List of Supported Email Clients Revised – SMTP Services Being Disabled
Effective Tuesday, May 27, Sheridan will be revising its supported list of email clients. We are moving forward with this change in an effort to combat increasing instances of spamming from Sheridan’s email domain and also to comply with upcoming changes to the Canadian Anti Spam Legislation. This change is critical in ensuring the continuity of Sheridan’s email services.
Email Sent to Affected Users
Fewer than 100 employees are affected by this change and IT has sent direct email to those impacted. If you haven’t received email from IT regarding this matter, no action is required on your part.
Supported, Exchange-Compatible Email Clients
The following email clients are secure and supported by IT:
- Microsoft Outlook for Windows
- Microsoft Outlook for Mac
- Outlook Web Access
- Apple’s Mail application (included in Mac OS X)
- ActiveSync clients for various mobile operating systems
(Android, iOS, Blackberry)
Set-up guides for the applications listed above are available on the IT website.
Some Background
Sheridan employees are often targets for phishing schemes. Unfortunately, employees sometimes fall for these schemes, exposing their credentials (logon IDs and passwords) to the phishers. The phishers then use the compromised user’s email account to send out spam through legacy SMTP (Simple Mail Transport Protocol) servers. As you may be aware, in recent months Sheridan’s email domain had been blacklisted several times because it had been reported for persistent spamming. For more information about phishing attacks and blacklisting, see the resources linked below:
What IT is Doing to Remedy the Situation
Disabling SMTP
Since our move to a Microsoft Exchange-based email system in the fall of 2012, most users have adopted Exchange compatible email clients – these clients do not require SMTP access to send mail. To guarantee the integrity and security of Sheridan’s email services, we will be disabling our legacy SMTP relays and will require users to use an Exchange compatible email client.
Exceptions for Server Based Applications
We realize that some areas are running server based applications that utilize SMTP for email functionality. IT staff will be reaching out to various departments and faculties to identify these server based applications and create exceptions for them so they can continue to function as normal.
Questions or Concerns
Any questions or concerns you may have can be directed to the Help Desk by calling ext. 2150 or sending email to helpdesk@sheridancollege.ca.