Later this week the BCTC will begin implementing college-wide protection
against spam.  The first phase will cover Lotus Notes users.  We have
been testing the product over the past six months and it has proven to
be highly accurate at identifying spam.

Here is how the new system will work:

A BCTC server will scan incoming e-mail messages for spam properties and
quarantine the messages that are scored as spam.  Twice daily you will
receive an e-mail message that contains a digest of the latest
quarantined messages addressed to you.  The subject line will read "End
User Digest".  If you take no action regarding these messages, they will
be deleted from the quarantine in 14 days.  However, you may examine the
digest list in case a message was marked as spam incorrectly ("false positive").
The digest lists 2 options next to each message:

(1) Release - delivers the quarantined message to your inbox.

(2) Safelist - delivers the message to your inbox and ensures that no
e-mails from that sender will be blocked in the future.  (Lotus Notes
users will be able to set up both a personal safelist and a list of
blocked senders.)

Based on our trial of the software, we have achieved settings that
appear to yield an accurate distinction between spam and real e-mail.
However, we need user feedback, especially at the beginning, to
determine whether we should adjust the settings.

You may continue to receive messages that appear to be spam, but are
sent to you as mail from listservs or mailing lists.  For example, you
may have been added to a mailing list as a member of a professional
organization or as the purchaser of a product.  At the bottom of these
messages you will see a method of unsubscribing.  If the organization is
respectable, you should be able to remove yourself from the list by
following the directions.  However, if the message is from a spammer,
you will only confirm your address and generate more spam.  If you need
assistance with evaluating these messages, please contact your local
technology staff.

Once we complete the implementation for Lotus Notes users, we will
expand coverage to the mail accounts for students and part-time staff.

If you are interested in knowing more about the anti-spam software we
are using, here is a link to the vendor's web site:

http://www.proofpoint.com/products/spam.php

Arthur Downing
Assistant Vice President for Information Technology
Professor and Chief Librarian
Baruch College
1 Bernard Baruch Way / Box H-0520
New York, NY 10010
v: (646) 312-1026     f: (212) 802-2393
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