mail.his.com outage 9/18/21

Mail for his.com and a  number of other domains is currently down and the problem has been identified.  Incoming mail is queuing on backup servers and will be delivered when the problem is resolved.  We’ll post updates here.

Update 12:30 pm 9/18/21:  this problem has been resolved.  No mail has been lost – incoming mail during the outage is queued on a backup server and will be delivered over the next 60 minutes.

Update 2:30 PM 9/18/21: queued mail for accounts affected by this outage has been delivered and operation has returned to normal.

 

Phishing Email

We’re seeing an increased number of “phishing” email messages, where the bad guys are trying to trick you into entering your email account login info, where it’s used to compromise your account.  Here’s an example of a message that appeared today.   The “click here” takes you to a site in Indonesia where you’re prompted to enter email address and password:

This message was quarantined on spam.his.com so it didn’t make it to the intended email box, but some of these get through.  If you get a message asking you to “verify your account” by logging in via a web link, it’s almost certainly bogus, and it is definitely not from us.

Verizon Outage affecting access for Verizon customers – Resolved 11:36 EST 2/10/2021

Verizon has been experiencing a widespread outage this afternoon, 2/9/2021, which has made it difficult to access some non-Verizon services, including some servers hosted by HIS, on AT&T.

At 6:30 PM ET, the problem is starting clear, but there are gaps in connectivity from Verizon.

According to https://downdetector.com, the problem is currently affecting Verizon users in DC, NYC and Boston.

Update: 1 AM 2/10/2021 The situation between Verizon and our facilities stabilized at about 12:05 AM EST 2/10/2021.  We’ll be monitoring closely to make sure things stay stable.

Update: 10:50 AM 2/10/2021 The problem reappeared at about 10 AM. Only connections from Verizon are affected, and the symptom is very slow connections at times.  We’re working with Verizon and AT&T to diagnose and resolve this.

Update:12:40 PM 2/10/2021 – the Verizon problem cleared at 11:36 AM and has been stable for an hour, with normal connections from Verizon.

Malware warning – fake “Sales Receipt” email from intuit.com addresses

We’ve just seen spam that’s supposedly from intuit.com (Quickbooks, etc.) with subjects like “Sales Receipt” or “Purchase Order Receipt” with an attached spreadsheet file.  This is a malware attack designed to trick you into opening the spreadsheet, which will install malware on your computer.  These are not from Intuit – most are from hacked servers in Brazil and Italy.

In nearly all cases, these were blocked or quarantined on spam.his.com, but if you’ve whitelisted intuit.com the spam may have been forwarded to you anyway since you’ve exempted that domain from checking.

If you got one of these, or find one in your spam quarantine, don’t open the attached file, which will have a name like “Sales_Receipt_8602.xls”.

spam.his.com web interface down 4/14/2020 – resolved

The web interface on https://spam.his.com went down at 10:45 PM EDT 4/14/2020 during a planned software upgrade.

We’re waiting for  support from Barracuda.  While we’re working on this issue, mail is flowing normally, but https://spam.his.com users can’t check their spam quarantines.

Update:  11:42 EDT 4/15/2020 – Barracuda was able to resolve the problem and the https://spam.his.com interface is back up and quarantines can be checked.

Phishing email from “Zimbra Webmail Team”

We’re seeing more phishing email aimed at Zimbra accounts.  This example came from a hacked account in Sri Lanka, claiming to be from “Zimbra Webmail Team”:

Your Mail Box Exceeded it storage limit CLICK HERE TO UNBLOCK  or use
the link below Fill and click SUBMIT for more space or you won’t be
able to send/receive Mail.

<bogus link removed ...>

Verify Now
Best Regards,
2019/2020 © Mail Report.

The idea is to trick you into entering your email address and password on the bad guys’ server so they’ll be able to hack your account.

Our Barracuda spam filtering blocks 99%+ of this stuff, but some still gets through.

Be on the alert for suspicious-looking messages.  This one wasn’t well done, but we’ve seen some that were pretty clever, with good formatting, logos, etc.

If you want to check your disk space on a Zimbra account, log on to webmail – you’ll see an indicator in the upper-right corner that shows where you stand in terms of storage allowance.

If you want to change your password on a Zimbra account, log on to webmail and click “Preferences”.

spam.his.com links from quarantine email broken on some domains 3/11/2019 – Resolved

Update:  this has been resolved as of 11 AM EDT, 3/12/2019

Clicking the link in spam.his.com quarantine notifications in some Browsers (Chrome, Firefox) may take you to a temporary error page.  Logging in directly to https://spam.his.com works normally.

We’re working with Barracuda to remedy this.  In the meantime, log in directly to https://spam.his.com with your email address and password if you have any problems following the link from your email quarantine notification.

Phishing email – proceed with caution

Our multi-layer Barracuda spam/virus/malware filtering is very effective, but some bad things do slip through when the bad guys come up with new tricks and send email before the spam filters get updated.

Here’s an example that came in today, claiming to be from Chase and asking the recipient to correct something about their account.  When viewing the message on a computer you can hover the mouse over any links provided and see if they look real – in this case, doing that showed that the link actually went to a compromised server in Bosnia/Herzegovina:

When in doubt, don’t click on links in email that claim to be from your bank or an online merchant.  Log on to your account manually and decide whether any action needs to be taken.

Zimbra mail login issue 10/5/2018 – resolved

There was a problem this morning (Friday, 10/5/2018) with Zimbra mail logins (mail.his.com, dc.his.com, etc.) that caused logins from either webmail or regular email software to be extremely slow.  This was resolved around 10 AM.  We’re working with the vendor to identify the cause.

Zimbra mail servers upgrades

We are in the process of upgrading our Zimbra mail servers.
The new Zimbra mail server will not support un-encrypted connections.

If you are experiencing issues connection to the new server after the upgrade, see our articles under the Securing Email connections section of our Knowledge Base.

Call our 24/7 Phone Support, they will be happy to help you:
1-301-255-0500
Option #2: Tech. Support,
then Option #1: Email Tech. Support