Starting Today, A Change to BW’s Email Security: Abnormal Security Will Replace Proofpoint This Week

Why are we making this change? 

To improve the security of our company email, reduce our exposure to phishing attacks and improve the user experience, we will soon transition from Proofpoint to Abnormal Security. This decision was made for some important reasons, including our evaluation that an unacceptable number of malicious phishing emails were passing through our security systems and being delivered to our team members’ inboxes. Bad actors are getting better at generating very realistic emails, and we need to respond by improving our security tools.

Through several months of evaluation here at BW, Abnormal Security proved to be more efficient in detecting and blocking sophisticated threats because it leverages advanced artificial intelligence and behavioral analysis. This allows it to identify even subtle malicious activity more effectively than traditional solutions. 

For detailed information about how BW processes personal data for IT Security purposes, including through our email systems, please refer to the Team Member Privacy Notice. This notice covers a range of topics required under applicable privacy laws, including what personal data is collected, how it is used, stored, and protected, as well as your rights regarding your personal information.

Here’s what you need to know about the change to Abnormal Security: 

Once Live, You Will No Longer Receive the “Proofpoint Daily Digest” Email

Once Abnormal Security, our new email security platform, goes live during the week of October 27, you will no longer receive the Proofpoint Daily Digest email. Instead, messages that previously appeared in that digest will be automatically filtered into the Graymail and Junk Email folders, as described below. This new process eliminates the need for a daily digest and will provide team members with a more seamless way to manage unwanted emails directly within Outlook.

Warning Banners on Emails Are Changing.  

External banner changes: For messages deemed safe, there will be no email banner. This is different than today, in which a banner is applied to all messages received from outside the BW environment. 

This is what is in place currently:

Here is what the new warning banners will look like. The new Abnormal Security banners will only be applied to spam or suspicious emails and will include the indicators of compromise that were detected. 

A New Button to Report Phishing and Junk Emails

As part of the transition, a second button for reporting suspicious emails will be added to your Outlook ribbon. The new button is the Microsoft Report button.   NOTE, William, new picture. 

The Proofpoint PhishAlarm button that we currently use to report suspicious emails will also remain in place for about one week, but then will be removed. During that week, please use the new Microsoft Report button. 

The Microsoft Report button will appear further to the left on the Outlook ribbon than the PhishAlarm button. If you don’t like the position of the new button, it can be easily changed! Click here for instructions to move the new button using the “Customize the Ribbon” function. 

Use the drop-down menu to Report Phishing: This option is for reporting emails that appear malicious or deceptive. 

1. From your list of emails, highlight the email that you want to report. 
2. From the drop-down, choose “Report Phishing.” 
3. These messages will be sent for advanced analysis. 
4. The message will be moved from your inbox to the Deleted Items folder.

Use the drop-down menu to Report Junk: This option is for reporting spam or unwanted messages. 

1. From your list of emails, highlight the email that you want to report. 

2. From the drop-down, choose “Report Junk.” 

3. You will receive the pop-up window shown here. You can click “Don’t show me this message again” to keep from receiving this message in the future; then click “Report.” 

4. This action will help train your system to deliver future emails from that sender directly to the Junk Email folder.

Use the drop-down menu to Report Not Junk: If you find a legitimate email has accidentally been delivered to your Junk folder, do the following:

1. From within the Junk Email folder (described in more detail below), select the email and click the Report button.
2. You will receive a confirmation message that looks very similar to the one shown above but labeled as “Not Junk.” 
3. You can click “Don’t show me this message again” to keep from receiving the message in the future; then click “Report.” 
4. The email will be moved back to your Inbox. This action will help train your system to recognize similar emails as safe and deliver them to your Inbox in the future.

Note: You can also manage Junk and Not Junk by simply right-clicking the messages. Click here for instructions. 

Important Details About Graymail and Junk Folders 

You will have two new folders to check regularly once you are migrated to Abnormal Security. Graymail and Junk Email will appear as regular folders in your list of Outlook folders. 

1. Graymail definition: Bulk emails that you’ve subscribed to or previously interacted with but may not always want directly in your inbox, are likely to filter here. These can include newsletters, promotions, marketing/sales emails and social media notifications.
2. Junk Email definition: Messages that are obvious spam or unwanted bulk mail will be delivered to the Junk Email folder. Note that there is a 30-day retention policy set for the Junk folder; this means emails will be deleted from that folder after 30 days. 

As described above regarding “Junk” and “Not Junk,” you can train the new system to recognize which of the Graymail emails you want to be delivered to your Inbox in the future, although it works slightly differently.  

Note 1: These two mailboxes (Graymail and Junk Email) are driven by different software, so they are trained differently from one another. 

Note 2: We have created policies to ensure emails from specific trusted partners (including Dayforce, Workday, Principal and Vitality) bypass the Graymail folder and Junk Email folder and are delivered directly to your Inbox.

Training the Graymail Folder: If a message that you want to keep ends up in your Graymail folder, simply drag and drop the email into your inbox. Abnormal Security will learn from this action and deliver future emails from this sender directly to your inbox. Conversely, if a marketing or promotional message that you don’t want to receive is delivered to your Inbox, drag and drop that email into your Graymail folder; and once again, Abnormal Security will learn from this action and deliver future emails from that sender directly to your Graymail folder. 

One team member who is already live on Abnormal suggests moving the Junk Email and Graymail folders to the top of your Outlook folder list so you can quickly check them regularly. You can also consider moving them into your Favorites, as shown here.

Questions? Contact your service desk or your local IT support team. 

• Global IT Service Desk
• Design Group Help Desk