Email Defense System EDS The problem today 15

E-mail Defense System (EDS)

The problem today • 15, 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.

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 Pure. Message (a. k. a. NU’s E-mail Defense System) on our central e-mail servers.

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.

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

How does it work? Quarantine EDS

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.

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

How it works

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 Web. Mail, 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.

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!!

• 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! *

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