Connection Requirements

On Campus

You must be connected to the utexas wifi network in order to access Microsoft 365 applications and services while on campus. If you are connected to the utguest wifi network, you will not be allowed to login.

Off Campus

You can connect to Microsoft 365 from off campus - anywhere you have an internet connection.

Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA)

Please see Getting Started - Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA).

Email Threat Protection

How It Works

Email traversing our infrastructure passes through several layers of protection:

• The University’s Mail Filtering Service

• Microsoft Exchange Online Protection/Defender for Office 365

  • Connection filtering - Dynamically identifies safe and unsafe sources of email (i.e. email servers)

  • Anti-spam protection - Scans email to identify characteristics matching spam messages

  • Anti-phishing protection - Scans email to identify characteristics matching phishing messages

  • Spoof intelligence - Identifies 3rd-party email messages that purport to be from someone else (e.g. impersonating a University email address)

  • Anti-malware protection - Identifies viruses and other malware threats present in email messages

  • Safe Links - Scans links present in email messages to protect against links to malicious websites

If an incoming email passes the above checks, it is delivered normally (i.e. to the recipient's Inbox). Messages failing one or more of these checks may be handled in one or more of the following ways:

• Delivery to the Junk Email folder

• Delivery with a warning to the recipient (e.g. [UTEXAS: SUSPECTED SPAM])

• Quarantined for manual analysis

• Deleted and not delivered

How to Get Help

While these technologies have a low rate of false positives, they can and do occur. If you were sent an email message that you believe was misclassified, please do the following:

If the message was delivered to your Junk Email folder

First, try marking the message as Not Junk in your email program. If the issue persists, please contact the UT Service Desk, including a full copy of the message's headers in the ticket.

If the message was delivered with a warning (e.g. [UTEXAS: SUSPECTED SPAM])

Please contact the UT Service Desk, including a full copy of the message's headers in the ticket.

If you suspect that the message was quarantined or otherwise not delivered

Please contact the UT Service Desk with the following information:

• Email address or domain of the sender

• Email address of the recipient

• If known, the subject line of the message

• The approximate date/time the message was sent

Safe Links

Safe Links is a Microsoft 365 technology that reviews links (URLs) in email messages, Teams chats, and files to help protect you from malware and phishing attempts. If a URL is identified as suspicious or malicious, you might be blocked from opening the URL when you click it in an email or Office document. Instead of going directly to the site, you might see a warning page instead:

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For more information on Safe Links, including additional examples of warnings, please visit: Complete Safe Links overview for Microsoft Defender for Office 365 - Microsoft Defender for Office 365 | Microsoft Learn

Reporting Security Issues

The Information Security Office (ISO) is an excellent resource for all issues related to information security. Examples of this include, but are not limited to:

• Compromised accounts (e.g. stolen passwords)

• suspicious emails (e.g. phishing attempts)

You can contact the ISO by sending an email to abuse@utexas.edu.

Spam or Phishing

The university has a complex system to defend against spam and phishing attacks. However, unwanted emails occasionally do get through. If you are the victim of a spam or phishing attack, we recommend reporting the attack using one of the following options:

• If you believe that your personal safety is threatened, call the UT Police Department at (512) 471-4441.

• Reporting spam or phishing e-mail: If you are using the Outlook desktop or web application, please use the Report or Report Message button. If you are using another email application, please forward the message as an attachment to postmaster-abuse@utexas.edu.

• If you can identify the sender's Internet Service Provider (ISP), report violations to the ISP. Be sure to include complete headers of the message in question.

• If the message violates the university's Acceptable Use Policy (AUP), contact the Information Security Office (ISO) at abuse@utexas.edu. Be sure to include complete headers of the message in question.

• If you need assistance with this process, you can contact the UT Service Desk.

For more information on spam and phishing, refer to the following information:

• Managing Unwanted Email - What we do to prevent spam, what you can do to protect yourself, and best practices.

• Don't Get Hooked - Protect yourself against phishing scams.

• Reporting a Violation of the Acceptable Use Policy (AUP)

Microsoft 365 Privacy and Security

Please visit the Microsoft Trust Center for more information on Microsoft’s privacy and security commitments.

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The University’s Microsoft 365 instance employs a variety of tools and technologies to help protect you and your data.