What is happening?
Executable files are one of the main ways that viruses and malware are spread. These are often distributed as an attachment to email messages. For very many years the University has blocked executable attachments from being received over email. However, increasingly the executable files are being included within archive files such as ZIP, RAR and TAR.
For your protection we are extending the block to include executables sent within ZIP archives and other archive types. This block will be introduced on Friday 20 December 2013.
What you should do?
If you require to send or receive ZIP files, or other archive types, that contain executable files then we recommend that you use the University ZendTo service - https://zendto.abdn.ac.uk A news item on ZendTo can be found here - http://www.abdn.ac.uk/staffnet/news/5535
If you believe that you should have received a message from someone containing an executable we would recommend that you contact the sender and advise them to use the ZendTo service.