1. E-mail Defense System (EDS)

2. The problem today 15,000,000 virus-infected e-mail messages and millions of junk e-mail messages go across the NU Network each year; both are on the rise. University constituents and NUIT are very concerned about the increase of junk mail and viruses, and the effect on productivity. Webmail and 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. –www.it.northwestern.edu/security/spam 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. Dec. 2004-Sept. 2005: Completed 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 and deletes most infected messages and attachments, preventing them from reaching the desktop. Automatically downloads the latest enterprise level virus definitions (versus previous home-grown system). As NUIT has previously announced, EDS has been filtering viruses since May 2005 and uses the most recent virus definitions available.

5. What are the benefits? Productivity increases (less time spent going through unsolicited 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? Quarantine EDS

7. What’s a “quarantine”? Separate location on the network holds blocked unsolicited messages. –To minimize ISP blocking, not available for alumni. Blocked messages held in quarantine 7 days before deletion. –Can extend for up to 120 days. Managed through daily quarantine digest or Web site.

8. How it works October 3, 2005: EDS scanning will begin.

9. How it works

10. What can I do to manage my messages? From the daily quarantine digest: Review junk e-mail messages. Retrieve messages from quarantine. From the Web page: Opt out and in. Retrieve messages from quarantine (for those who use WebMail, are traveling, or want to change EDS options). Turn daily digest delivery off and on. Add or delete blocked or approved senders. Extend quarantine in special cases or when away from e-mail for longer periods of time.

11. Things to be aware of Web site is a slower option for managing quarantined messages; use daily digest instead. Listserv messages are not scanned. –www.it.northwestern.edu/listserv/ System not 100% foolproof; there may be false positives and false negatives. Some client-side filtering still required. –www.it.northwestern.edu/security/spam You can always opt out!!

12. E-mail Digest Demo E-mail Defense System Demo www.northwestern.edu/eds EDS Web site www.it.northwestern.edu/security/eds * Please review this site before October 3! *

13. Questions? Contact: NUIT Support Center 847-491-HELP (4357) or consultant@northwestern.edu