How do I use Tumbleweed to secure my outgoing email messages?

What is Tumbleweed?

Tumbleweed is a software system used to protect outgoing confidential email messages leaving the School of Medicine network. The Tumbleweed system secures confidential messages by storing them on a secure server within the School of Medicine. Tumbleweed sends an alert email to the intended recipient that a secure message is waiting for pickup. The recipient can fetch the waiting message by using information in the alert email.

The Tumbleweed System is configured to store confidential messages for 60 days. It handles messages sent to recipients outside of the School of Medicine (med.unc.edu) or UNC Healthcare System (unch.unc.edu and unchealthcare.com). An outgoing message is determined to be secure if the Subject line begins with the phrase "(secure)" (without quotation marks).

How do I use it from on campus?

For on campus users, Tumbleweed is easy to use. Just follow these steps:

1. Make sure the outgoing email server in your mail program is set to smtp.med.unc.edu.

Add the key phrase "(secure)" to the beginning of the Subject line of any confidential email message to be managed by Tumbleweed. For example:

Complete the message and send it out.

The School of Medicine mail servers route all outgoing email messages through Tumbleweed. Tumbleweed will store email messages flagged by the key phrase and will pass along all others unchanged.

How do I use it from off campus?

The simplest way to use Tumbleweed from off campus is to send confidential email through webmail (mail.med.unc.edu) using the key phrase "(secure)" as described above. Mail messages created in webmail originate from the webmail server and are always accepted by School of Medicine outgoing mail servers.

Those who wish to use a local mail client like Mozilla, Thunderbird, or Outlook from off campus will need to perform additional work to take advantage of Tumbleweed. The School of Medicine email servers do not allow mail relaying, such as sending to non-med.unc.edu addresses, from outside computers. To access our outgoing email servers and Tumbleweed from an off campus location, you must use webmail (described above), the School of Medicine VPN, or a secure remote technology like Microsoft's Remote Desktop.

A remote computer can connect to the School of Medicine VPN server and can use resources on the School's network as if the computer were on campus. This will allow a remote computer to send email messages from Outlook, Thunderbird, etc. out through School of Medicine outgoing mail servers. Please check the School of Medicine VPN configuration guide (http://help.med.unc.edu/pubs/faqpubs/med_vpn.htm) to learn how to install, configure, and use the VPN software. After establishing a VPN session, follow the steps above for the on campus use including checking outgoing email server settings, using the key phrase "(secure)", and clicking send.

Another alternative for off campus use is to securely connect to an on campus computer using a technology like Remote Desktop. In this scenario, the remote computer connects to a computer on the School of Medicine network. The School of Medicine computer then sends out the message through the correct outgoing mail server smtp.med.unc.edu. Using Remote Desktop solves the same problem as the VPN but uses a personal computer on the School of Medicine network instead of the central VPN server.    

What happens to the message?

Tumbleweed stores messages that use the key phrase "(secure)" and sends to the recipient a notification message.   

The recipient can then view the confidential message by using the secure link within the notification. The recipient may retrieve any attachments in the secure message. Recipients of held messages are automatically enrolled within Tumbleweed and do not need to use a password to view the contents of the message.

Any message that does not contain the key phrase "(secure)" will not be stored in Tumbleweed and will be passed on to the recipient unchanged.


Will all messages tagged with "(secure)" be sent securely?

No. Only messages that are sent to email addresses outside of the med.unc.edu, unch.unc.edu, or unchealthcare.org will be sent through the secure delivery system. Addressees within those three mail systems will receive the message unencrypted, with the (secure) label left intact. For example:

This message would be delivered through the secure delivery system:
To: recipient@yahoo.com
Subject: (secure) This is a test

This message would be delivered unencrypted with the subject line as is:
To: doctorjohn@unchealthcare.org
Subject: (secure) This is a test

This message would deliver an unencrypted copy to unchealthcare.org and encrypted messages to the yahoo.com and unc.edu addresses:
To: doctorjohn@unchealthcare.org; recipient@yahoo.com; student@unc.edu
Subject: (secure) This is a test

How long does Tumbleweed store the message?

Tumbleweed stores confidential messages for 60 days. Messages will be unavailable for retrieval after that time.