{"id":19777,"date":"2003-01-17T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2003-01-17T06:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/2003\/01\/17\/mitigating-out-of-office-reply-risks\/"},"modified":"2003-01-17T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2003-01-17T06:00:00","slug":"mitigating-out-of-office-reply-risks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/2003\/01\/17\/mitigating-out-of-office-reply-risks\/","title":{"rendered":"Mitigating out-of-office reply risks"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"panel body-content\"><div class=\"panel__container\"><p>Many employees bound for vacation enable their Lotus Notes&#8217; out-of-office function and modify their voice mail message so those sending e-mail messages or calling know they are unable to respond to incoming messages. But is there a potential security risk in doing so?<\/p>\n<p>Perhaps, but UNMC&#8217;s Information Technology Services staff says there are reasonable steps employees may take to mitigate potential risks without disabling the out-of-office function.<\/p>\n<p>To mitigate any potential risks, ITS recommends employees:<br \/>\n<UL><LI>Configure their out-of-office agent so it does not reply to Internet addresses. Doing so, will keep the message from getting looped into a listserve. It also minimizes other risks by not releasing the out-of-office information outside of the company\/organization. To configure the out-of-office agent, users can click on the &#8220;Exceptions&#8221; tab and click the checkbox that says &#8220;do not automatically reply to mail from Internet addresses.&#8221;  (Questions, contact the HelpDesk at 559-7700)<\/p>\n<p><LI>Be advised of the potential risks posed by out-of-office messages.<\/p>\n<p><LI>Using vague wording, such as &#8220;currently unable to reply until xx\/xx\/xx&#8221; or &#8220;not in the office at the moment.&#8221; Avoid saying that you are on vacation.<\/p>\n<p><LI>Do not provide your mobile or home phone number, address, or hotel contact information within the out-of-office message.<\/p>\n<p><LI>Do provide alternative contact details and make sure that the designated person is fully briefed regarding your absence so they do not give information to unidentified callers.<\/UL><\/p>\n<p>Last year, a United Kingdom organization warned its members of the potential security risk posed by automated out-of-office messages, identifying three main risks with automated out-of-office messages:<\/p>\n<p><UL><LI><b>Risk to personal property <\/b> &#8211;If an individual sends a message to a large e-mail list, and a user&#8217;s out-of-office agent replies to the message it could potentially let the sender know you are out of town and make your home the target of a break-in.<\/p>\n<p><LI><b>Risk to UNMC campus security <\/b> &#8212; Similar to the above scenario, the message may tell the sender that your log-on ID is not in use, prompting them to experiment with it or try to hack into the system.<\/p>\n<p><LI><b>Personal privacy concerns<\/b> &#8212; If you leave personal or cell phone numbers or hotel information on your out-of-office message, it could be abused for unsolicited purposes.<\/UL><\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Many employees bound for vacation enable their Lotus Notes&#8217; out-of-office function and modify their voice mail message so those sending e-mail messages or calling know they are unable to respond to incoming messages. But is there a potential security risk in doing so?<\/p>\n<p>Perhaps, but UNMC&#8217;s Information Technology Services staff says there are reasonable steps employees may take to mitigate potential risks without disabling the out-of-office function.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_relevanssi_hide_post":"","_relevanssi_hide_content":"","_relevanssi_pin_for_all":"","_relevanssi_pin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_unpin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_include_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_exclude_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_no_append":"","_relevanssi_related_not_related":"","_relevanssi_related_posts":"","_relevanssi_noindex_reason":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19777","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","department-unmc-today-todays-headlines"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Mitigating out-of-office reply risks<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Many employees bound for vacation enable their Lotus Notes&#039; out-of-office function and modify their voice mail message so those sending e-mail messages or calling know they are unable to respond to incoming messages. But is there a potential security risk in doing so?  Perhaps, but UNMC&#039;s Information Technology Services staff says there are reasonable steps employees may take to mitigate potential risks without disabling the out-of-office function.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/2003\/01\/17\/mitigating-out-of-office-reply-risks\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Mitigating out-of-office reply risks\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Many employees bound for vacation enable their Lotus Notes&#039; out-of-office function and modify their voice mail message so those sending e-mail messages or calling know they are unable to respond to incoming messages. But is there a potential security risk in doing so?  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