Colleagues,
As mentioned in a previous mailing, IU has rolled out new security measures to prevent individual email accounts from sending unusually high numbers of emails. These changes were implemented in response to recent phishing attacks where attackers gained access to IU email accounts to send phishing and scam emails. New information about group accounts has come to light and we wanted to make sure everyone was aware.
Group accounts are not subject to the email threshold, but when individuals are using Full Access Send As (FASA) or Sent On Behalf of permissions to send a mass mailing, the individual’s account will be blocked once the threshold is reached.
If you have clients where this may be an issue, there are alternate options for sending email to large recipient groups. These options include email lists such as IU List or Exchange distribution lists, messaging via Canvas, using the Marketing Cloud, or logging in using the group account username/passphrase. Logging in directly as the group account is only recommended as a last resort and only to avoid blocking an individual account. FASA and Send on Behalf of permissions are recommended for general email use.
When an account gets blocked, it remains blocked until midnight UTC. However, your campus Support Center can assist in unblocking sooner. Please note that this commonly takes 90 minutes to take effect, but Microsoft documentation specifies it can take up to 24 hours to unblock.
For more details regarding current email policies, we recommend you review the following documents:
- About IU’s policy on mass email
- Use of Electronic Mail
- Security guidance for senders of mass email and workflow email
- Excessive Use of Information Technology Resources
Thank you for your partnership in keeping IU secure.
If you have any questions, please contact Tier 2 Support at sct2@iu.edu.
–IT Community Partnerships on behalf of the University Information Security Office