Email, Spam Control, Managing Safe and Block Lists

This KB provides a summary of the tools all @illinois.edu email addresses have to manage email safe and block lists.

All inbound email passes through the Proofpoint email relays as a first line of spam defense where it's scanned for known spam and phish signatures. Then it's then sent to the Exchange servers which also scans it with other spam engines as a second line of defense. As an @illinois.edu account holder, you can also define what is spam (or not) by adding sender addresses to your safe or block list. Below is a summary of these controls for the Proofpoint email relays and Exchange/Outlook. Due to security best practices and University policy we cannot safelist 3rd party email senders. Safelisting exposes vulnerabilities, which spammers can use for spoofing and phishing attacks.

1)  Proofpoint's Spam Control 

The link below includes more detail regarding the Proofpoint report spam buttons in Outlook. Since Proofpoint is the first line of defense, its buttons are preferred to report spam, phishing attempts or malware.

Email, Using the Report Spam Outlook Add-in (uillinois.edu)

Also, a daily email is sent to your @illinois.edu address which provides information about what the filter finds suspicious. This spam control email contains a list of suspicious emails and a link to "Manage My Account".  Click that link to open a Web browser and manage your settings. Request an End User Digest here.
manage lists

Add email addresses or domains to your Safe or Block lists:

Use the web interface:

After you log in to the Web Interface, follow these steps to add senders to your personal Safe or Blocked Senders Lists.

  1. Use the Web Interface by opening a browser and point it to the following URL: https://go.illinois.edu/spamdigest.
  2. Log in with your Campus NetID and password.
  3. Click the "Lists" tab on the left side of the window to add, edit or delete addresses in your Safe and Block lists.

lists


2)  Exchange Spam Management

You change your settings through the Outlook desktop or Webmail clients and they will be stored on the Exchange server. Right click on the email in your inbox and you'll get one of the menus below. Next, select the 'Junk *" menu item and then add the sender to your safe or block list.   
 
NOTE:  We've seen many cases where a bad mouse click in Outlook has added an email address to the wrong list (e.g. safe vs. block). This is due to the 'add to safe list' vs. 'add to block list' being next to each other. Take care when you make your selection.    
 Outlook Web Mail

 Outlook Desktop Client
 Outlook Webmail - right click Options Outlook Desktop - right click options

Questions


Keywords:
email, outlook, proofpoint, safe list, block list, spam, senders, list 
Doc ID:
67716
Owned by:
Email Relays E. in University of Illinois Technology Services
Created:
2016-10-10
Updated:
2023-05-18
Sites:
University of Illinois Technology Services