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 impersonate  Jboynton@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.