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Internet Email Policies

(Last Revised March 14, 2014)

Below you will find Hartford HealthCare's standard policies for accepting incoming email. If you have any further questions or comments, please forward them to postmaster@hhchealth.org.

Technical Standards for Server Connections

  • Hartford HealthCare’s mail servers will not accept connections from unsecured systems. These include open relays, open proxies, open routers, or any other system that has been determined to be available for unauthorized use.
  • Hartford HealthCare’s mail servers will not accept connections from systems that use dynamically assigned or residential IP addresses.
  • Hartford HealthCare’s mail servers will not accept connections from systems that have been identified (“blacklisted”) as known or suspected spammers.
  • Hartford HealthCare's mail servers may reject connections from any IP address that does not have reverse DNS (PTR) record.
  • Complaints submitted by Hartford HealthCare employees may be used as a basis for refusing connections from any mail server.
  • Note: Senders using server connections rejected as a result of the above policies will receive a rejection notice, detailing the reasons. Carefully review that rejection notice prior to contacting Hartford HealthCare for assistance.
  • To determine if your email servers are unsecured, have a dynamic IP address, do not have a PTR record, or are blacklisted as spam, please visit http://www.dnsstuff.com/

Technical Standards for E-mail Delivery

  • Hartford HealthCare does not authorize the use of its proprietary computers and computer network to accept, transmit, or distribute unsolicited bulk e-mail sent from the Internet to Hartford HealthCare members.
  • Hartford HealthCare will not deliver email larger than 25 megabytes. This includes the message text, headers, and file attachments combined.
  • Hartford HealthCare will not deliver email that contains file attachment types commonly used to carry viruses (“banned” file types). These include (but are not limited to):
  • .EXE | .VBS | .PIF | .SCR | .BAT | .DLL | .CMD | .COM | .CPL
    (Changing the file name will not affect our ability to filter out these files.)
  • Hartford HealthCare will not deliver email that contains ZIP, TAR, GZIP or any other archived or compressed files which themselves contain banned file attachment types (see above).
    Hartford HealthCare will not deliver email that contains viruses, either within messages or file attachments.
  • Hartford HealthCare may not deliver email that contains file attachment types deemed inappropriate for business use.
  • Each incoming email is reviewed for content. Hartford HealthCare may not deliver email that contains inappropriate, non-business-related, or malicious content. Significant ongoing efforts are made to filter out and stop delivery of unsolicited commercial or bulk email (“spam”).
  • Note: Any email not delivered due to violation of the above policies will not result in any notification, either to sender or receiver

Hartford HealthCare Unsolicited Bulk E-mail Policy

Hartford HealthCare does not authorize the use of its proprietary computers and computer network to accept, transmit or distribute unsolicited bulk e-mail sent from the Internet to Hartford HealthCare employees. In addition, Internet e-mail sent, or caused to be sent, to or through the Hartford HealthCare network that makes use of or contains invalid or forged headers, invalid or non-existent domain names or other means of deceptive addressing will be deemed to be counterfeit. Any attempt to send or cause such counterfeit e-mail to be sent to or through the Hartford HealthCare network is unauthorized. Similarly, e-mail that is relayed from any third party's mail servers without the permission of that third party, or which employs similar techniques to hide or obscure the source of the e-mail, is also an unauthorized use of the Hartford HealthCare network.

Hartford HealthCare reserves the right to take all legal and technical steps available to prevent unsolicited bulk e-mail or other unauthorized e-mail from entering, utilizing or remaining within the Hartford HealthCare network. Nothing in this policy is intended to grant any right to transmit or send e-mail to, or through, the Hartford HealthCare network. Hartford HealthCare’s failure to enforce this policy in every instance in which it might have application does not amount to a waiver of Hartford HealthCare’s rights.

Unauthorized use of the Hartford HealthCare network in connection with the transmission of unsolicited bulk e-mail, including the transmission of counterfeit e-mail, may result in civil and criminal penalties against the sender, including those provided by the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (18 U.S.C. 1030 et seq.) and the Virginia Computer Crimes Act (Va. Code Ann. 18.2-152.2 et seq.) (amended effective July 1, 2003). Civil and criminal penalties may also apply to e-mail transmitted to the Hartford HealthCare network in violation of the CAN-SPAM Act of 2003.

Useful Tools for reference:

Information Technology Services
Hartford HealthCare