Email Blocked Attachments

Most attempts to cull your account credentials or infect your computer with malware come to you as email attachments.

In order to better protect Georgia Southern’s community against malicious email attachments that pose as legitimate email, Georgia Southern’s email system blocks many types of attachments. This is commonly done among our peer institutions and the industry in general.

Every message that is sent to any Georgia Southern email address is checked for attachments. Messages that include one or more of the blocked file types (see below) have the attachment removed and a message inserted into the email.

If a legitimate attachment is blocked, use an alternative method to share the file. Google Drive makes it easy for one person to store a file in the cloud and grant another person the rights to download it.

Details of the Process

• All messages sent or received are checked. This includes:
  • messages sent FROM Georgia Southern University addresses (faculty, staff, students)
  • messages sent TO Georgia Southern University email addresses (faculty, staff, students)
• When a blocked attachment type is found, the attachment is removed from the email and a message is inserted at the end of the email message.

Along with file types that are blocked automatically by Google, the following file types are also blocked:

.386,.3gr,.add,.ade,.asp,.bas,.crt,.dbx,.dll,.fon,.hlp,.inf,.ins,.js,.mdb,.msi,.ocx,.pcd,.reg,.shs,.url,.html

Last updated: 1/27/2017