Decluttering Your GatorMail Inbox

GatorMail is the University of Florida’s free email and collaboration tool available to faculty, students, and staff. GatorMail is the most secure, convenient way to send and receive emails while you’re a part of the UF community.

Although UF’s Information Security Office employs advanced technologies that block hundreds of millions of malicious external emails each year, some spam, junk, and phishing emails still can make their way into your inbox. It can be more challenging to filter out phishing emails, especially spear phishing messages tailored specifically to the recipient. If you ever receive a suspected phishing email in your GatorMail, report it directly to UF’s Information Security Office by using the Phish Alert Button.

GatorMail’s junk settings can help keep your inbox virtually free of unsolicited messages. Did you know you can report junk, block specific senders and domains, and add filters to your GatorMail? Microsoft Outlook also offers the Clean Up Conversation tool to reduce the number of redundant messages in your inbox. To help prevent spam, it’s not recommended to use your UF email address for third-party accounts and listservs.

Visit https://www.mail.ufl.edu/managing-email/securing-gatormail/ to review UFIT’s email safety tips, including steps to report spam and GatorMail’s email security policies. And, if you need any assistance setting up a GatorMail inbox rule, just stop by the UFIT Help Desk at 132 Hub, across from the Starbucks.

Changes Coming to GatorMail – Nov. 1

On November 1, changes will be made to improve the security of UF GatorMail. UFIT will implement Microsoft 365 features into email, including how faculty and staff manage spam. With these updates, for the first time students can use a spam filter with their UF email. The bullets listed below detail the changes included in this effort. More information on how to work with the new quarantine, spam, and the block/allow features are on the GatorMail website.

Starting November 1, spam quarantine notification emails will come from quarantine@messaging.microsoft.com, rather than proofpoint-pps@ufl.edu
The web portal URL for managing quarantine emails is located at https://security.microsoft.com/quarantine
The Microsoft spam filter can be used to manage the blocking and allowing of senders through options in Outlook. Everything is all in one application, instead of a separate service

For more information, please visit the GatorMail how to check for spam webpage. Your local IT support can also assist you, as well as the UF Computing Help Desk (352-392-HELP/4357, helpdesk@ufl.edu).

IT Info Page for New Students

Want to know what the student tech requirements are for UF? Learn them and be prepared for Gator academic life by visiting UFIT’s student resources site.

Bookmark the site to easily access information about technology services and systems, including:

UFIT Help Desk location and services
UF Canvas e-Learning system, used for most courses
UF email (GatorMail) assistance and how to get GatorMail on your phone
Where to get a Gator 1 Card (your campus ID)
Location of labs and learning spaces and what each space has available
Establishing two-factor authentication (2FA) for UF accounts
How to make the most of ONE.UF

UFIT wants to help students get a smooth start to academic life. Anyone experiencing a technical issue with their GatorLink account, having an eduroam internet connection issue, or other campus IT need may call (352-392-HELP/4357) or visit (132 Hub) the UFIT Help Desk. Help Desk in-person walk-in hours are posted here.

Storage Transition for Graduating Gators

As commencement draws near, graduating students should prepare to separate from campus IT services. This includes content stored in UF GatorCloud apps and UFApps, as well as GatorMail. Students separating from the university transition to alumni status 365 days after their last semester taking classes. While you prepare to graduate, make time to move files before your access becomes limited.

GatorCloud: Files saved to UF OneDrive, Google Suite, and/or Dropbox services are accessible for up to 365 days after graduation. Relocate your files to a personal storage location to avoid losing important information.
UFApps: UFApps is not intended to be a long-term storage solution. Be sure to save any coursework files you want to keep to a personal external storage system before leaving UF.
GatorMail: GatorMail: After 365 days, graduating students are no longer eligible for GatorMail. Using your GatorMail address for third-party accounts will cause access problems, so change your login address to another email account.

Contact the UFIT Help Desk (352-392-HELP/4357) for assistance with any of service transitions listed here. Congratulations to the class of 2022, and Go Gators!

Encryption Feature Available in O365

UF’s GatorMail (O365) service includes an easy and fast way to encrypt email. Encryption protects the privacy of an email message and its attachments by converting the contents from readable text into scrambled text. When you encrypt the email, only the recipient(s) who have the encryption key can unscramble the message and read what you sent. Anyone without the corresponding private key–like an unintended recipient or cyberthief–sees only indecipherable text. UFIT recently completed a project to migrate UF mailboxes to O365, known as GatorMail. Within GatorMail is a new button called Encrypt. (See story image.) Here’s how to use:

1. In an email message, choose Options on the navigation menu and select Encrypt.
2. Choose the encryption restrictions you want the message to have, such as Encrypt-Only or Do Not Forward.

Visit https://www.mail.ufl.edu/‘s “Managing Email” section for more information on how encryption works and other secure emailing tips.