General advice for dealing with Unsolicited and Unwanted E-mail

This page contains some advice about dealing with unwelcome and unwanted e-mail. It is intended as additional information for all end users. Please seek further advice or explanation from your departmental or faculty Local Information Technology Experts (LITEs). The following topics are covered:

Types of Unwanted E-mail
- Spam
- Worms

Spam
- How do you get Spam?
- How can Spam be avoided - Some Tips
- Dealing with Spam that arrives in your inbox

E-mail filters

Viruses and worms
- Defend yourself against viruses and worms. What to do when you receive a virus or worm.

Issues of a more serious nature
- Pornography and other offensive and/or abusive material

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Types of Unwanted E-mail: Spam and worms

Spam
Unwanted or unsolicited e-mail is often referred to as Spam mail: unsolicited e-mail, usually of a commercial nature, usually sent indiscriminately to very large numbers of addresses. Spam mail is a common and annoying problem affecting all e-mail users.

A spam filtering systemhas been implemented on the central staff email server. This system will rank messages with a likelihood of the message being spam, for users to set a threshold for filtering spam. More information is available at:
http://www.infodiv.unimelb.edu.au/systems/spam/

Worm
Another class of unwelcome e-mail is the “worm” - often associated with viruses. When the virus is self replicating over networks, uses memory and does not attach itself to other programs it is often called a "worm". Worms take advantage of security vulnerabilities in some computer systems (and particularly e-mail programs) to send themselves to all or some of the addresses stored in a person’s e-mail address book, contact list or similar. Upon arrival at those addresses, worms try to repeat the exploit, not necessarily immediately. A person who sends you a worm may be completely unaware that they have done so.

Spam

How do you get Spam?
Anyone with their e-mail address on a web page, or who gives their e-mail address to any site but the most reputable of online services, will probably attract Spam sooner or later. You can get on to Spam lists by using your e-mail to subscribe to a service on an insecure site, or on any site which does not give a trustworthy promise about how your e-mail address will and won’t be used. You can get on Spam lists by using your personal e-mail address in prominent places on web pages such as the “Maintained by” contact. Once you are on a Spam list, your e-mail address may well circulate to other organizations who will abuse that information.

How can Spam be avoided? - Some Tips
Avoid using your primary e-mail address for accessing services on line from any sites that do not give assurances that you trust about how they will use your e-mail address. If you must use an online service which requires an e-mail address, but do not wish to provide your primary e-mail address, obtain a free temporary e-mail account that can be discarded - there are plenty of free e-mail account services on the internet. Registering on line also has other security issues ensure you read the IT security simple steps before registering on line.

Use aliases for common web page e-mail contacts: use department-info@unimelb.edu.au or department-webmaster@unimelb.edu.au, rather than your personal e-mail address. For details on functional aliases go to:
About Functional Aliases

Dealing with Spam that arrives in your e-mail in box
The steps above will reduce but not eliminate the chances of receiving Spam. Following them will reduce the amount of Spam you receive, but you will probably still get some. Once you do receive spam there are some additional things you can do to reduce the impact that spam mail will have on your work:

1. Never reply to Spam - a reply only confirms for them that they have a real e-mail address

2. Remove yourself from the mailing list if possible: If you receive unwelcome e-mail from a reputable organization - perhaps one that you have in the past allowed to send you such e-mail - follow the "unsubscribe" information that has been provided. Be aware that this procedure will confirm your e-mail account is active to the organization and could result in other unwanted e-mail.

3. Use e-mail filters to minimise the impact of Spam E-mail Filters
Eudora, and other e-mail programs such as Outlook, can be set-up to filter unwanted e-mails, on the basis of the From: address or other characteristics. Eudora will send the unwanted e-mails directly to your trash folder. The trash can be automatically emptied when the program is shut down. For instructions on setting up Eudora filters, see:

Eudora Filters for Mac

Eudora Filters for PC

Please ask your Local IT Expert to assist in this if you are having any problems.
Assuming that you are using the central University e-mail service, it is also possible to filter mail at the server, so that mail from particular addresses never gets as far as your computer. If you are using the University’s WebMail service, you can use this option to filter issues of a more serious nature. Instructions can be found at:

Dealing with SPAM/UBE

Viruses and Worms

Defend yourself against viruses and worms
There are software products known as Anti-virus packages, which defend against computer viruses and worms. The University has site licensed anti-virus packages for Windows and Macintosh:

Anti-Virus Packages

New viruses and worms are created all the time and can be malicious or accidental in nature. Anti-virus software uses a range of techniques, including identifying the “signatures” of known viruses and isolating viruses. It is important that all computers operate such software, that users not disable the software nor re-configure any settings unless instructed by appropriate support - this is essential to combat the virus propagation. Please ask your Local IT Expert to assist in this.

Probably all operating systems and e-mail programs have vulnerabilities to viruses. Some e-mail programs attract more attention than others from people who write viruses and worms. The University’s recommended e-mail program for Windows and Macintosh is Eudora, which has been subject to relatively few attacks to date.

What to do if you receive a virus or worm
1. Report the matter to your LITE

2. Utilise your anti-virus software to clean your computer if possible
3. Check the Virus Information Library for information on the virus and removal instructions

McAfee Virus Library

Issues of a More Serious Manner
Pornography and other offensive and/or abusive material
Sometimes there are more serious and personal assaults on individuals via e-mail, such as sending them child pornography or having their name linked via meta tags to web sites. Complaints against websites should be directed to the website concerned, and if the people there are unresponsive, the complaint should be escalated to the website host. For assistance in identifying website hosts, contact the Information Division by e-mail to:

IT-abuse@unimelb.edu.au

If you receive illegal content such as child pornography, it is a criminal matter and police will need to be contacted; the University will co-operate in the investigation. Escalate such issues to your supervisor and subsequently the Head of Department.

Prepared by staff in the Information Division and Compliance Office

This version dated 9 May, 2002.
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