Information Services > Security > News & Updates > [Security Announcement] New URL Protections in Email - 10/07/21

[Security Announcement] New URL Protections in Email - 10/07/21

[SECURITY ANNOUNCEMENT]

On Wednesday, October 13th, 2021, Information Services will be rolling out an update to DePaul email (BlueM@il) accounts.

This update will re-write links in email messages to new links that will enable further protections against phishing and other email scams, by first passing the link through Microsoft's filtering service.​ This will enable both automatic protection from Microsoft's end as well as manual filtering and protection by the Information Security team.

URLs in emails (when you hover over any hyperlinked text) will begin with the following URL:
https://nam10.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/

Appended to this URL will be an encoded version of the underlying URL. This encoding will still allow for users to hover over a safelink link to determine where the URL intends to go. For example:
https://offices.depaul.edu​ may be encoded as: ?url=https%3A%2F%2Foffices.depaul.edu

After the encoded version of the URL, there will be various characters and identifiers.

If a user clicks on a URL that is determined to be malicious or blocked, the user will be met with a warning page in their browser, served by Microsoft. However, users must still exercise caution, as malicious websites do still have a potential of slipping by the filter.

If you have any questions regarding this change, please contact the helpdesk at helpdesk@depaul.edu or the Information Security Team at security@depaul.edu.