There are many different ways that NMSU protects user accounts. For more information on any of the methods, visit the links below. If you want additional security, visit the Network Security Resources page.

Port Blocks

Computer Intrusion Problem Resolution

Email Virus Detection

ICT uses an inhouse software product which scans email for specific email attachment suffixes. These suffixes have been identified to be the root of over 90% of all email born viruses. Furthermore, these document types are not part of the usual business of the university. Individuals who wish to transmit these type of documents must first place the file(s) into ZIP format and then send the ZIP document. In this manner, the receiver has a chance to evaluate the attachment without being exposed to a potential virus.

Messages which contain attachments with the following suffixes are deleted from the email server before being delivered:

scr exe com bat pif lnk dll hta shs vbe wsf wsh elm vbs

Unsolicited Bulk Email (UBE, aka SPAM) is an international problem for internet service providers. NMSU suffers from large amounts of of "junk" email. In June 2003, ICT measured 42% of all email as SPAM. This large amount of bulnk email causes a strain on university resources as well as loss of time by the university community. ICT

ICT employs a SPAM content analysis tool called SPAMASSASSIN (see http://spamassassin.org/. SPAMASSASSIN uses a set of rules to determine if the message matches rules that destinguish messages as SPAM. If a message is determined as SPAM, ICT redirects that message into an IMAP folder called SPAM. Messages in the SPAM folder over 7 days are removed automatically from the central email server. Users may modify the rules used in marking their email by going to http://aams.nmsu.edu . Users may add sites to be included in their SPAM, remove sites, or completely turn off SPAM filtering.

On rare occassions, remote ISP sites inadequately control their members from generating SPAM. These users in turn generate large amounts of SPAM in short periods of time, causing a tremendous load on the University's email server resources. Under this scenario, the abuse team (abuse@nmsu.edu) blocks the remote site. Messages to the internet service provider are generated with methods for resolving the problem. When a block is made, automatic email responses are alos made so that legitimate remote users from the blocked site may resolve this problem through NMSU's Customer Support Center.