To improve visibility into the messages that have been filtered and quarantined by the mail-relays, the UBC IT Collaboration Services and Cybersecurity teams have developed the Mail Sentry service. Mail Sentry allows subscribers to log in and view quarantined messages, as well as set up email notifications for when messages are caught.
Features and Benefits
This service allows users to view email messages that are caught by UBC's spam and policy filters. Emails that are flagged will end up in one of the following quarantines:
- Spam Quarantine: Messages in this quarantine have a very high spam rating and are considered junk mail.
- Policy Quarantine: Messages in this quarantine are there due to other security reasons, such as:
- Malicious content (URLs, etc.): Messages with URLs that have a very poor reputation will be added to this quarantine
- Restricted Attachments: These messages contain an attachment that is on UBC's restricted attachment list as they present a security risk to the University
- DMARC Failures: DMARC is a security feature that is configured by the sending server. The receiving server (in this case UBC) will honour the DMARC policy that is set by the sending server. Messages that fall into this quarantine are there because the sending servers are asking UBC to reject or quarantine the message if the DMARC security check fails.
Note: a small number of valid emails may also get caught by the quarantine process because some email-sending organizations have configured DMARC improperly, or perhaps the sender is using a mail service that is known for sending spam.
To improve visibility into the messages that have been quarantined, the UBC IT Collaboration Services and Cybersecurity teams have developed the Mail Sentry Service which allows user to log in to view (read-only) quarantined messages and set up email notifications for when these messages are caught.
Requirements and Eligibility
Faculty and staff
CWL is required
If you are a faculty or staff at UBC, you can check your quarantine emails for email addresses that end with ubc.ca, e.g. *@ubc.ca, *@*.ubc.ca
Price
Free to faculty and staff
Learn More
Getting Started
- For step-by-step instructions on how to use Mail Sentry visit: https://cc.cybersecurity.ubc.ca/tech-ref/email-security/step-by-step-instructions-to-use-sentry-mail-ubc-ca-service
- Log in to the Mail Sentry Service
Get Help
If you identify legitimate emails in your quarantine, we would also recommend that you notify the sender that their emails are getting quarantined by UBC, so that they can inform their IT team to take corrective measures.
Contact the IT Helpdesk.