Cisco Email Security (CES) will auto-tag emails matching certain criteria before they reach your inbox. See below for the types of tags and how to filter them out to a folder, if desired.
Types of email tags from CES
Bulk - Emails tagged with [BULK] are typically emails received from mailings lists or emails sent to a large number of recipients. Mailing list emails sent from an MSU address are whitelisted and will not be tagged.
Marketing - Emails tagged with [MARKETING] are usually emails sent from external vendors. If you do not remember subscribing to receive emails from a vendor, they may have gotten your email from a conference, a previous business relationship with the vendor, a public email list, or you may have accidentally subscribed via a link or checkbox when filling out a form. Usually you can unsubscribe from marketing emails via an unsubscribe or opt-out link near the bottom of the email. These unsubscribe links have been verified by CES and are safe to use.
Phishing - Emails tagged with [Possible Phish Fraud] are emails that were detected as possibly containing fraudulent links or requests for your information in order to compromise your personal data or account. These emails should be treated with caution and you should NEVER follow the links within them, open any attachments they contain, or reply to them unless you're positive they are legitimate.
Spoofing - Emails tagged with [Possible Spoof] are emails that were detected as having a forged header. This means that the sender was attempting to make the message appear as if it originated from someone or somewhere other than the actual source.
Malware - Emails tagged with [Possible Malware] are emails that either contain suspected malicious attachments or match to known malicious email domains/attacks. These emails should be treated with extreme caution and you should be very wary of any attachments and links contained within them. If you are not completely sure that the message is legitimate, we suggest you disregard it or contact the ITS Service Desk before taking any action.
Possibly Forged - Emails tagged with [Possibly Forged] are emails that have been sent from an unapproved email server. This includes emails sent from a personal account where the sender address is being forged to look like an MSU account. Only authorized email servers can send Mississippi State University email without this tag being included in the subject line.
Note: There may occasionally be other tags on some emails that match certain criteria in your Inbox. The tags will be in the format of [Possible {threat category} Fraud] with {threat category} being a system generated variable for things like Phishing, Malware, Spoof, banking, etc. If you have any questions about a tag you do not recognize or understand, please contact the ITS Service Desk for assistance.
How to filter emails based on tags
If you would like to filter out the Marketing or Bulk tagged emails from your inbox into another folder, follow the steps below. We're going to use the [MARKETING] tags for this example but it can be applied to [BULK] as well; just replace the word "marketing" with "bulk" when completing step 2, in the 2. Add a condition section.
1. Visit your Outlook on the Web - Rules settings via this direct link or follow the steps below:
If the direct link does not work:
a. Visit outlook.msstate.edu, log in with your netid@msstate.edu email address and NetPassword, then authenticate with Duo/MFA.
b. Click the Settings (Gear) icon in the top right, then click View all Outlook settings.
c. Click Mail, then click Rules.
2. Click + Add new rule, then choose the following:
- 1. Name your rule: Enter a name for your rule. (Something like "Marketing email filter" is suggested).
- 2. Add a condition: Choose Message header includes, then enter:
x-identified-marketing: yes
- 3. Add an action: Choose Move to, then select the folder you'd like these emails automatically moved to. You can also create a new folder here, if needed.
Note: If you choose to move the emails to the Junk folder, the unsubscribe links will no longer be functional. You will need to move the emails out of that folder in order to use the links.
3. Click Save.
4. All future incoming emails tagged with [MARKETING] should now be routed to your specified folder instead.
Note: If you would like to set up a filter for any other tags, please contact the ITS Service Desk for instructions and assistance on setting up the filter conditions correctly. Different tags use different headers for indentification, so these instructions won't work for every tag type.