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Re: Important update: Maillist changes in effect by February 1, 2024



Hi Oliver,

as far as I understand, SFU is responding to changes at Google and Yahoo.
To quote from emails I got from (Faculty of Science) IT services:

In February 2024, Google and Yahoo will be introducing changes to help them combat spam and phishing attacks. Unless we change SFU’s current email practices, these new requirements will directly impede SFU’s ability to send email to all Google and Yahoo accounts, including those of prospective students. 
The changes needed to our current email practices include, but are not limited to: 
1.         Disable email forwarding from internal SFU email accounts to external accounts.
2.         Retire the Alumni Email Forwarding Service.
3.         Ensure that all bulk email sent to external accounts have an unsubscribe option. 
4.         Modify the SFU Maillist service to disallow the sending of email to external email accounts. 

suggestions I received.

IT Services suggests...
-create a contact group (or distribution list) in your email tool of choice and send mail that way - this basically just puts everyone into the cc or bcc field of an email message. If they're in the cc field, people can reply-all to reply to everyone, but this may not be desirable.

- For research etc., consider creating a Team in SFU Teams. Microsoft Teams supports external invited guests, and if many of your colleagues are in BC colleges and universities, they're likely already using Teams.

-something like Google Groups might suit your needs. If you search for "public listserv", you might find other alternatives too.

A warning... SFU alumni emails will no longer be forwarded, and those emails will not be obvious in the maillists.

Please don't bother complaining about this to us, or even to SFU IT Services- it is beyond their control.  If you need help, make a ticket  https://it-support.science.sfu.ca/


I hope this helps.
Harald









On Jan 16, 2024, at 11:59 AM, Oliver Schulte <oschulte@cs.sfu.ca> wrote:

Hi all, 

I wonder if anyone else is concerned about the upcoming removal of external recipients from our mailing lists. (Feb 1 this year, details below). Mail lists allow SFU faculty, departments, and other users to reach many users, including external users, both at SFU and outside SFU. 

While SFU ITS wants to stop us from using maillists with external recipients, UBC supports this service. 

Users (internal or external to UBC) are able to manage their own subscriptions through the web dashboard....All active Staff and Faculty can sponsor the creation of new mailing lists with the use of a FASmail account

I believe it is important that SFU match the email services that UBC offers to its users. What a UBC user can do with email, an SFU user should be able to do also. 

UBC is not the only peer institution that offers maillists with external recipients. You also have this capability if you work at UVic, U of Toronto, and the U of Alberta. In fact I would expect that SFU is the only Canadian university that does not want to offer its users this basic functionality (but I have not checked every other university). 

Nor are outgoing maillists the only email service SFU ITS wants to take away.

As I see it, SFU faculty have done well in competing in teaching and research on a national level. This will be made more difficult if we have worse IT support for basic communication and productivity functions.

Regards,

Oliver


---------- Forwarded message ---------
From: IT Services <itsinfo@sfu.ca>
Date: Tue, Jan 2, 2024 at 10:02 AM
Subject: Important update: Maillist changes in effect by February 1, 2024
To: its-external-maillist-managers@sfu.ca <its-external-maillist-managers@sfu.ca>


SFU Maillist users, 

 

In the new year, SFU will be activating strict email protocols to comply with new industry-wide email regulations set by external email providers. 

 

In February 2024, Google and Yahoo! will introduce changes to help combat spam and phishing attacks. It is expected many other email providers will make similar changes to their email practices and large organizations like SFU will need to make changes to comply with these new regulations. These necessary updates to our email protocols will ensure that SFU emails continue to be received by other email services. 

 

The change: SFU Maillists will be restricted to sending to SFU email addresses only. Starting February 1, 2024, non-SFU email accounts will not receive emails from SFU Maillists. 

 

The impact: Maillist owners and managers are encouraged to update their lists. A separate message will be sent by the beginning of the year listing each of your maillists that contains at least one non-SFU address. 

 

Updating lists: Log in to the SFU Maillist application (https://maillist.sfu.ca). Select a list you own or manage and view the “Maillist members” tab. For any address in the list that does not end with “sfu.ca”, either uncheck the “Deliver To User” checkbox or click the trashcan icon to delete the entry altogether. Click “Save Changes” when you have unselected or deleted all external members. You can check and update your lists anytime to address necessary changes.  
 
Note: If you wish to keep a copy of the membership before making changes, use the “Download addresses to file” button to save a copy of the email addresses to a file on your computer.  

 

Support:Please submit a ticket toIT ServiceHubif you need help or support with this change.  

 

Thank you, 

 

SFU IT Services 

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