Given the increase in the number of phishing messages from external senders, associates will notice a slight change to the [EXTERNAL] banner. 

This is also a good time to remind you to remain diligent when opening emails due to ongoing phishing. Cybercriminals continue to use many methods to trick email recipients into providing login credentials or other sensitive information.  Here are a few indicators that an email message is possibly a phishing attempt rather than an authentic communication:

• Subject lines and emails often include enticing or threatening language. 
• Emails requesting personal information. Most legitimate companies will never email customers and ask them to enter login credentials or other private information by clicking on a link to a website. 
• Sender names displayed are often spoofed, in other words, the phisher uses a legitimate company name as the email sender, such as support@staples.com, but the real sender’s email address is a random address like xyz@yahoo.com. 
• Message contains fake links leading you to believe you will be taken to a legitimate website.  It’s best to hover over hyperlinks in the message body before clicking on any links.   The information displayed should help you determine whether the link is authentic. 

If a message appears suspicious “Report It, Don’t Click It” by using the Phish Alert button  in your Outlook ribbon bar.