Spam & Phishing Protection
Shippensburg University utilizes several systems to protect university email from spam and phishing attempts.
Junk E-mail
Incoming messages that are suspected to be spam are placed in your Junk Email folder in Microsoft Outlook. You may choose to review these messages on a regular basis to ensure that there are no legitimate messages being stopped. If you encounter a message that should not have been marked as junk, you can simply move it to your Inbox folder. This will “train” the system to deliver similar future messages to your Inbox.
Messages in the Junk Email folder will be retained for 30 days, after which they are automatically deleted from your mailbox.
Graymail & Promotions Folder
Ship users will also notice a Promotions folder in their Outlook mailbox. Our AI-based email filtering system will automatically place promotional/marketing messages and other (typically non-solicited) messages in this folder in order to reduce inbox clutter.
Please review the Promotions folder on a regular basis to ensure that there are no messages there that need to be acted upon.
If you come across messages in the Promotions folder that you would like to see in your Inbox, simply drag and drop them into the Inbox. Conversely, moving a message from the Inbox to the Promotions folder will ensure that future messages from that sender are directed to your Promotions folder.
By moving messages between your Promotions and Inbox folders, you can help the system learn your graymail preferences and tailor your Inbox experience.
Demo
Please click below for an interactive demo of how the Promotions folder works:
Phishing
According to the definition provided by KnowBe4, "Phishing is the process of attempting to acquire sensitive information such as usernames, passwords and credit card details by masquerading as a trustworthy entity using bulk email which tries to evade spam filters.
Emails claiming to be from popular social web sites, banks, auction sites, or IT administrators are commonly used to lure the unsuspecting public. It’s a form of criminally fraudulent social engineering."
(Credit: KnowBe4.com)
Phish Alert Button
The Phish Alert Button (PAB) in Microsoft Outlook allows you to report malicious emails to help keep the university secure. You can use this button to report any suspicious or potentially dangerous emails. If you get a suspicious email, click the Phish Alert button and the email will be deleted from your inbox and forwarded to Technology Services automatically for analysis.
See the articles linked below for information about where the Phish Alert Button is located and how to use it:
- How do I use the Phish Alert Button in the Outlook desktop app?
- How do I use the Phish Alert Button in Outlook on the web and Outlook Mobile?
When do I use it?
Click the PAB if you believe you have received a phishing email or any potentially dangerous email. Any emails you report using the PAB will be automatically deleted from your inbox and forwarded to a designated contact within your organization for analysis.
The PAB should ONLY be used to report the emails you believe to have malicious intent. It should NOT be used for spam or marketing emails. You can delete these types of emails or add the sender or sender's email domain to a block list in Outlook.