Security enhancements to email could affect international travelers

International travelers using their Purdue email outside of the United States should begin using Microsoft’s Office 365 and multi-factor authentication for their email if they are not doing so already.  

In June, Purdue System Security plans to enact a geo-block for email that does not use Office 365 and Microsoft Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) and is being sent from an international IP address. This is being done as part of the MFA deployment to ensure all University email is protected, including any sent outside of Office 365.  

Most users at Purdue already use Office 365 and MFA for their email and will not be affected by the change.   Anyone still using SMTP servers at the West Lafayette campus (smtp.purdue.edu) is highly encouraged to switch to Office 365. If Office 365 cannot be used for some reason, international users can continue to use on-premise mail servers by first connecting to a campus VPN.  

For more information about how to move your email to Micrsoft O365, contact itap@purdue.edu.  

The enabling of the geo-block for international IP addresses is only the latest effort to improve email security threatened by phishing, impersonation, and other attacks. A move to restrict the use of SMTP emails to the Purdue campus (geo-blocking all IP addresses not on the Purdue campus) is under consideration and is likely to go into effect later this year.  

Last updated: May 4, 2022