Proofpoint’s Targeted Attack Protection (TAP) helps protect against and provide additional visibility into phishing and other malicious email attacks.
With TAP, URLs in an email message may be rewritten to show where the links are pointing. When a user clicks a URL in an email message, the URL is redirected to Proofpoint’s cloud service. If the URL is not known to be malicious, the user will be redirected to the original URL. If the URL is malicious, the user will see a warning message and the site is blocked in the browser.
Sample email with a rewritten URL and a pop-up to show the redirect to Proofpoint (click to expand):
Sample plain text email with the TAP rewrite (click to expand):
Sample warning that a website is blocked because it contains malicious content (click to expand):
TAP Frequently Asked Questions
- Why is South Texas College adding this service?
- Information Technology have implemented TAP as one of the tools to help prevent phishing and spear phishing attacks from being successful.
- I’m getting a “Website has been blocked” message when I click on a link in an email. What does that mean?
- This indicates the URL has been found to have malicious content on it. It has been blocked to protect the College’s network and your personal devices you might be using to access email. Please take some time to study the email message and find the clues that should have alerted you of the phishing attempt, this way you can avoid falling for similar messages in the future.
- Will the links on my email still work after some indefinite period of time?
- The links will work indefinitely.
- Will this affect email messages that I send?
- No. It will not affect messages that you send, however, if you forward an email with links that have been rewritten, the recipients will also receive them in the same way. Don’t worry, they will still be able to access the referenced website.
- Is it safe now to click on all links that I receive through email?
- No. We still recommend that you don’t click on links from suspicious email messages.
For more information on TAP please visit: https://www.proofpoint.com/us/solutions/products/targeted-attack-protection
For questions or assistance with TAP please contact the IS&P Help Desk by chat, email at isphelp@southtexascollege.edu and by phone at 872-2111.