ePals Policy Management

Tutorial # 16

In this tutorial, we will

inform you about
safety features of
ePals through Policy
Management. This
involves some
technical detail.
Goals of this Tutorial
Learning Objective: Understand what SchoolMail offers

This tutorial will explain the basics of Policy

Management
• What is it?
• Understand Policy
Management and
how it works within
SchoolMail
Policy Management: 3 Tracks
Learning Objective: Understand Policy Management and how it works within SchoolMail

• ePals SchoolMail uses three technology approaches to create

safe and secure communications:
 Domain Security: firewalls and access policies
 Message Security: filtering and moderating
 Application of Rules-based Controls: specification of roles,
organizational hierarchy, etc. (Who can a sophomore send to or get
email from?)
• These are more commonly found in compliance-oriented
enterprises like banks and large companies
• Consumer-based email systems do not typically have these
safety strategies
• Gmail, Yahoomail do not have monitoring of student accounts
Policy Management Framework
Learning Objective: Understand Policy Management and how it works within SchoolMail

Allows authorized administrators to “set” policy in varying ways

for every user of the system. Policy is enforced for every mail
sent and received by the system.
Can apply both to mail:
• from outside the domain (student gets email from the
Internet, a reply to a question asked of an author)
• from within the domain (email sent from one student to
another using their SchoolMail accounts)
Most email systems apply filtering solely to a domain boundary, a
much weaker strategy.
Policy Management Components
Learning Objective: Understand Policy Management and how it works within SchoolMail

ePals SchoolMail policy management

framework has five core components:
• Domain Security
• Message Security (filtering and moderation)
• Rules-Based Controls
• Manageability
• Information Security and Compliance
Policy Management
Learning Objective: Understand Policy Management and how it works within SchoolMail

From an end user’s point of view, policy management in

SchoolMail is defined mainly by understanding capabilities of
Domain Security, Message Security and Rules-based Controls.

Generally, most K12 applicable systems implement Domain

Security and have some Message Security in the form of content
filtering for messages into and out of the domain.

ePals distinguishes itself particularly in the areas of Rule-Based

Controls and Message Security, especially as it relates to rule-
based controls, not just domain-based controls.
Domain Security
Learning Objective: Understand Policy Management and how it works within SchoolMail

ePals provides filtering at the domain boundary—the scope of

defined policies are limited to the specified domain and its
members.
Application of filtering rules at the domain boundary – Spam,
AntiVirus and application of Message Based security.
While ePals does more, typical systems do these items only:
 Apply Spam and Antivirus checks to incoming mail only
 Have message security policies for inter-domain traffic only
 Have profanity filtering/ moderation at the mailbox level only
ePals allows application of policies for incoming and outgoing
traffic, and for inter-domain as well as intra-domain traffic.
Message Security
Learning Objective: Understand Policy Management and how it works within SchoolMail

Monitoring: analogous to cc – route a copy of the message to a

moderator
Moderation: route to a human for review and action – approval,
rejection
Attachment filtering at mime type level: options include block;
monitor; moderate; allow
Message content filtering: filter for inappropriate words and
then take some action on “flagged” messages -- monitor (cc),
route for moderation, block
 Message Security
Learning Objective: Understand Policy Management and how it works within SchoolMail

Inappropriate word filtering: for profanity, problem words or

policy abuse

 Uses methods and algorithms analogous to Spam filters,

where the textual content of a message (or an attachment) is
scanned against filter-words lists and matching patterns
(“regular expressions”), and receive a score.

 Lists can be updated using a management console to take

into account variations, rapidly changing vocabulary, new
slang.
Rules-Based Controls
Learning Objective: Understand Policy Management and how it works within SchoolMail

Real world organization structure is established and users are

created as members of these structures within a domain
(district, network of schools, school, class group, grade level)

Every user can be assigned one or more roles (student,

educator, guardian, administrator, moderator) and placed
within one or more levels of organizational structure.
User 1 is a student at PS134 in 4th grade
User 2 is an educator at Bronx Science and a moderator
User 3 is a guardian at Jefferson Middle School
Rules-Based Controls: Examples
Learning Objective: Understand Policy Management and how it works within SchoolMail

Relationships between users are established:

a) School-based relationships
• My teacher
• My guardian
• User 3 is a guardian of User 1, who is a 4th grader at PS134

b) Social-based for collaboration (Science Club)

User 1 is a student at PS134 in 4th grade
User 2 is an educator at Bronx Science and a moderator
User 3 is a guardian at Jefferson Middle School
 Summary
Learning Objective: Summarize Policy Management and student safety measures

Multiple layers of student safety

• Filter level (set by teacher for student)
• Access level (set by district or school)
• Adult preview available, incoming and outgoing mail
• Adult gets copy of each email (if requested)
• Only adults confirmed to be teachers or
homeschooling parents are added to the community
• Adults have profiles (not students)
• Privacy of student data (TRUSTe certification)
• Attachments can be previewed (set by teacher)
Review
Learning Objective: SchoolMail Policy Management

This tutorial explained:

• Why ePals’ Policy
Management is
Stronger than
General Market
eMail Systems and
Safer for Education