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Protecting Our Campuses from Cybercriminals with Enhanced Email Security

May 9, 2022

The Office of Information Technology (OIT) continues to enhance email security protocols because of the rise in cyberattacks against members of our university community. Last summer, OIT announced a two-prong, proactive approach to help address potential breaches and better protect our campuses. Next month, phase two of this plan will be the implementation of a sender policy framework (SPF) to specify who is allowed to send using a university email. 

How do these safety protocols affect me?
The first phase of the email security project applied the new external email warning banner alerting us to be cautious when opening attachments or following links from external contacts. This second phase, beginning Wednesday, June 1, supports the university’s email policy to limit the number of external bulk email senders and help stop phishing attacks.

Departments and schools that use non-university approved third-party services or applications to send or receive messages as a university sender (for example email messaging, newsletters, and surveys) will no longer be able to send from, or receive email to, a cuanschutz.edu or ucdenver.edu email address. After June 1, university messages sent using non-university supported platforms will need to use a non-university “from” and “to” email address and will be tagged with the external email warning banner. As a reminder, the banner does not mean a message is spam or a phishing attempt, it simply reminds us to be careful when opening an email.

Why these changes?
These next steps for electronic communication security are intended to prevent spam and phishing messages and help us be successful in recognizing potential suspicious email. Thank you for continuing to learn, understand, and help prevent the loss of personal information for yourself and all fellow staff, faculty, and students.

Questions?

Visit the OIT Email Security Practices webpage for more details. You may also contact the OIT Service Desk for additional assistance:

Categories: Email IT Security IT Security Marketing and Communications Productivity and Business Software | Tags: bulk emailing electronic communication email security protocols sender policy framework (SPF)