Use email appropriately
Related information
Email is a useful and necessary tool for communication between students, faculty, staff, and non-University entities. It's used heavily for both University and personal activities, but it isn't always the right tool for the job. Using email incorrectly or inappropriately presents computer and information security risks.
Always use email appropriately and in accordance with acceptable use and best practice guidelines.
Requirements
Faculty and staff are responsible for adhering to standards for appropriate email use. Everyone—including students, faculty, and staff—should follow the general guidelines for email use.
- Follow acceptable use requirements for email.
- Do not use email to send unencrypted sensitive University information. Always encrypt sensitive University information prior to transmitting it or use a secure transmission protocol (not email) to transmit it if it can't be encrypted.
- Do not rely on email as a storage system for critical or mission critical information. Store University information in suitably secure and accessible systems.
- Do not use personal accounts to conduct University activities. Use only University accounts for University activities.
- Monitor your spam filters to ensure that legitimate emails aren't being filtered out of your inbox.
- University units sending commercial emails must follow the requirements for commercial communications.
General guidelines
- Follow acceptable use requirements for email.
- Do not use email to send "plaintext" (unencrypted) sensitive information. In general, avoid using email to send any sensitive information. However, if you must send sensitive information through email, encrypt it first.
- Do not rely on email as a storage system for critical or mission critical information. Instead, store important information and files in a more permanent location such as a hard drive or network drive.
- Monitor your spam filters to ensure that legitimate emails aren't being filtered out of your inbox.
- Avoid phishing scams that could compromise your account, information, and device. Always verify the sender and information in an email before taking requested actions, and never click on unverified links or download unrequested attachments.
