IT TO LAUNCH NEW ANTI-SPAM TOOL

Spam —unsolicited and unwanted e-mail — is a major source of aggravation to University of Houston computer users, costing thousands of hours of time and productivity each year.

On Wednesday, May 18, the Department of Information Technology will take a major step toward combating the problem with the launch of its newest product, Sophos PureMessage, which blocks spam from entering e-mail boxes of specific computer users.

“Spam mitigation has definitely been one of the top priority initiatives of IT for the past year,” said Mary Dickerson, IT spam mitigation project manager. “After a thorough review of the available product offerings in this market, we’re pleased to have been able to acquire such powerful and effective software to assist with management of our mail environment.”

According to industry experts, the spam problem has become so significant that since April 2004, fully 70 to 80 percent of all e-mail messages arriving in inboxes worldwide are spam. Several companies have measured the percentage of spam as high as 94 percent of all e-mail.

While the percentage of spam at UH is much less, estimated at 60 percent, it is still a major problem and concern. That’s why IT is implementing PureMessage, a comprehensive and flexible enterprise-level e-mail management solution, which offers superior protection against spam and viruses, according to UH officials.

The deployment of PureMessage benefits users of mail.uh.edu and central.uh.edu mail servers. If you currently receive e-mail messages with spam in the message subject line, you probably will be affected by this deployment. Users who don’t receive mail on mail.uh.edu or central.uh.edu mail servers, or whose mail is redirected to other non-UH mailboxes, (e.g. Yahoo or Hotmail), will not be affected by the PureMessage deployment. To verify whether you will be affected, contact the IT Support Center at 713-743-1411 or your local IT support person.

PureMessage is the latest and most significant component of the university’s spam mitigation effort. For the past several years, IT has been actively engaged in reducing the amount of spam at UH through the use of a variety of anti-spam products, including IT’s current anti-spam tool, SpamAssassin, which flags but does not block spam arriving in your inbox.

PureMessage, with its 98 percent spam detection rating, represents a major advance in UH's fight against spam and the risks associated with e-mail borne viruses. When it is deployed in May, it will replace SpamAssassin and will become the cornerstone of the university’s spam mitigation efforts.

Since early February 2005, nearly 80 UH students, faculty and staff have been participating in a pilot program to test the PureMessage software. Statistics gathered from this testing indicate an average 40 percent reduction in the amount of mail delivered to campus mailboxes, with some pilot users experiencing a 50 to 80 percent reduction in the total amount of mail received.

A goal of the pilot testing was to determine thresholds for spam detection and blocking. Based upon pilot users' feedback and experiences with the software, along with “best practices” data from Sophos, the manufacturer of PureMessage, IT has established spam-blocking thresholds that promise to practically eliminate unsolicited e-mail at UH, while not putting at risk desirable legitimate messages.

The feature UH users will most appreciate about PureMessage is that they won't have to do anything to have their incoming spam blocked more efficiently than in the past. However, if they prefer to take a more hands-on approach to management of their e-mail, users can use the PureMessage Web interface to customize their user preferences to best meet their needs. Another important feature of PureMessage is that users have the option at any time of opting out of spam blocking altogether, with the result that all of their messages, including spam, are received.

The major benefits of PureMessage to users:

IT is hosting free campus workshops and training sessions to support the deployment of PureMessage. In addition to in-depth information on PureMessage, workshops and training sessions will include information on general e-mail best practices and computer security.

To obtain more information about PureMessage, view a schedule of workshops and training sessions, or find out more about IT's spam mitigation efforts, please visit the “Reducing Spam” Web site at www.uh.edu/infotech/spam, or call the IT Support Center at 713-743-1411.

Bill Ashley
bhashley@central.uh.edu