About IronPort AntiSpam

ITS implements a centralized email security method from Cisco called Ironport AntiSpam that scans all incoming email for spam before the messages are delivered to the user's inbox. IronPort detects and drops spam if the email meets the specific criteria defined by the antispam filters. IronPort's spam filters are extremely accurate; the percentage of legitimate email messages that are misidentified as spam--known as the false-positive rate--is an extremely low .001%.

ITS eliminates incoming email tagged as spam by the IronPort before it reaches the user's inbox.

Reporting Missed Spam

As with most spam control technologies, the IronPort is not 100% accurate. ITS would like to know about your experiences with missed spam so that we can work with Cisco to improve the antispam engine.

To report messages that were not properly tagged by the system, please see the Reporting Missed Spam page.

Reporting Possible Issues with USC Spam Filtering

Legitimate, non-spam messages that are accidentally tagged as spam by IronPort are called false positives. IronPort is a very effective antispam solution. However, due to the ever-changing nature of spam, false positives will occur.

If you are concerned about legitimate mail being tagged as spam, please call the ITS Customer Support Center at 213-740-5555. Be aware that USC blocks a number of domains and email addresses that have been identified as sources of spam, phishing, and other malicious content. Please check the list of these sites on the Blocked Sites page before you contact the ITS Customer Support Center, and be prepared to indicate the email address or domain name that you believe is being blocked by the IronPort spam filters.

Frequently Asked Questions

For a list of frequently asked questions and answers, please visit the IronPort Frequent Asked Questions (FAQ) page.

Getting Help

The ITS Customer Support Center can assist you with setting up filters for your email. However, consultants will not extensively troubleshoot filter rules, nor can they assist users who need finer rules than common ones.

Users requiring assistance can either call the ITS Customer Support Center at 213-740-5555 or send an email to consult@usc.edu.