Enhanced anti-phishing and anti-malware protection to be enabled for the full McGill community
On October 24th 2022, IT Services will be adding enhanced anti-phishing and anti-malware protection to your McGill email and Microsoft Teams conversations. Here are some details on what’s changing:
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Anti-phishing
This feature checks incoming messages for indicators that a message might be a phishing attempt. Incoming messages are analyzed and appropriate action on the item is taken based on configured polices. For example, you may see a warning in a potentially malicious message, telling you that you don't often receive messages from this address. This warning serves as an alert to prompt you to verify if it is a legitimate sender. -
Safe Attachments
Safe Attachments scans all incoming attachments in your email and MS Teams conversations to detect malware and/or viruses: This enhanced attachment scanning might result in very slight delays in receiving attachments. -
Safelinks
This feature scan links in your email and MS Teams conversation for malicious or fraudulent links. You will be able see a preview of the link (by hovering over it), so you can be sure it is a legitimate link before you click. If the link points to the expected location, it is most likely safe. Note: The link preview displays the correct link in Outlook but may show a different URL beginning in can01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com in other mail programs. For this reason, Outlook is strongly recommended for McGill email.
If you do click on a malicious or fraudulent link, Safelinks will protect you from accessing the content at that link. Instead, you will be sent to a Microsoft page informing you that you have clicked a malicious link. This feature adds an extra layer of protection from phishing, fraud, and malware.
While these security improvements will be largely unnoticed by the user, they are part of McGill’s ongoing commitment to cybersecurity and data privacy. Learn more about how you can protect yourself and your data online.