Email Protection and Security description

Features

  • The relays will reject high risk email, such as:
    • Messages containing a virus attachment
    • Messages identified as phishing (attempting to capture personal information)
  • Inbound email with a spam probability of 99% will be rejected for your domain. A lower spam probability can be used, if your department has more stringent requirements.
  • Senders will receive notification that their message has been rejected.
  • Spam and virus definitions are automatically updated and applied, ensuring the relays remain effective
  • Mail-relay cluster consists of eight load balanced servers, providing fault-tolerance

Who Can Use This?

Departments running their own mail service can use the mail-relays for spam and virus scanning. If you subscribe to a departmental mail service, contact your system administrator to learn how spam and viruses are being addressed.

Technical Requirements

Departmental mail service administrators will need to set the MX (Mail Exchanger) record for their domain to esva.mail-relay.ubc.ca. Administrators will also need to provide information about which host the mail-relays should contact as the next hop. Refer to Getting Started for more information.

Pricing 

Spam and virus scanning for departmental mail systems is offered as a free service.

Page last updated on April 22, 2025


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