How Will I Be Affected

Email-spoofing help to ensure that all emails received are sent from authenticated NUS users. However, it might affect some services that are not managed by NUS Computer Centre.

We understand that some of you might have other problems with this new anti-spoofing system, which is not foolproof for authentic messages, in fact, the system is unlikely to have any built-in intelligence whatsoever that it cannot distinguish between a bonafide mailing list posting versus a real spoof.

Below are some examples:

1. Email This To Friends

Most News web sites provide the feature of allowing readers to email an interesting article to a friend. The reader need to fill in his/ her email address as well as the recipient's email address before sending out the article. If the sender plans to send the article to someone at @nus.edu.sg using his/ her NUS email address as shown below, the email will be delivered to the recipient’s Spam folder.

From: Sent: Tuesday, Aug 05, 2005 10:19 AM To: Subject: BC wants you to read this story

Some common sites that offer this service are:

http://www.todayonline.com
http://www.washintonpost.com

2. Greeting e-Cards

E-Cards or greeting cards site offer an electronic version of a greeting card. Sender can send a greeting card to a friend. Some sites are:

http://www.americangreetings.com
http://www.bluemountain.com

Similarly if the sender sends as @nus.edu.sg to someone at @nus.edu.sg, the electronic greeting card will be delivered to the recipient’s Spam folder. The sender can use the personal email address like @hotmail.com or @yahoo.com to send these Greeting e-Cards.

The NUS e-Card will not be subjected to this as the e-Card server is allowed via a separate gateway.

3. Mailing List/ Community Groups

Mailing list hosted externally allows a group of users to exchange information among them. The mailing list server will send the Email imposing as the sender to all the recipients. Any recipient who replies to the Email will reply to the mailing list server and in turn bounce off to all the members. Some sites are:

http://groups.yahoo.com
http://groups.msn.com

If the sender is @nus.edu.sg and sends to someone in @nus.edu.sg, the Email will be delivered to the recipient's Spam folder.

4. Auto forwarding of external mail account to NUS Email.

In this scenario, you have an external account that you set the auto-forwarding back to the NUS Email. If a sender from NUS sends an email to your external account, the email that is auto-forwarded back to NUS will not be delivered.

Example:

1. A sender from NUS (e.g. someone@nus.edu.sg sends an email to khtan@external.com


2. If you use a non-NUS account, e.g. khtan@external.com for communication and has set a forwarding rule to auto-forward all incoming mail received at khtan@external.comto your NUS email account, e.g. khtan@nus.edu.sg.


3. The email will be automatically forwarded to your NUS Email Inbox at khtan@nus.edu.sg, this email will be delivered to the recipient’s SPAM folder as it may potentially be spoofed. Other non-NUS sender sending their email to your external account, khtan@external.comwill have the email auto-forwarded to your NUS Email.
   
   To avoid the risks of emails being delivered to the recipient’s Spam folder, you may wish to disable your email forwarding from the external email account to NUS Email, and access your respective account directly.