New features in Outlook help protect your University email account from security threats

New features in Outlook help protect your University email account from security threats

We have enabled additional email protection features on your Outlook email account.
The following security measures will help protect the University against unknown malware and viruses.

Safety Tip

If you receive an email message from someone you don’t normally communicate with, Outlook will display the following advisory message at the top of the message content:

You don’t often get email from [emailaddress@domain.com]. Learn why this is important.

Safe Links

This feature scans URLs in emails before they’re delivered, and when you click on a URL in an email. The scans are designed to detect malicious links, such as links to malware or phishing sites.

Safe links are rewritten and are prefixed with this text: https://nam01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com 

If you click on a link that has been identified as malicious, the URL will be blocked, and you will be presented with a warning message.

Report Phishing

We have also added the Report Phishing icon to Outlook:

  • in Outlook desktop it is on the Home tab
  • in Outlook Web Access, it’s at the top of the reading pane once you’ve selected a message
  • in the Outlook app on your smartphone, open a message and tap the three dots underneath the time in the message header. When the options menu appears, swipe it upwards and you’ll see the icon at the bottom of the screen.

Click that icon anytime you believe you have received a phishing email. The email will be forwarded to Microsoft and IT Services for analysis then automatically deleted from your Inbox. This means you can use the button instead of sending the email to spam@abdn.ac.uk.

To find out more about phishing and other IT security topics, take a look at our resources on Toolkit