UAB typically receives at least one million incoming messages per day, of which approximately 90 percent is spam. Spam impacts the institution both in time and money, as all of these unwanted emails are delivered and stored in our systems. In 2004, SpamAssassin was introduced to lessen the impact of spam on campus; however, the threat from spam continues to evolve over time.
On March 21, UAB IT implemented a new and improved spam blocking service. Users of UAB's Central Exchange, as well as all users who have an @uab.edu email address, will now experience enhanced features of this new "Spamblocker" service. Pilot groups of this service have experienced a high 99.6 percent effectiveness for blocking spam.
With the new service, all Central Exchange users and @uab.edu email addresses, are by default enrolled in the program. Here are a few things users should know:
- The new service provides a spam quarantine for each user. Messages marked as "Adult Spam" are automatically deleted before they reach the user. Messages that are marked as "Definite Spam" and "Possible Spam" are sent to the user's quarantine.
- Each day users receive a digest email displaying all messages placed in quarantine in the last day; it appears in their inbox from the address'spamblocker@uab.edu'.
- Quarantined messages are deleted after 7 days.
- From the digest email, users can view the sender and subject of each message. Additionally, they can log into their account to manage their individual settings, such as lists, profiles and quarantine.
- Lists allow the user to notify the spam blocking service of which addresses are safe by adding to the Safe Senders list, or which address are unsafe by adding to the Blocked Senders list.
- Users can modify their Profile to select which Spamblocker policy is right for them, or opt out if they are concerned about losing legitimate messages.
- The previous service, SpamAssassin, has been replaced with the Spamblocker service. Users should find that any spam that was being forwarded to junk mail folders, due to Spamtagging (X-Spam-Level: *****) in their email box should now be in their new quarantine, if not automatically deleted.
For more information on UAB's new spam blocking service, visit the UAB IT website - http://main.uab.edu/Sites/it/faqs/57094/. Any questions and concerns should be directed to the help desk, AskIT, by email at AskIT@uab.edu or by phone at 205-996-5555.