Why is automatic email forwarding blocked?
Automatic forwarding of email from your university provided mailbox to an external recipient is now prohibited by the University of Missouri System Email Management Policy.
This behavior can lead to unintentional disclosure of protected, sensitive and restricted data. This poses a significant risk to the University’s ability to ensure the integrity and confidentiality of our data.
What is changing?
Effective June 2022, all methods to set up automatic forwarding to an EXTERNAL recipient will be blocked.
This includes:
- The use of inbox rules to forward, redirect or forward as an attachment
- A mailbox rule meant to forward all the contents of a user’s mailbox.
Users may still forward email manually to internal and external recipients by using the "Forward" option in their email clients.
Automatic forwarding rules that forward to internal recipients will not be affected. These are often used to support internal business processes or to facilitate continuity of service after staffing changes.
What will happen if I already have an automatic forward setup?
If a user currently has an inbox rule or mailbox rule setup to automatically forward mail, they will receive a non-delivery report (NDR) error messages every time the rule is processed. Additionally, the delivery of the message to an external recipient will fail.
If the rule is setup to forward, forward as an attachment, or keep a copy and forward, then the user who setup the rule will receive the NDR error message. If the rule is configured to redirect or forward the message and don’t keep a copy, then the original sender will receive the NDR error message.
[Screenshot] Example of the NDR Error Message
Reviewed 2022-05-18