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UC DAVIS: INFORMATION AND EDUCATIONAL TECHNOLOGY August 26, 2004 DEANS, DIRECTORS, DEPARTMENT CHAIRS, AND CAMPUS/UCDMC ADMINISTRATIVE OFFICERS RE: Filtering of Unsafe Email Attachments On Monday, August 30, 2004, UC Davis will join the ranks of many other institutions of higher education and start blocking certain types of file attachments from being transmitted through the campus email system. This preventive measure involves only those types of file extensions that present a known and significant threat of infection. Since most viruses, including the recent Klez, MyDoom, and Bagle, are now being transmitted as attachments through electronic email, blocking the attachments most commonly used by viruses will help protect both individual computers and University systems, research, and data. The list of file attachment types that the campus will block is derived from Microsoft's list of "unsafe" file types. It includes such extension types as ".exe," ".cmd" and ".pif" (i.e., extensions not commonly used by most campus members). The UC Davis list has been reviewed by various campus groups, including senior campus administrators, technical staff, and faculty representatives, who have expressed their support for this measure. Microsoft in fact already blocks these unsafe extensions in Microsoft Outlook and Outlook Express. In addition, similar restrictions have already been implemented by various UC Davis departments with success and minimal, if any, disruption of legitimate email. Other universities, including Cambridge University, Dartmouth University, Harvard University, Rutgers University and UC Irvine have also begun to restrict similar file types. A Web page has been developed that provides detailed information about this measure as well as the list of file extensions that will be blocked and alternatives for transmitting the files (see http://security.ucdavis.edu/attach_restrict.cfm). In brief, email messages containing unsafe types of attachments will still be delivered, but the attachments will be removed. Senders of blocked email attachments will not receive a warning from the mail server. However, the recipient of the email message will be notified that the attachment has been removed. The notification will include the name of the attachment, the reason for removing the attachment, and options for resending the attachment as an unrestricted file type. Options include changing the name of the file extension to an unblocked file type, placing the file in MySpace (the file-sharing section of the MyUCDavis portal) or some networked drive, or using other file-sharing media (e.g., CD, Zip). Recipients will also be ref! erred to the Web page for more information about the campus's file attachment blocking measure. While this measure is expected to further improve the campus' computer and network security, faculty, students and staff are encouraged to remain on-guard against the threat of email viruses and to take personal responsibility to ensure that individual actions do not compromise the valuable resources of others, and the resources of our campus (see http://security.ucdavis.edu/security101.cfm for a list of Ten Steps to Safe Computing). Please continue to use discretion when opening email attachments, especially those attachments that are unexpected or from unknown senders. Please forward any questions regarding this change to Robert Ono, IT Security Coordinator, at 530-757-5795, or raono@ucdavis.edu. Dave Shelby Assistant Vice Provost and Chief Operating Officer -- Information and Educational Technology 04-084
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