IronMail trial seeks to eliminate spam
By Sarah Chacko
Staff Reporter

University officials say if the new pilot project to eliminate unwanted e-mails is successful by the end of its 30-day trial period, TCU’s e-mail system will be set to automatically block spam.

Assistant Provost for Information Services David Edmondson said the new IronMail program from CipherTrust, a company that specializes in identifying and eliminating spam, began its trial Jan. 10 and will be completed by mid-February.

According to the initial proposal by Information Services, the current e-mail system processes an average of 91,000 messages a day for students, faculty and staff. Many studies estimate spam to account for up to 50 percent of all e-mail traffic, according to the proposal.

Edmondson said the 40 percent to 60 percent of spam that constantly weighs down the system is limiting TCU’s computing resources. TCU needs to conserve its money and resources to provide access and security to the TCU community, and the elimination of spam may help that, he said.

Edmondson said a basic set of anti-spam rules has been programmed into the system that assigns a kind of value to certain tagged words. If an e-mail’s value goes above a certain limit, the e-mail is labeled spam, he said.

“The list of words we flag is dynamically changing,” Edmondson said. “We’re constantly adding and subtracting words.”

IronMail has the options of letting all mail in, tagging the mail with the “Possible Spam” label or blocking spam entirely, according to the proposal.

“The pilot project is to help students recognize what will eventually be blocked spam,” Edmondson said.

However, Loni Reynolds, a senior Spanish major, said the new program doesn’t get rid of the problem.

“What’s the point of telling me it’s spam if there’s nothing I can do about it?” Reynolds said.

Reynolds said she does not use her TCU account as her primary e-mail account, but she is still bombarded with spam. While the new system labels the unwanted e-mails, and some wanted ones, as spam, it does not help block it, Reynolds said.

Edmondson said one possible downside is that students won’t even know an e-mail existed if it’s been blocked. He said the success of the pilot project will be determined by student feedback.

“So far, there has been 99.99 percent positive feedback,” he said.
There have been requests for more or less restriction on what is being labeled spam, Edmondson said. However, what’s considered spam by one person may not be considered spam by another, he said.

“We’re trying to assess e-mail and determine what is useful to you and what is not useful to you,” Edmondson said.

Edmondson said students should use separate e-mail accounts for more personal mail that may be rejected as spam. Using TCU e-mail accounts at online sites is an easy way to attract spam, he said.

The network is shared by the entire TCU community, Edmondson said.
Senior political science major Laura Hunter said she has three separate e-mail accounts; work, school and personal. Hunter said because she monitors what mail goes where, spam hasn’t been a big problem in her TCU account.

“I personally think the TCU e-mails, like the weekly announcements, are the most annoying spam I get,” Hunter said.

Edmondson said he will meet with seven committees, including the Technology Steering Committee and the Chancellor’s Cabinet, during the first week of February to discuss the program. He said the IronMail program may allow students more personal control over filter options in future, but that’s still a way off.

Sarah Chacko
s.e.chacko@tcu.edu

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