Spam Email Filtering Policy

Please note that this policy has not yet been revised or converted to the new format .

1.  Preamble

Many legitimate and non-legitimate organisations use email to transmit unsolicited information about their products and services to people who have no desire to receive these messages. These junk-mail emails are called "spam".

All emails that are delivered to Monash University from the Internet are scanned for known styles of spam messages. Each message is given a spam score, enabling users to filter out spam over a chosen threshold. Around half of the email that is delivered to Monash University from the Internet is recognised as having a reasonable probability of being spam.

The Information Technology Services (ITS) Division will automatically discard messages that are extremely likely to be spam messages, and will automatically filter messages that are highly likely to be spam messages into a folder that can be accessed by the email user. ITS will provide the means for Monash email users to modify the automatic filters if desired.

2.  Purpose

To outline the level of spam filtering that will be provided for all users by ITS, and methods for Monash email users to implement tighter spam filters if desired.

3.  Policy Status

Draft - University wide policy

4.  Responsible Officer

The Executive Director, ITS.

5.  Approving Body

The Executive Director, ITS

6.  Definitions

Spam - Unsolicited "junk" e-mail sent to large numbers of people to promote products or services.

7.  Policy Scope

Applicable to all Australian Monash University staff and student email accounts on the central email servers (mail-store-x.its.monash.edu.au). Automatic filtering does not apply to:

Email stored on other mail servers

South African staff and student email servers

Malaysian staff email server

8.  Policy

8.1  All emails delivered to Monash University from the Internet will be scanned to determine the likelihood of the email being a spam message. Each email will be given a spam score.

8.2  Emails that are sent from within Monash University IP network will NOT receive a spam score.

8.3  ITS will not deliver emails that are considered to have an extremely high probability of being spam. These messages will be discarded at the point that they are initially detected. ITS will not keep a copy of discarded messages. Neither the sender nor the recipient will be notified that a message has been discarded. Monash email users are not able to modify or customise this setting.

8.4 Other emails that are considered to contain a high probability of being spam will be automatically filtered into a spam folder in the Monash email user's email account. Emails will be automatically removed from this folder after one month.

8.5  Monash email users may alter the automatic filtering levels if desired. This can include more stringent or more relaxed filters. If more stringent filtering levels are applied, this may result in legitimate emails being filtered. It is the Monash email user's responsibility to monitor their spam folder for any legitimate emails that may have been misclassified.

8.6  There is a chance that legitimate emails will be marked as spam. The spam threshold for automatically filtering email will be set at a sufficiently high level so as to make it highly unlikely that legitimate emails would be filtered.

8.7  The spam threshold for automatically discarding email, and the spam threshold for automatically filtering email will be authorised by the Director – Infrastructure Services, ITS.

8.8  If an email user has email forwarding enabled, ITS will not forward emails that have been marked as spam, as this only propagates the spam problem further.

8.9  Information on the current spam implementation will be maintained on the ITS website see Monash Email Service.

9.  Procedures

10.  Amendment History

[An amendment history including an entry for the first issue will be included in all policies.]

11.  Attachments

Procedure for applying customised spam filters

Spam Frequently Asked Questions see Unwanted/Unsolicited Email or Spam