This page describes the NBEC/NWOCA Email filtering policy. If you were referred here by a notification that your Email was blocked or sidelined, please see the table below that describes the individual filters.
NBEC/NWOCA is an educational service agency which provides computer services to public and non-public K-12 education organizations. Email accounts provided by NWOCA and it's member districts to staff and students are intended for educational and work-related functions only. NWOCA does not provide personal or commercial email accounts to paid subscribers or individuals.
Although we make every attempt to avoid filtering legitimate Email, our automated filters
will sometimes block email inappropriately. If you believe that your email should not
have been blocked, please forward the notification to filters@nwoca.org
The NBEC/NWOCA Board of Directors has adopted a policy of content-filtering email to both student and staff accounts. The primary purpose of the content-filtering is to prevent adult-oriented material and foul language, including adult-oriented "spam" from being delivered to NWOCA's users. A secondary goal of the filtering is to reduce the amount of "spam" (unsolicited commercial Email), and other dangerous and potentially harmful Email (viruses, email scams, virus hoaxes, etc).
The following table describes specific filters applied to Email intended for or sent by a NWOCA user. If you received a notification that your Email was blocked, the name of the filter will appear in the notification.
| Filter Name | Applies To | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Block Chain Letter | Staff and Students | Attempts to detect and prevent "chain letters" of all sorts. Chain letters come in many forms and are generally intended to trick people into flooding other people's Email with junk, or are commercial spam in disguise. For example, most "missing children" chain letters are usually hoaxes or commercial spam using missing children to trick people into visiting a commercial site. Messages which have been forwarded excessively are filtered as this is primary indication of a successful chain letter. Some virus hoaxes will be caught by this filter as hoaxes and chain letters are very similar in nature. See virus and hoax links for references sites on hoaxes and chain letters. |
| Block Virus Hoax Messages | Staff and Students | Attempts to detect and prevent "virus hoaxes". Hoaxes are intended to trick people into forwarding Email to many people. They are often harmless, but in some cases contain instructions which, if followed by the recipient, would cause damage to a computer. Users should never forward a virus warning of any kind, regardless of how convincing it seems. Virus hoaxes are blocked to help prevent users from damaging their own computers by being tricked by a hoax. See virus and hoax links for information about viruses, hoaxes and other myths. |
| Staff Language Filter | Staff | A language filter primarily intended to block adult-oriented and obscene material (spam) from being delivered to staff accounts, but will sometimes block personal Email and discussion lists with casual foul language. This filter is more liberal than the corresponding student filter. |
| Student Language Filter | Students | A language filter primarily intended to block adult-oriented and obscene material from being delivered to student accounts, but will also block foul language sent to or from a student account. This filter is more strict than the corresponding staff language filter. |
| Block Dangerous Attachments | Staff(*) and Students | Attachments which may contain executable or script code (e.g. JavaScript, VBScript, etc). These sorts of attachments may harbor viruses or cause the recipient's computer to perform an unauthorized action (e.g. password snooping or document stealing). The list of dangerous attachments is based on Microsoft's list of unsafe attachments in OL2000. |
| Block JavaScript Block VBScript |
Staff(*) and Students | Blocks messages and attachments which contain JavaScript or VBScript.
These are often HTML attachments which contain programming code which may cause your browser to do
something without your consent.. Although some messages containing JavaScript are
legitimate mail, the overwhelming majority of mail containing JavaScript is
"spam" (unsolicited commercial Email). JavaScript is the technique used to
create "pop-up windows" to advertisements or causes your browser to visit a site
without your authorization. Because JavaScript and VBScript may cause
unauthorized
behavior on the recipient's computer, and can assist in the propagation of viruses, it is
filtered for NWOCA users. NWOCA will make exceptions for legitimate senders of JavaScript. If you believe you have a legitimate reason to send or receive JavaScript, send Email to filters@nwoca.org with an explanation and justification. If your mail was blocked because you forwarded a web page containing JavaScript, consider sending just the URL instead of the entire page. |
| Block Encrypted Content | ||
| Block Executable Files | Staff(*) and Students | Executable files sent as attachments represent a significant security risk
to both the user's computer and the local area network (NWOCA's network and/or the school
district's network). Such files can contain viruses, trojan horses or worms.
Users should never execute program files received via Email unless they are certain of the
source. For this reason NWOCA blocks executable files by default. However, there are some legitimate reasons for sending executable files via Email (e.g. self-extracting archives containing data). If you have a legitimate reason to transfer executable files, and do not have a more appropriate method of transferring the file, please send mail to filters@nwoca.org with an explanation. |
| * - Indicates content qualifies for "Automatic Message Release" (see below) | ||
Certain types of content (as indicated by "*" in the above table) qualify for automatic message release. This means that NWOCA's mail system will "sideline" messages with potentially dangerous or harmful content. The message will be held on your behalf for up to 30 days.
You will receive a notification that indicates mail being sent to you contains potentially dangerous content. If you wish to receive the message, simply reply to the notification message. Be sure that your reply contains the "Message release code" that was part of the notification. The release code tells the mail server which message you wish to release.
You should only request a message to be released if you are confident if you know the sender and that the content is safe.
If you routinely receive content of this type from certain people or sites, you can forward the notification to filters@nwoca.org and request that an exception be made for the sender. After an exception is made, you will no longer have to do the extra step to receive messages from that sender.
NWOCA's Email system actively scans for known viruses using Sophos Anti-Virus Software (AVS). Unfortunately, AVS software can only detect viruses that are known to it. Therefore, we can not protect NWOCA users from new or unknown viruses. All users are encouraged to have virus protection installed on their local computer. See virus and hoax links for more information about about viruses and hoaxes.
NWOCA does not currently actively block "spam" (unsolicited bulk or commercial Email). This is primarily due to the difficulty in separating "solicited" and "unsolicited" messages. In many cases, a solicited Email (one you did sign up for), will look very much like an unsolicited Email. However, NWOCA reserves the right to block spam in the future and does block spam from reported sources. When the NWOCA postmaster can detect a spammer that is clearly sending unsolicited Email, the Email will be blocked to the extent possible.
NWOCA users may report excessive spam to filters@nwoca.org. If the nature of the spam makes it suitable for filtering, the NWOCA postmaster will filter it system-wide.
However, NWOCA does provide several tools to assist users in reducing the amount of spam. See NWOCA Anti-Spam Tools for more information.