ECU Email Auto-Forwarding Recently Disabled

ECU disabled the ability to auto-forward* ECU messages to an external, non-ECU account on Monday, April 1, 2024.

This includes both auto-forwarding your entire ECU email account and creating an Outlook rule that auto-forwards incoming messages to a non-ECU email.

Why is auto-forwarding being disabled?

Auto-forwarding can open security vulnerabilities. For example, if your non-ECU mailbox is compromised, hackers have access to forwarded ECU messages, including any that contain sensitive data. This is true whether you create an inbox rule or forward your entire ECU account.

Another scenario is where a hacker gains access to your ECU mailbox through phishing, then creates a mailbox rule (in your account!) to auto-forward your messages to an external account.

These auto-forward rules are persistent, meaning that no matter if you change your password or the account is disabled, the rule remains active.

What does this mean for me?

If you are one of the 1500 or so ECU users who who was auto-forwarding your ECU email to a non-ECU email account, be aware that your ECU messages no longer auto-forward to the non-ECU mailbox. You will want to remove mailbox rules or account auto-forwarding to avoid bounced email notifications.

We thank you for your cooperation and understanding in protecting ECU’s information. If you have questions or concerns, please contact the IT Service Desk at 252-328-9866.

*Note that users are still able to auto-forward ECU email to other ECU users and manually forward messages to any email address, ECU or non-ECU.

Post expires at 10:56am on Thursday September 26th, 2024