In view of the increasing trend of phishing email messages, the Information Technology Services (ITS) would implement the below features to help users detecting potential phishing messages:
- A line “This is an external email” is prepended to message reaching our Internet facing email gateway; and
- The display name will be stripped from the email address field to reveal the true identity of the sender.
Starting on 14 Aug 2023, the above features will be implemented for all email messages from a set of public mail domains sent to @hku.hk mail addresses. This will help us identify potentially malicious and impersonation email messages and reduce the risk of fraudulent messages.
We strongly encourage you to be cautious when receiving emails marked as external and to verify the sender’s identity before opening any attachments, clicking on any links or replying the message. Let’s stay vigilant against phishing messages to protect your personal privacy and your systems from malwares.
If you have any questions or concerns about this new service, please don’t hesitate to contact our IT Service Desk.