Ithaca College

ITS is pleased to announce that a new security feature known as SSL encryption has been enabled on the IC email system. This feature will require many users of the IC email system to make changes to their email program settings in order for the program to continue to send and receive email successfully. The settings must be changed before October 25, 2006.

Who Needs to Make Changes

• Anyone who accesses an IC email account from non-Webmail programs such as Thunderbird, Mac Mail or others, either from on campus (including residence halls) or off campus
• Anyone who accesses an IC email account from a PDA

Note: People who use Webmail exclusively (https://webmail.ithaca.edu) do NOT need to make any changes; SSL was implemented on the Webmail server for all Webmail users this past July.

How to Make the Changes

Thunderbird (for PCs) and Mac Mail (for Macs) are the supported programs for college-owned computers and instructions for enabling the SSL options in those programs can be found in this guide. The guide also provides instructions for enabling SSL for two PDA email programs, VersaMail and SnapperMail.

Users who access an IC email account from programs other than Thunderbird or Mac Mail (either on a college-owned or personally-owned computer) must also enable SSL and should check their email program’s online help for assistance in configuring the SSL settings. ITS will be happy to provide users of non-supported email programs with help in switching to Thunderbird or Mac Mail.

About SSL

SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) improves security and privacy for email messages sent within the IC email system, and is part of the overall college initiative to increase information security as announced in a recent Intercom article. SSL is a means of scrambling the information contained in an email message (such as the email account password and message content) while the message travels within the IC email system. It is important to note that once an email message leaves the IC email system en route to any non-Ithaca email address, the secure encryption no longer applies.

SSL is also commonly used for secure transactions on websites that involve online banking or shopping. There are two ways to tell if a website is secure: (1) The web address will start with https instead of http, (2) a padlock icon will be displayed somewhere along the web browser’s information bar at the bottom of the window.

Please contact the ITS Helpdesk (helpdesk@ithaca.edu or 4-3282) if you have questions or experience problems changing email settings.