Management Information Sheet
Update on issue sending emails to Microsoft accounts
The problem is caused when school users send group emails to non-existent @hotmail.com, @live.com, @msn.com @outlook.com email addresses causing multiple tries and failures as well as some school machines infected by malware, resulting in a large amount of SPAM emails being sent from school email accounts to Microsoft account. The result of all this SPAM is that the BT servers have been "blacklisted" by Microsoft so school emails are not reaching Microsoft accounts.
The cause of this could be down to various situations:
- Schools on our domain sending emails to parents who are clicking to mark the email as spam
- A school has a machine that is infected with malware and it is sending out junk emails
- Emails sent to parents who no longer have those accounts
The steps taken to resolve the issue:
We have identified the schools that were causing problems by generating so much SPAM that contributed to the blacklisting and we have spoken to them to resolve this and below is the guidance for all schools.
We would like to remind ALL users of the importance of the following:
Please ensure that anti-virus software is installed and is up to date on every device. This includes not only school issued equipment but also personal smartphones, tablets and laptops/desktops that connect to the school network. The issue has likely arisen because devices were infected with malware which generated a large volume of SPAM emails, resulting in the blacklisting of the norfolk.sch.uk email servers.
Please ensure any distribution lists that you have created are regularly maintained to ensure that they are up to date. This prevents emails being sent to invalid email addresses which, if there is a large number involved, can be interpreted as a SPAM attack. Under principle 4 of the Data Protection users must "take reasonable steps to ensure the accuracy of any personal data you obtain".
Please ensure that parents are aware of the email addresses that you will be sending emails to them from. This will prevent them potentially being marked as SPAM which will assist the email servers from being blacklisted again.
Please note that the blacklisting still exists so you will not be able to email these accounts at present. This has been escalated within BT and Microsoft to get this resolved as quickly as possible.