Protect yourself from phishing in Outlook: creating a category and setting up a rule
Create a category and rule in Outlook to help you distinguish fraudulent emails from legitimate ones.
At MUNI, phishing is among the most common cyberattacks targeting users. Attackers try to imitate emails from your colleagues, supervisors, or university systems. Just like in INET, you can also set up visual alerts for trusted emails in Outlook. This time, it’s done using rules and categories (labels) so that emails from specific senders can be instantly recognized.
How does “anti-phishing” in Outlook work?
First, a category (label) is created – this serves to visually highlight emails (for example, by color or name). Then, a rule is set up to specify which email addresses should display the given category. If someone tries to impersonate a trusted address (for example, by using a typo – “munl.cz” instead of “muni.cz”), the rule will not activate and the visual marking will not appear. This alerts you that the email may be fraudulent. In such a situation, we recommend checking the sender’s address and, if necessary, reporting the email to the Cyber Security Team of Masaryk University.
How to set up a category and rule?
In Outlook, you set them up using a few steps:
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1. Open the Outlook application on your computer.
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2. In the top-right corner, click on the gear icon for “Settings.”
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3. A new window will open. Click on “Categories.”
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4. Then, click the “+ Create new” button.
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5. Choose any name for the category (e.g., Trustworthy) and select your preferred color. Then confirm by clicking “Save.”
Done. You have successfully created your own category.
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Now, you will set up the rule itself.
6. In the left panel, click on Email, then Rules, and then + Add new rule.
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7. In the first step, enter a name for the rule (e.g., "Trusted addresses").
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8. In the second step, under "Add a condition," open the drop-down menu and select "From." A text field will appear next to it, where you can enter the chosen email addresses (e.g., your supervisor, colleagues, or addresses from which messages come from the IS system – informacni-system@mail.muni.cz, or INET – inet-mt@ics.muni.cz.
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9. In the third step, under "Add an action," open the drop-down box and select "Categorise." A field will appear next to it where you can choose the category you created, for example "Trustworthy" or any available option.
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10. Then, check the option "Run rule now" and uncheck the option "Stop processing more rules."
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11. Finally, click "Save."
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In emails from the selected senders, the assigned category (label) will then be displayed.
Would you prefer a video tutorial?
Below you can find an instructional video that shows how to set up a category and rule in Outlook.