New email protection implemented for JMU accounts

Information Technology recently implemented a new system to protect your JMU and/or Dukes email account(s) from phishing, malware, and other unsafe messages. You may have seen this recent Computing News article about the effect of the technology on links that appear in your email. There are a few other features of our email system that are worth noting: 

• Email attachments: Email attachments are scanned for viruses prior to delivery, so delivery of messages with attachments may be slightly delayed versus messages without attachments. 

• Junk mail: The “Junk Email” folder in your account holds messages that the system determines may be spam. Please check the folder frequently, because the system holds these messages for 15 days (about 2 weeks) before deleting them. If you find a message in Junk Email that is not junk, you may click “Mark as Not Junk” inside the message to move it to your Inbox and train the system how to treat similar messages in the future.

• Infrequent senders: The system tags messages from senders who do not frequently contact you with a heading, “You don’t often get email from [sender’s email address]. Learn why this is important.” This heading does not mean that the message has been determined to be unsafe, it is merely a warning. Unsafe messages are more likely to come from a sender you have not communicated with before. 

• Zip files as attachments: The system will quarantine messages that have zip files attached. For outgoing mail, the sender will receive an email notification that their message was quarantined and why. For incoming mail, the recipient will receive the notification. Senders should rename the extension on .zip files to .jmu, if they need to ensure their message is received, with a note to the recipient to rename the extension back to .zip. 

If you have questions or need help, please contact the IT Help Desk at (540)568-3555 or helpdesk@jmu.edu.