MimeCast - Email Security Gateway
WCU uses Mimecast, a cloud-based service designed to simplify email risk management, heighten email security and improve cyber resilience. In short Mimecast protects against spam, malware and viruses.
Mimecast’s Targeted Threat Protection suite steps up the security measures to defend
against malicious email attachments, impersonation fraud and malicious URLs.
For more information you can read more about Mimecast Email Security. If you are looking for information about the previous Spam control, you can see the
information about Barracuda at the bottom of this page.
Log into Mimecast
Spam Information
What is Spam?
Spam is the term used for any unsolicited email. A better description of spam is email that is unsolicited and does not have a legitimate return address label. There are email messages that you receive that are still unsolicited; however, they are coming from legitimate sources.
How did I get on their lists?
There are many ways your email address could have been submitted to a list. First, you may have subscribed to an email distribution list or filled out an online form for a company that does not have a privacy policy. The distribution list owner most likely sold the list to an email distributor.
Another method is by specialized software that hunts for email addresses. The software is set loose on web sites, bulletin boards, Usenet, and other documents published on the internet. These address hunters, create their lists, and use them for email distributors.
Finally, there's the sneaky way... The spammers send a message to some list that they have. However, that list may have lots of invalid addresses. So, they clean it up by putting a link on the bottom of a message telling you to "click here" to remove yourself from the list. Once you click here, the spammer now knows that this was a valid address, and moves your email address to a "good" list.
What do I do now?
This is a difficult question to answer. The answer is "it depends." If it is true spam, there may not be an easy way to get your address off their lists. However, if it is unsolicited email from a legitimate company, you can compose a new message (don't reply) to the company that is "advertised". Ask them to remove your email address from their list. Many times legitimate companies have a generic address such as abuse@company.com, or postmaster@company.com.
With true spam, the return address is usually invalid. Therefore, it is difficult to determine who really sent it. Many times you'll see spam from Gmail.com or Yahoo.com. These are just about impossible to trace without a lot of technical research to trace the message. These messages probably traversed many networks or even countries before it ended up in your Inbox.
How do I avoid getting on lists?
Further Information
If you have any questions about spam or unsolicited email that you received, you can contact the Help Desk for assistance.
Links
Mimecast Email Security/Spam Filter
Logging In
- Open an internet browser and type the following in the address bar: https://wcupa.login-us.mimecast.com/
- Log in using your WCU username and password
Personal On-Hold Mail (Quarantine)
Mimecast's Personal On Hold contains your emails that have been quarantined by the spam filter. follow this guide to learn how to reject (block) or release (deliver) emails in your Personal On Hold.
Managing your Lists of Contacts
Previously called Whitelist & Blocklist, Mimecast allows you to create and maintain your own personal Permitted and Blocked Senders list.
Reporting Spam/Phishing
You can view all your email from within the Mimecast Personal Portal. This guide shows you how to block senders or report spam/phishing emails to Mimecast.