New Protection Mechanism for E-Mail Reception

E-mails are very often misused to spread malware (e.g. viruses and trojans) and for phishing attempts. At Münster University, for example, 90% of incoming e-mails are directly rejected as spam because the sender is not trustworthy. File attachments and links in particular should be treated with caution, so we are now implementing a new protection mechanism:

E-mails with suspicious content from suspicious senders will only be sent with a warning message. In concrete terms, this means that you will receive the suspicious e-mail as an attachment to an information e-mail alerting you to the potential threat and giving you a contact person in case of further inquiries. Suspicious contents are 1) links to dubious websites and 2) attached Office or PDF documents with active contents (so-called macros).

Nevertheless, remain vigilant when opening links and e-mail attachments, especially if they are password protected.

You can find further current information on the IT security web pages.