Information on spam and email virus protection

The key points regarding the protection of our users against spam and email viruses can be summarised as follows

• An intelligent greylisting process is used for incoming emails
• All incoming emails are checked in real time for spam and viruses
• Any email containing attachments that cannot be scanned (e.g. password-protected documents) is rejected
• Every email (including incoming, outgoing and internal university emails) is checked for spam characteristics and viruses
• Rate limit for sending emails (200 emails per user per 24 hours)
• Limit of 300 email recipients per hour
• Verification that the sender’s address belongs to the sending user’s account

Incoming emails are checked in real time for spam characteristics and viruses. If an email is not deemed ‘clean’, it is not accepted in the first place and the sender is immediately informed of the reason why their email could not be delivered.

The following file types are among the prohibited attachments: Overview of blocked file types.

This procedure has the advantage that it does not require so-called ‘tagging’ or the setting up of quarantine zones.

Just because an email is sent within the university network does not mean it cannot be spam or infected with viruses. Therefore, every email that is sent is checked.

Users are permitted to send 200 emails per day. This measure is necessary to prevent misuse of our email system, for example through compromised user accounts. If you attempt to send more emails than this, the central mail server will refuse to accept your email, displaying the message ”Rate Limit exceeded". This restriction is automatically lifted after 24 hours.

Disable rate limit
In the account management (Account Settings) for their personal account, users can disable the rate limit for 4 hours. Information on sending an unlimited number of emails is displayed both in the settings and in the account overview.
For email function accounts, it is also possible to set up unlimited email sending in the resource details view.

As the centralised spam and virus protection is highly reliable, we strongly advise that you disable any local spam filters.

Even if you feel that you receive too many spam emails without local spam filters: every user has a different perception of what constitutes spam. A customised local filter is of no help here either, as this can only lead to false positives creeping in.

As well as actual spam emails, there are also phishing emails, the aim of which is to steal users’ login details. Phishing is not SPAM! Phishing emails are targeted attacks on users, not mass mailings sent worldwide. As a result, anti-spam mechanisms generally do not work in these cases. The URZ endeavours to set up individual filters as quickly as possible in response to reports of phishing.

We urge you not to respond to these emails.