Summary
This guide provides instruction on how to handle an email that is suspicious or appears to be a threat.
How to report a suspicious email
When you find an email in our CWU account that gives the appearance of being a phishing attack you can report this to the CWU Security Team and to Microsoft.
1. With the suspicious email open in Outlook, make certain that you are on the Message tab.
2. While you have the suspicious email open in your Outlook app or web browser, you should see a shield icon in your tool bar.
3. When you click on the Report button it will open and give you two options.
- To Report Phishing
- To mark the email as Not Junk
4. When you select Report Phishing the email will be flagged and a notification alert will be sent to CWU's Security Team so it can be identified and dealt with. This will also delete the email from your inbox permanently.
NOTE: The Not Junk option allows you to remove a known safe email from your Outlook Junk Folder.
If you are unsure about an email you have received you can forward this email to CWU.ServiceDesk@cwu.edu and our team will investigate it and get back to you. Please do not click on any links or respond to an suspicious email until you have heard back from us!
Additional Resources
Assistance with retrieving an email flagged as suspicious
If you are looking for an email that you have not received but should have. You should check your Junk Folder first. If it is not there it may have been quarantined. This happens to emails from certain sender if their security certifications do not meet CWU's requirements. For assistance with identifying or retrieving emails that have been quarantined, you can submit a Service Request. Please provide as much information as possible about the sender and content, so we can more quickly assist you.
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Slow down and be cautious!
The first thing to know is that CWU will NOT ask you for confidential information in a "BCC" email and will not direct you to a link (like a Google doc) off of our secure network. No legitimate organization will ever ask you for your Password! These type of emails succeed by making you feel that an action needs to be taken immediately. This false sense of urgency is how mistakes are made. Take your time, read carefully, and if in doubt forward the email or you can call the CWU Service Desk at 509-963-2001 during our office hours and we are happy and grateful to assist you in making sure if the email in question is legitimate or not.
Thank you for keeping yourself, your data and the whole CWU community secure.