ServiceSpam filter and virus protection
Comprehensive protection against unsolicited advertising and malware in your inbox
All emails received or sent from the University email system are redirected to a mail relay with an integrated spam filter and virus scanner where it is checked for malware and spam content. This is designed to provide email users with optimal protection against emails that contain viruses or unwanted advertising.
Target group
- University members and associates (with Uni ID or project number and an accompanying email inbox)
Use
University members and associates
- Automatic filtering of a majority of emails containing malware before they land in your inbox or are sent out
- Marking of unsolicited commercial emails (spam)
- Ability to report both unrecognized commercial emails and emails incorrectly marked as spam
Access and requirements
All emails that are sent to or from mailboxes at the University are automatically checked by Mailrelay - you don't need to do anything to set this up. Occasionally, a message marked as spam may land in your inbox.
How to deal with spam in your inbox
Unsolicited commercial emails are usually recognized by the spam filter, labeled with a tag in the subject line and then delivered as normal. The following tags will be used for identification:
- [SPAM] – recognized as spam
- [SPAM?] – suspected to be spam
- [SPOOFED] – The sender's email address is very likely falsified. This tag may also appear in combination with the SPAM tag.
If a spam email lands in your inbox, you can
- have the message automatically moved to a subfolder via a filter rule
- report spam messages not tagged by the spam filter to the URZ
- report messages incorrectly declared as spam to the URZ
You can find more information and detailed instructions at the bottom of this page under "Frequently Asked Questions".
Automated forwarding to an external mail address: regularly check your University mail
Emails marked as spam will not be automatically forwarded to an external postbox. Therefore, if you have set up general forwarding to an external email address (such as Gmail, Yahoo, etc.), you should regularly check your University inbox. In the SOGo preferences, it is also necessary to check “Keep a copy” to ensure that all emails are actually preserved. (This only applies to students - the automatic forwarding of work emails is prohibited by the University's terms of service for emails.)
Please delete any tags in the subject link before you reply to an email falsely marked as spam.
Be vigilant with email attachments
The upstream virus scanner filters out all emails with recognized malware before they can be delivered. Unfortunately, new viruses, which are sent via email on a daily basis, are often still unknown to virus scanners. The analysis of viruses by the scanner manufacturer and the distribution of updates and updated virus information can take hours, sometimes even a whole day, which means that a large proportion of newer viruses will not be detected by the filter. Therefore, you should not open any attachments from a source that is not absolutely trustworthy.
We recommend the general usage of an "S/MIME certificate". This enables you to sign as well as encrypt your emails. Signing allows emails to be clearly identified as coming from you. Encryption of your emails means that they can only be decrypted and read by the recipient. This prevents unauthorized persons from intercepting your email on its way from you to the recipient.
The URZ issues S/MIME certificates for University employees - more information about this can be found in the linked Service Catalogue entry. As an alternative for experts, we recommend the use of PGP/GPG (e.g. with the Enigmail-Plugin for Thunderbird).
Frequently Asked Questions
Table
| Question | Answer |
|---|
| Question | Answer | |
|---|---|---|