Keeping Your UBmail...Without the Spammers

Alumni on computer.

By Marissa Malone

Published May 5, 2015 This content is archived.

If you’re graduating, you may be wondering, “What happens to my UBmail?” You can keep your buffalo.edu email as long as you like, but you've got to actively use it.

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Marissa.

Marissa Malone (UB Student, Class of 2015) has a dream of traveling to all seven continents, and she’s already visited four. When not globetrotting, Marissa studies Communication, Spanish, and Management at UB while working for both UBIT and Career Services.

For years, graduated UB students, now considered UB Alumni, had the option to keep their UBmail, but only if they opted in within a few months.  Their UBmail account would stay active forever, long after most alumni stopped using it, usually within a year.  This situation created chaos for UB’s email servers.

Untouched email accounts are ripe for harvesting through a guessing game of passwords. Hackers use these accounts to send millions of spam emails, encouraging monetary investments or embedding deadly computer viruses through trusted buffalo.edu addresses. Something had to be done.

90 Day Check-In

In 2014, the Alumni Association and UB Information Technology (UBIT) teamed up to create a new alumni email policy.  

Stephen Comings, Manager of System Software for Enterprise Infrastructure Services (EIS), part of the VPCIO’s area and UB Information Technology, told us there has been an “uptick of compromised UBmail accounts over the last year.” He added, “With compromised accounts, we experience spam load problems. There is so much spam email coming in that it overloads our machines and delays email for everybody. The bad email is all mixed with the good email.” When people aren’t using their email, they are the last to know it’s been compromised.

UBIT and the Alumni Association agreed to implement a new policy for UBmail accounts after graduation, but not without some limitations. Effective immediately, all UB students will be automatically enrolled to keep their email after their degree conferral date. In order to keep UBmail active, alumni must log-in to UBmail at least once every 90 days or their email will be turned off immediately. If this happens, alumni can re-enroll to UBmail through the Alumni Association.

Alumni who log in to their UBmail regularly won’t notice any changes, and UBIT will send out two warnings should someone not check their account for a month or two before deactivating it. To avoid this, alumni just need to log into their account and the timer will reset to 90 days. If your UBmail is forwarded to another account, you still need to log in to UBmail at least once in a 90 day period to keep it active.

Keep in Touch

As an alumnus of UB, Stephen understands the importance of staying connected to UB. “Graduating students like to have buffalo.edu addresses,” he said. “It gives solidity to their degree, a professional address and maintains your affiliation with the university. Former students like to use their UBmail on job applications and resumes, to stay in touch with classmates after leaving UB and to maintain contact with what’s happening at UB. Periodically check your UBmail to help ensure that your account is still active.”

For more information, visit UB's Alumni Association.