1. E-mail Defense System (a.k.a. Junk mail & Virus Filtering at the Server level)

2. The problem today 15 million virus messages go across NU’s network annually. University constituents & NUIT are very concerned about the increase of junk mail & viruses, & the effect on productivity. Webmail & handheld devices cannot benefit from desktop e-mail client junk mail filtering tools.

3. What has NU been doing about this? Information about client side filtering has been made available on the NUIT web site. Conversations with NU Legal have been in process to ensure that server level filtering does not violate the pursuit of academic freedom. NUIT has been monitoring the marketplace. It wasn’t until recently that a clear leader emerged at a price point that is acceptable to the University. NUIT has conferred with peer institutions to learn from their experience. Trial, purchase and deployment of Sophos PureMessage (a.k.a. NU’s E-mail Defense System) on our central e-mail servers.

4. How will this help with viruses? Stops an infected embedded message from getting to the desktop. Automatically downloads the latest enterprise level virus definitions (versus current home grown system).

5. What are the benefits? Productivity increases (less time spent going through junk e-mail). Webmail becomes a more useful tool. Less chance of a user hitting the 50MB quota on the e-mail server. Increased network security.

6. How does it work?

7. EDS Deployment plan Virus filtering started May 2005. Phase 1: Further refine system set up parameters with input from “key early adopters” (July 2005) –Three groups: Faculty/Staff/Graduate students: 48%-100% probability quarantined. Undergraduates: 48%-94% probability quarantined, 95%+ rejected. Alumni: 50%+ probability rejected, no quarantine. –Quarantine kept 7 days (can increase to 120 days). –Digest of junk sent to users overnight. –Individual “approved” and “unapproved” lists. –Users may need to continue to use client side junk mail filters.

8. EDS Deployment plan Phase 2: Expand early adopters list to include technical support staff throughout the University. (August 2005) Implement campus wide education plan (including how to easily opt out of the service and how to use client side filters with server side filters). October 3 rd, 2005 “full launch”.

9. E-mail Defense System Demo http://www.northwestern.edu/eds

10. Questions? Wendy Woodward Director, Technology Support Services wwk@northwestern.edu