The University’s email security system is designed to intercept dangerous messages and increase our protection against spam and phishing attacks.
The new email security system (Mimecast) filters emails before they arrive in your inbox. If it thinks something is dangerous, it won’t deliver that email, and instead your email will be ‘held’ until you check that it’s safe.
You’ll know one of your emails is being held when:
Spam, phishing, ransomware and other email security issues are significant threats to institutions like Sussex.
These attacks are often clever and well-coordinated, making it difficult to find a form of protection which isn’t too invasive or disruptive. Mimecast has been chosen as the best solution to protect our students, staff and researchers.
You will receive up a single digest email once per day with a list of any messages that have been held for review. If you think one of these held emails is genuine, click on the relevant link in the digest and that message will be released to your inbox. You can also login to the email security portal using the button on the right.
You will have three options for each held message:
Held messages will be deleted after 14 days if you don’t release them.
If an email you receive contains a link to a website, the security system will re-write the URL.
If you hover over a link in an email, you might see a URL that begins with https://protect-eu.mimecast.com and ends with domain= followed by the original URL of your link. For example:
For example, a link to bbc.com would become https://protect-eu.mimecast.com/s253462825?domain=bbc.com
If you see a URL like this, it isn't a phishing attack, it's just the security system trying to keep you safe. You should still look out for suspicious URLs that don't follow this format.
Clicking on the link will work as normal. If the system thinks that the web page is dangerous, you'll see a warning message when you follow the link.
If you use Outlook on a Sussex PC, you'll see a tab called Mimecast. This tab allows you to:
If you use a Sussex PC, you'll find the plugin installed in Outlook. If you don't see it, you can install the plugin from the Software Centre. The plugin isn't currently available for Mac or Linux, so please log in to the Mimecast website using the button on the right. This will give you the same options as the Windows plugin for Outlook.
Check messages that have been held or blocked.
Use your Sussex username followed by @sussex.ac.uk (eg, ano123@sussex.ac.uk) and your Sussex password.