By Joslyn DelSignore / The Jambar
Youngstown State University Information Technology Security Services are taking steps to protect students and staff from unauthorized email attacks.
Valimail, an email authorization service, was implemented in January of this year. Before the spring semester began, IT Security Services went through testing routines to ensure the service was ready to be used.
Daniel Yoder, information security engineer and member of IT Security Services, said the final phases of Valimail will be installed by the end of the spring semester.
Valimail’s purpose is to protect YSU students, faculty and staff from outside threats and impersonation emails that look to exploit information from the university.
Yoder said the service scans emails that come in and confirms if it is official or not. If the email is not seen as official, the system will reject it, and the email will not be sent.
“It effectively tries to stop impersonation attacks where they look really identical to actual YSU addresses,” Yoder said.
IT Security Services installed the system and verified all of YSU’s official services.
Yoder and the rest of IT Security Services have confidence in Valimail’s ability to protect students from email attacks.
“We selected them because we believe that they are the best position to do the service that we’ve hired them to do,” Yoder said.
Students should not notice any changes with emails on their end, but staff should note transitional changes. IT Security Services has been working with staff for the past six months to teach them about Valimail and help them through this transition.
IT Security Services said they hope the next phase of the project will include adding a checkmark next to the verified emails to better confirm the authorization for users.
Yoder encourages students to stay vigilant in their emails even though this service is in place. He said students should be on the lookout for odd email addresses and Gmail addresses.
“It’s not gonna completely solve every single problem, but it’s gonna effectively mitigate a lot of problems,” Yoder said.
If students or staff need assistance with email issues or other technological problems, they can contact the IT Service Desk by phone at 330-941-1595 or by email at servicedesk@ysu.edu.
The IT Service Desk is located on the fourth floor of William F. Maag, Jr. Library and offers walk-up counter services from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday.