Proofpoint
Central Washington University will be using technology to help protect against specific threats that are distributed via email, including phishing and targeted attacks. These threats originate from malicious web sites which are triggered when users click on links (URLs) in email messages. Messages containing these links often look legitimate, even to the discerning eye. This technology protects you and Central Washington University assets by blocking access to malicious URLs. As a safe practice, it is still imperative that users continue to carefully choose what they click on.
What is Proofpoint?
Proofpoint is an e-mail filtering system designed to protect staff and students from phishing attempts and malware attacks. It is designed as a daily agenda showing alerts of possible malware being quarantined to prevent users from accessing malicious links and attachments. This product inspects over 200,000 message attributes and currently has a good reputation of a high success for detecting spam.
In your email client, you may notice that links look different when you mouse-over them, as in the screenshot below:
If the link is safe, you will see no difference. If it is malicious, you will see a notification in your browser like the following:
This notification shows that the URL is malicious, and that the technology successfully protected you. If you have questions, please contact our Service Desk at CWU.ServiceDesk@cwu.edu or 509 963 2001.
If you would like to see more information on this technology, please view a short video at:
https://proofpoint.com/sites/default/files/TAP_End_User_0.mp4