Security enhancements coming to student email over spring break

Digital Technology Solutions (DTS), the University of Cincinnati’s central technology services and solutions provider, will add an external email banner and two security tools—Microsoft Safe Attachments and Safe Links—to all student email accounts over UC’s Spring Break. 

Digital Technology Solutions will enable the following security features on all UC student email accounts at 6 a.m., Tuesday, Mar. 14. (Please note: DTS previously enabled these security features on all UC faculty and staff email accounts.) 

UC student email accounts will automatically tag any incoming messages sent from a non-UC affiliated email address with an External Email banner. 

What’s new: “External Email: Use Caution" (white text over UC red background) will automatically appear on messages sent from anywhere other than a uc.edu email account. Messages from legitimate uc.edu senders will not display the "External Email" header.

Microsoft Safe Attachments checks email attachments for malicious content before delivering them to your inbox. Safe Attachments also detects malicious content stored in OneDrive, Teams, and SharePoint.Replace with your text

What's new: You may notice a delay in the ability to open email attachments. The body of your email will still appear while your attachment is being scanned. Scans are usually completed in under 2 minutes.

Microsoft Safe Links detects and removes malicious links in email messages.

What's new: You may notice a re-written link (URL) in the body of the email, be taken to a warning, or there might be a delay when clicking on a suspicious link.

The External Email Header, Safe Attachments, and Safe Links are three additional tools in your information security toolbox. Cyber criminals do their best to circumvent security protections and access your personal information.

Stay vigilant! View our list of email security practices to safeguard your personal information.

Need help? Get helpful how-to information in the IT Knowledge Base.

Need additional assistance? Submit a ticket. Or, call us: Dial (513) 556-HELP (4357) or (866) 397-3382 from your personal phone. Dial 6-HELP (4357) from a university phone on campus. Then, select option 2.