What is a Safety Tip?
Your emails in Outlook may include a gray bar at the top of the message that will look similar to the below examples. These are known as safety tips.
Safety tips are visual cues added to emails in Outlook to help users identify potential phishing attempts and protect against impersonation. These tips provide information about the sender and an email’s legitimacy. Outlook safety tips will appear in scenarios if you receive an email from a sender you do not communicate with often or with senders who are emailing you for the first time.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why are safety tips now in my emails?
The Office of Information Security has enabled safety tips at Villanova University in order to educate users in best practices for email security and to raise awareness about potential risks in emails.
Can I disable safety tips?
No. Safety tips are a global setting intended to protect the University from email impersonation attacks.
Can I disable safety tips for an individual sender I trust?
If you receive email from a known sender and do not want to see safety tips in their messages, you can add them to your Safe Senders List.
What scenarios might I see safety tips?
Safety tips will appear in the following email scenarios:
- The first time you get a message from a sender
- You don't often get messages from the sender
Where will I see safety tips?
Safety tips will appear at the top of emails, typically as a gray bar.
Do safety tips mean an email is unsafe?
No. Safety tips are designed to prompt caution and encourage you to think twice before interacting with the email. They do not mean the email is dangerous.
How do I know if an email is legitimate or a phish?
Check out our What is Phishing? article to learn about how you can identify malicious emails and differentiate legitimate emails from phishing