Dealing with SPAM/UBE

For users of the central mail services (mail.staff/truck/clyde), mail from given addresses can be blocked using the http://webmail.unimelb.edu.au/ web interface to email management.

To block email from a given address:

Detailed documentation is available at (see Managing your account) http://www.its.unimelb.edu.au/InfoSheets/185/185.pdf

Technical support can assist if needed.

Overview of issues:

There are some subscription services available which use a technique called black-hole routing to stop mail from listed spammer sites. Unfortunately these services have a moderate to high rate of false-positives (that is, they record certain sites as spam sites when in fact they are legitimate) and have been involved in legal challenges. At one stage CSIRO (who at that time were subscribed to such a service, was unable to send email to the University (since the whole University had been erroneously listed due to a single server in a department). In practice these services can be problematic and are not currently recommended.

As an alternative, where a given site sends very many messages of this type we sometimes will manually block all access at the border router. As the procedure is resource intensive this decision is usually taken when the content is particularity offensive (child pornography etc) or the quantity great. Of course blocking all mail from, for example, hotmail (a common source of spam) has serious consequences for legitimate users.

Created:        22 August 2001  Last modified:  22 August 2001 Authorised by:  Systems Manager, Systems and IT Infrastructure.