Email Security Update Scheduled for Friday

05/23/2023

As mentioned in the email sent on April 11,  several changes have been implemented that are aimed at addressing system weaknesses, helping everyone more easily identify emails sent from outside of our system, and strengthening our overall email security posture.  

After seeking feedback from SLU community leadership regarding scheduling of the second round of these changes, we have determined that next weekend (Friday, May 26 through Monday, May 29) is the best option available to complete the needed work.

Anyone trying to access their SLU email account after 6:30 p.m. on Friday, May 26, will experience intermittent outages that may last throughout the weekend.

We know and apologize that this work may have impact on your work or courses, so we are sending this message out now to give you as much time as possible to mitigate any impact. We will be sending additional reminders throughout next week as well.

After these updates have been completed, individuals who use the web-based version of Outlook to access their SLU email account may see an increased frequency of requests for Multi-Factor Authentication (Okta). This will happen at times such as when leaving your email web page idle for an extended period of time or if you close the browser tab your email is on.  

When you go back to access your email, you will likely be asked to re-authenticate where you might not have been prompted previously. Individuals using the desktop version of Outlook should see no change in behavior.

Our team continues to work diligently to provide a balance so that we are ensuring proper security for you, your data, and SLU systems while minimizing the impact to your experience with all of our technologies.

We appreciate your patience and partnership as we work through implementing these important changes.

If you have questions about this or other items, need assistance with navigating this change, or run into any issues as we implement these changes, please reach out to the IT Service Desk by calling us at 314-977-4000 or by email at ask@slu.edu. 

This message was submitted by the SLU Information Technology Services team.