ICT Services 4 Education

School ICT News Bulletin No. 236 - 06/06/2014

Published by ICT Shared Services

IMPORTANT INFORMATION: Issues Sending to Hotmail/Live.com email addresses - Resolved

We can confirm that the issue affecting the sending of emails to Hotmail/live.com email addresses from generic email addresses (those ending @norfolk.sch.uk) has been resolved.  The incident was caused by a very large volume of SPAM emails being sent from devices infected with malware, which resulted in the blacklisting of the norfolk.sch.uk email servers. 

To prevent this blacklisting reoccurring again, we would like to remind all users of the importance of the following: 

  1. Please ensure that anti-virus software is installed and is up to date on every device. This includes not only school issued equipment but also personal smartphones, tablets and laptops/desktops that connect to the school network.

    The issue arose because devices were infected with malware which generated a large volume of SPAM emails and resulted in the blacklisting of the norfolk.sch.uk email servers.

  2. Please ensure that all staff use a school provisioned email account for any school related business (e.g. nsix accounts). This complies with the guidance provided by Ofsted which states:

    Any professional communications between the setting and clients that utilise technology should:

    i. take place within clear and explicit professional boundaries
    ii.     be transparent and open to scrutiny
    iii.     not share any personal information with a child or young person
     

  3. Please ensure any distribution lists that you have created are regularly maintained to ensure that they are up to date. This prevents emails being sent to invalid email addresses which, if there is a large number involved, can be interpreted as a SPAM attack.

    Under principle 4 of the Data Protection users must “take reasonable steps to ensure the accuracy of any personal data you obtain”.
     

  4. Please ensure that parents are aware of the email addresses that you will be sending emails to them from. This will prevent them potentially being marked as SPAM which will assist the email servers from being blacklisted again. 

Any queries please contact our Service Desk on 0845 303 3003 or via email ict@norfolk.gov.uk

Author: Applications Team

Quick Links

Close