Changes to the way email is filtered

Around 45 million emails are sent to Aberdeenshire Council each year but less than 10 million of them are genuine so we need a security system that filters out spam or messages that contain some kind of threat.

Our previous filtering service contract has come to an end and we have recently secured significant savings by moving to a solution that offers us this protection as part of our current Microsoft Enterprise agreement. In the early stages, you may find that some unwanted emails are being delivered to your Inbox as the system “learns” what it should and should not block. If you do receive any, please delete or mark as Junk.

It is also possible for a legitimate email to be wrongly identified as spam, so you should regularly check your Junk folder.

You can block and unblock senders using the Filter Lists to ensure you receive only the mail you want to read.

Safe sender list

You can add names, email addresses and domains (addresses common to a particular organisation or group) to your Safe Senders List so they are never treated as junk.

You can add your contacts and other correspondents to this list, up to a maximum of 1024. All names and addresses in the council’s global address list (GAL) are automatically considered safe.

If an email has been wrongly directed to your Junk folder:

• click a message from the sender
• click Home
• click Junk
• click Never Block Sender (you can do this with emails in your Inbox to ensure that emails from a particular sender are never marked as Junk)
  

Blocked Senders list

You can block emails from a particular sender or domain, up to a maximum of 500:

• click a message from the sender
• click Home
• click Junk
• click Block Sender