Sanitizer to be removed from mail.msu.edu

Mail.msu.edu has a feature called the "Sanitizer" which is intended to
help prevent infection by viruses and other malicious software.  On
March 5, 2005, we will remove the Sanitizer feature  from
Mail.msu.edu.

Background: the Sanitizer was implemented when mail.msu.edu was
launched in order to provide basic defense against viruses.  The
Sanitizer inspects attachments and looks for file types that
potentially might be harmful.   Customers tell us that the Sanitizer
is not useful because it renames many harmless attachments.

Mail.msu.edu uses the ClamAV anti-virus software to inspect all
incoming mail for known virus threats.  ClamAV uses signatures to
identify specific known threats and to block them before delivery to
the user.  Experience has shown ClamAV to be quite effective.

The mail team has learned that the Sanitizer is consuming substantial
CPU resources even though only a fraction of users have the feature
turned on.  In effect, we are paying twice for CPU to inspect mail for
viruses.  Since the Sanitizer is resource-intensive, relatively
ineffective, and duplicative, we have decided to remove the feature.
This will free resources for other improvements customers have
suggested, such as blocking unwanted mail by domain.

Current users of mail.msu.edu who have the Sanitizer turned on will
receive individual e-mails with this notice.  They do not need to take
any action.  On March 5 the functionality will be removed and the
Sanitizer option on the Preferences screen will be removed.


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m. kolb  <[log in to unmask]>