and other private information. Frequently, such messages appear to be from well-known companies such as eBay, Citibank, Amazon, and the like.

Often the sender will ask you to log into the company’s web site via a link provided in the body of the message to “confirm” your password or credit card information. These links actually direct your browser to the sender’s web site — well disguised as that of the legitimate vendor — which captures your private information as you type it.

If you are uncertain about a particular message, you may wish to contact the vendor in question by calling them, or going directly to their web site without using any links provided in the body of the message in question. Of course, you can also always contact NACS at nacs@uci.edu or (949) 824-2222 and we’ll help you figure it out.

Protecting UCI from Spam

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Unsolicited, unwelcome, and sometimes offensive commercial email — “spam” — continues to plague the world’s electronic mail users. Here at UCI, NACS began regularly filtering inbound electronic mail nearly two years ago in an effort to catch and label spam, rendering it easily identifiable by end users. NACS runs the SpamAssassin software on the campus electronic mail gateways (also known as Mail Transfer Agents, or MTAs), as well as on the Enterprise Services servers often referred to as “ea” and “e4e”.

SpamAssassin uses a variety of techniques to determine if a message is spam, and if it is, the software adds “headers” to the message labeling it as such. Most electronic mail programs, such as Eudora, Outlook, and Netscape, are capable of reading and processing these special headers. You must configure your mail software to take advantage of this feature.

NACS remains dedicated to reducing the amount of spam received by our users, and we continue to research new ideas and techniques for doing so.

If you are uncertain as to whether or not your electronic mail program can be configured to make use of the SpamAssassin headers, contact your local computing support coordinator or the NACS Response Center.

More information about the NACS spam tagging service can be found on the web at http://www.nacs.uci.edu/email/spam/index.html, including how to configure Eudora, Netscape, Outlook XP, Mail for MacOS X, Microsoft Entourage X, and Procmail to filter-out spam which has been identified the the service.

Expanded Mail Filtering

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Continuing our efforts to keep the UCI campus network a safe and productive environment, NACS has extended its virus blocking and spam labeling (“tagging”) services. Originally limited to the primary campus mail servers (which process email addressed to users “@uci.edu”), these services are now in operation on our central email systems: EA, E4E, pop.uci.edu, imap.uci.edu, and smtp.uci.edu. This means that messages sent directly to users on these machines (bypassing “@uci.edu”) now enjoy these protective measures.

Messages delivered to you that have been identified by the new services as spam will include the following headers:

X-NACS_ES-MailScanner-SpamCheck:
X-NACS_ES-MailScanner-SpamScore:

You must make a change to your email software’s configuration to detect the new headers and take advantage of the additional mail filtering. Please see the online documentation at http://www.nacs.uci.edu/email/header_filters.html for more information. Check back there periodically, because the information on that site will be refined as we gain experience and as we receive your feedback. Please let us know how these new services are working for you.

Email Server Upgrades

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Email continues to be one of the most important technology tools at UCI. At the same time, email abuse in the form of spam and viruses can transform the simple act of browsing your mailbox into an annoying and frustrating exercise. In response to this growing problem, NACS has broadened its existing spam labeling and virus blocking program to cover more ways email reaches campus users.

In addition, we have recently upgraded the systems dedicated to processing email at UCI. Our POP servers now benefit from additional hardware, as well as software upgrades developed within NACS that have measurably improved performance under peak loads. Similarly, we’ve upgraded our IMAP servers and are working on software changes in those systems as well.

NACS expects that these changes will result in visible improvements in performance and end user experience. We would be happy to hear what you think.