On Wednesday, May 20, Technology Services will activate a new feature for all @illinois.edu email accounts that will help protect the University of Illinois from phishing attacks and other email scams.

When you click on a link in an email, the new URL defense feature will check to see if the link is trying to send you to a malicious website. Because this check is performed quickly and silently in the background, you should not notice the URL defense feature in action unless the link that you click on is a malicious one. In those cases, you will be safely blocked from reaching the malicious website.

There are a few additional things to understand about this new feature:

• This feature will not affect email messages that you send. It only checks the links in emails that you receive.
• The URL defense feature will check links in messages arriving to your @illinois.edu email account from non-Illinois email addresses.
• Links in messages sent between faculty, staff and graduate student Illinois email accounts (Exchange email accounts) will NOT be checked.
• Links in messages sent between undergraduate email accounts (Google Apps @Illinois email) will be checked.
• The URL defense feature will protect you no matter which device you use or where in the world you check your @illinois.edu email.

If you have any questions about this new email feature, please contact the Technology Services Help Desk via email (consult@illinois.edu) or by phone (217-244-7000)

Regards,

Brian Mertz
Chief Communications Officer
Technology Services at Illinois