Cal Poly SPAM Rating System & Required Action
January 9, 2004
As you probably know, the growth of "SPAM" e-mail has accelerated in recent years. Additionally, as noted in my September 10 message, the Faculty/Staff e-mail server has reached its processing capacity and is being significantly impacted by increased e-mail usage and the adverse consequences of this influx of unwanted SPAM messages.
As one strategic step to address this overall email performance issue, Information Technology Services (ITS), on behalf of the University, has implemented a new SPAM rating engine. The SPAM rating engine has been in place since December to allow ITS to monitor the volume of SPAM messages being received by the campus and to allow for the adjustment of the rating sensitivity tool to the appropriate level.
The rating engine allows the system sensitivity to be set from one to 300, with one being extremely strict to 300 being very lenient. Our goal has been to accurately identify as much as 75% of incoming SPAM messages with an absolute minimum number of "false positives," i.e., legitimate messages being incorrectly tagged as SPAM.
Based on this analysis, the rating threshold is currently set at 50 and our initial testing has found no false positives above a 35 setting. With this setting, the rating engine is consistently identifying 33% of all incoming messages as SPAM and we expect this setting to produce minimum adverse consequences due to false positives.
The current implementation approach is based on ITS setting a rating sensitivity for the campus as a whole that achieves a wise balance between filtering SPAM and delivering wanted e-mail. ITS will continue to do empirical analysis to determine if subsequent adjustments are necessary. ITS will also continue to evaluate alternatives, including options for individual users to set their own sensitivity level at a future date.
WHAT THIS MEANS TO USERS:
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Effective Monday, January 12 by 8:00 A.M., all incoming email messages identified as SPAM by the rating engine will be modified to add "cpSPAM" at the beginning of the subject line when messages are delivered to you. At the same time, instructions on how to filter the SPAM messages based on the "tagged" subject line will be posted on the Email Web site.
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All filters should be set through the OpenMail Web client. This will help achieve the goal of improved server performance and will allow you to filter messages even when your desktop client, such as Outlook, is not active.
OTHER ACTIONS BEING TAKEN TO IMPROVE EMAIL PERFORMANCE
As for the broader performance issue, the long-term solution is to rapidly transition the campus to the new Oracle Collaboration Suite e-mail and calendaring system recently acquired by Cal Poly. This system will be implemented in a new much more robust and scalable hardware environment. Implementation of this new system is well underway and being diligently pressed forward. A significant transition of accounts, and therefore system load, will not take place until late Spring and Summer.
Since this solution is still several months away, in addition to the SPAM identification process noted above, other steps have been and will continue to be taken to alleviate performance issues with the current system. For more explicit detail on what has and is being done, visit ITS Web site and follow the link to "Email Performance Status" under "ITS News" (upper right hand corner). This document includes suggestions on what you can do to help. These suggestions are also noted at the end of this message.
ITS has made multiple system adjustments and modifications to address the performance issues. This includes adjusting processing priorities to give e- mail delivery increased priority over server/client interactions. However, due to reports of client side delays, this priority was returned to its original value as of January 8. If you experience consistent, measurable delays ("lockups") of your client while sending e-mail, please notify the ITS Service Desk at 756-7000 as soon as possible.
This week, we had our first opportunity to monitor system performance gains based on adjustments made during quarter break. Due to the build-up of e- mail during the holidays, we expected performance problems on Monday, January 5. However, although the number of concurrent users (1400+) was higher than ever, the message delivery backlog peaked at between 3000-4000 messages (a peak delay of slightly more than one hour) compared to 10,000+ (peak delays of 3-4 hours) on the Monday following the Thanksgiving break. While not optimal, this is a significant processing improvement.
Prior to converting to the new email system, we can expect similar delays on Mondays and following extended holiday weekends. Though there are many complex factors affecting the Faculty/Staff e-mail server performance, these dates are particularly difficult due to the number of concurrent users entering the system at roughly the same time (8-9 a.m.) with a build up of messages in their In Boxes. When each user first logs in, their client must download from the server either the message header or full message of each message in their In Box. This mass processing "hit" requires all of the server's capacity, delaying other messages being sent and received and creating the delivery delays. The adjustments made and those yet planned will continue to improve this situation, but please be especially cognizant of the suggestions below on those days in particular.
ITS will be meeting with LAN coordinators on Friday, January 9 to review in detail the SPAM rating implementation and the status of the Faculty/Staff server performance. If you have questions or need help with the new filters, please see your LAN Coordinator or call the ITS Service Desk at (805) 756- 7000. To locate the LAN Coordinator for your area, please go to Service Desk Web site.
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David D. Ross
Director, Application and Information Management
Information Technology Services
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FACULTY/STAFF E-MAIL SUGGESTIONS:
Here are a few things ALL OF US should consider to help the current e-mail performance situation and just generally to keep in mind:
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The first day back after a weekend or extended holiday is going to be the most difficult for the e-mail system to handle due to the accumulation of e- mail while users are away, so be aware of this and be most cognizant of your use of the e-mail system on those days (referred to as HIGH IMPACT days below)
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Avoid using your Cal Poly e-mail for personal uses, e.g., to forward jokes, recipes, or other personal messages
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Consider using other means of communication such as the telephone wherever possible and appropriate, particularly on HIGH IMPACT days
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To the extent possible, avoid sending messages to large groups of people on HIGH IMPACT days, particularly in the morning
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If you need your e-mail forwarded to an external e-mail address, set this forwarding through the Cal Poly portal (http://my.calpoly.edu) Personal Information Channel (on the Grades & Personal Info tab), which will forward the message before it reaches the Faculty/Staff e-mail server. Setting the forwarding through your e-mail client will cause the e-mail server to process the message twice, once coming in and once going out
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Avoid posting your e-mail address on Web sites to eliminate the possibility that the addresses may be harvested off of these Web sites for SPAM purposes.
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Do not reply to messages from unknown sources to "remove" yourself from their mailings, in many cases this simply serves to verify to the source that they have a valid e-mail address and may result in an increased volume of SPAM messages.
