Requirements
- Active WPI Account
Introduction
In order to assist our users in identifying phishing threats, the WPI email system signifies all external inbound emails with [EXT] in the subject line of the email message. Tool tips and rules to capture attempts to impersonate WPI email addresses also improve security.
External Messages
New External Messages
[EXT] in the email subject line signifies the message was sent to you from an email address outside of WPI.
Example of an external subject line:
[EXT] Compliance Training
Internal Replies and Forwards of External Messages
External emails forwarded or replied to will still contain the marker even though the sender may be internal. The difference is that the subject line will begin with RE: or FW: followed by [EXT].
Example of an internally forwarded subject line:
FW: [EXT] Compliance Training
Example of an internally replied to subject line:
RE: [EXT] Compliance Training
Tool Tips
Safety tips and indicators for domain impersonation and first contact are enabled. These produce tips in the event that the system has noticed that:
- The domain the message was sent from looks suspicious.
- This is the first message received from an address. This is an important warning if the recipient thought they recognized the account. It can help distinguish between subtle differences used in phishing, such as using
Jboyton@wpi.edu
to impersonateJboynton@wpi.edu
.
Spoofing and Impersonation Protection
IT has enabled the Domain Protection within our phishing protection rules. This will capture messages from addresses doing email impersonations such as @wpi.edi
. If a legitimate email goes into the spam folder users can flag the message as not spam.
Safe Attachments
The default protections for Safe Attachments are enabled. This will screen for potential malware in OneDrive, Teams, SharePoint, and Microsoft Apps. Items flagged as potential malware can be viewed and downloaded, but cannot be shared within the Microsoft 365 ecosystem. This benefits WPI by preventing the spread of malware.