NEWS
Friday, September 26, 2003
ITCS has implemented virus filtering for U-M email addresses:"U-M FILTERING INCOMING MAIL FOR VIRUSES
This weekend, ITCS will implement virus filtering on incoming e-mail. This affects all mail coming in to U-M that passes through the ITCS e-mail gateway servers (either because it is addressed to a person or group whose e-mail address ends in "@umich.edu" or because it is redirected through the e-mail gateway by unit e-mail servers).
Incoming messages that are smaller than 1 Kilobyte (KB) (and therefore unlikely to contain an attachment), are sent on for delivery. Incoming messages that are larger than 1 KB are scanned for viruses. The automated scanning software, VirusScan for Unix from Network Associates, checks against a list of virus definitions.
If no infection is found, the mail is sent on for delivery. If, however, a virus is detected, one of two things will happen: if the
message was sent by a virus, it will be deleted or, if the message was not virus-generated, it will be returned to the sender. (See "E-Mail Filtering at U-M" on the web at
detail.)
"I'm thrilled that we are now able to offer virus filtering to the U-M community," said Liz Sweet, director of the User Advocate Office and Virus Busters. "Prevention is a far better strategy than dealing with infected mail and computers. Also, this will save people the annoyance of having to delete all those virus-generated messages we've all been getting so many of lately."
She stressed that people still need to have antivirus software installed on their own computers and to keep it up-to-date. "Viruses spread through other means than e-mail," she explained, "and not all incoming mail goes through the ITCS mail gateway." Mail sent to you using your full machine e-mail address (for example, bjensen@b.imap.itd.umich.edu), does not go through the gateway."
Posted by Rob at 2:52 PM
