Protect Yourself and Your Identity at SCSD
First, on behalf of all of us here in the Technology Department, please accept Season’s Greetings and our very best wishes for a joyous Holiday break. Last week, the Technology Department was going to share some thoughts about email, spam and the SCSD SPAM filter at the Monday morning training, but Jack Frost had other plans. Our goal is to empower every user of an SCSD email account to have the safest, most productive experience. To do so, we need to protect ourselves AND our contacts from SPAM.
SPAM, in its simplest terms, originally defined email that was unsolicited and unwanted. Today, it is estimated that SPAM accounts for about 90% to 93% of the email that is sent. Most SPAM results from sales advertisements, phishing (attempts to obtain personal info), scams, appending (adding names to an email database), or spreading a variety of computer infections (viruses, worms, etc.). The good news at Socorro is that about 20% of our email is good and only 80% is SPAM.
How Do Spammers Get My Email Address?
The major way that spammers get your email address is through the process of appending. The best source for appending are those blasted chain-emails that share a wonderfully warm or funny or patriotic or serious email … and then you are asked to forward it onward (sometimes at the threat of supernatural catastrophe that will occur if you don’t … LOL!). Every time you receive a chain email, especially one that contains images, chances are your email address and others on the recipient list) were added to a SPAM database. When you forward such emails, you are putting the recipients at risk. While the person who sent you the chain email was probably just trying to be nice, or they needed your name for the required “ten” recipients, they probably did not realize all the risks.
Going to unknown web sites can also open you to phishing and appending. Many web sites have built-in programs to read your email address from your online profile. Typically, when web surfing, you should only visit sites obtained through safe search engines.
How Do Spammers Send Mail Using My Email Address?
There are two answers. The first way is that some hackers, usually through worms and viruses, are able to infiltrate your address book and use that to send out email. A while back, we learned that a user on the SCSD network had gotten a computer virus that infiltrated their MS Office Outlook address book, and the executable program was was sending out about five gigabytes of spam per day (too many to count). You may remember that SCSD was blacklisted for weeks by almost every email server around the country.
The other way spammers use your email adddress is through a process called spoofing or ghosting. The email is not really sent by your email server, but the sender alters the header information on the email (the “FROM” address and “REPLY TO’ address). It is very easy to do.
What do I need to do about SPAM?
Actually, you don’t really need to do much more than to be careful about giving out your email address; do not forward or reply to chain emails, and do not open email and files from people that you do not know.
Our Lightspeed Total Traffic Control Content Filter generally does an exceptional job of blocking SPAM. On occasion, SPAM may get past the filter. If you identify an email as SPAM, simply right-click on the email information from your Inbox. Next, click JUNK EMAIL > Add Sender to Blocked Senders List.
What is the Daily SPAM Mail Summary?
Everyone receives a daily SPAM Mail Summary that lists all the SPAM and all the good email from the previous day. First, you are under no obligation to review the SPAM, especially since the content from the subject lines can be offensive (if not just plain stupid). Unfortunately, you must review the SPAM if you think valid emails are being blocked (recently, the critical email from NWEA about the MAPS database wound up in my SPAM log!).
You should save the most current Daily Summary because it has a link that takes you a list of your spam for the past week. This is important if you want to find emails that you think were blocked. Simply log in, and then do Edit > Find on this Page. Also, in desperation, you can contact The Tech Team to get assistance in finding an email if you have the sender’s exact email address.
From the summary, you can also look at your “good” email received and block any SPAM that managed to bypass the filter.
Some Final Thoughts and Guidance
1. Each day (typically in the morning) you will receive an email message that lists any spam email that was blocked the previous day.
2. With a quick review, you can easily identify any desirable email that was blocked. Since the email has been saved for you, all you need to do is click on the “Always Allow” link associated with that email item and it will be sent on to your mailbox, as well as assuring that future email from that user will NOT get blocked.
3. If you aren’t sure if an item is really spam, but you want to be certain, simply click on the associated “Allow Once” link and that email item will be delivered to your mailbox so you can review its content. If you wish for that sender to not be blocked in the future, again click on the “Always Allow” link for that item in your daily report.
4. You can review ALL spam mail blocked over the previous 7 days by clicking on the link that reads: “To view CURRENT messages held as spam click here”, within the introductory text of your daily message. This will open a report of your blocked email so you can retrieve and/or White list any email items not older than 7 days, if you wish.
5. Remember you can also copy or bookmark this link within your web browser, and you can examine your spam mail activity at ANY TIME you desire. This link will always, automatically, take you to your personal spam mail summary report.
As always, kindly let me conclude by reminding you that the Tech Team is available to provide training and coaching for using the spam filter. Simply enter a School Dude under the heading of TRAINING and we will gladly make arrangements to work with you.
Once again, on behalf of the Tech Team (Chris, Grabiel, Craig, Damon and Michael), have a great Christmas Recess. Happy Holidays and Happy New Year!
Vern
