Beginning on May 5^th, 2023, recipient rate settings will limit the number of emails an individual can send from their Office365 mailbox. 

 

What groups are affected by the limits?

Students who have applied, or are admitted but not enrolled.

• 50 internal recipients per hour. 

• 50 external recipients per hour. 

• 500 recipients per day.

                                                                                                                                                   

Students, alumni, and retirees without an employee role. 

• 250 internal recipients per hour. 

• 250 external recipients per hour. 

• 600 recipients per day.

 

Current Employees and Mail Enabled Service accounts for all campuses

• Limited by Office365 sending limits that can be found here: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/office365/servicedescriptions/exchange-online-service-description/exchange-online-limits#sending-limits-1

 

Why are these limits in place?   

The limits will reduce the impact and spread of credential harvesting and phishing attacks. 

 

What happens if I exceed one of the limits?   

If an individual sends an email that would put them over one of their limits, the email will fail to deliver to all recipients.  

Their account would be restricted from sending mail until reviewed by an Administrator.  

An alert will be sent to IT Security to review. 

Logins for your account may be blocked if the sent emails are deemed malicious.

 

What should I do if my account is restricted due to exceeding one of the limits? 

You can contact the Helpdesk at helpdesk@okstate.edu or 405-744-4357. 

If logins for your account are blocked, you may receive further instructions for account recovery. 

 

• Will I receive an error message if I break the limit?

  An email delivery failure notice will be sent to the sender for each email they send after being restricted. It will list all email addresses for which email delivery was blocked. The error reason will be “Sending email address not recognized as a valid sender” or “550 5.1.8 Access denied, bad outbound sender.” 

• What if I regularly need to send mass emails?

  There are a few options available that can be requested by a sponsoring department’s ITC. 

  1. Mail-enabled service accounts.

     1. A separate mailbox that can be used to send mail.

     2. Documentation: https://it.okstate.edu/services/service-accounts/index.html

  2. Exchange Email Distribution lists

     1. Can be populated automatically based on department or other information.

     2. Limited to internal recipients only.

  3. Listserv mailing list.

     1. The recipient list must be manually updated.

     2. These lists can include internal or external recipients.

     3. Documentation: https://it.okstate.edu/services/email-lists/

• What if I still need an exception to the sending limits?

  Note: We cannot make an exception for the 10,000 recipients per day limit. 

  An exception will need to be sponsored by a department’s ITC.