IronScales Phishing Protection Experience for New Users

November 10, 2020
Valiant Technology
5 min read

IronScales has many features for email protection. Some protections are ones users never see, but keep you secure in the background. However, if you recently had IronScales Phishing Protection enabled for your email, this article will let you know what to expect.

What will change with IronScales?

Once IronScales is enabled for your email service, you will see a few differences right away. When you are going to receive a new e-mail, IronScales will analyze the email for markers that indicate it is spam or phishing. Then, depending on its findings, one of the following will occur.

If no threats or suspicious activity is perceived, the e-mail will just come in as it normally does into your inbox.
If an e-mail is certainly spam or a phishing attempt, you will not see in your mailbox. It will be moved to your junk or trash folder before it even touches your mailbox.
If an email seems suspicious but IronScales wants you to verify, you will receive a banner alert. This will explain why the email was flagged. Then you should take steps to report the email as spam, phishing, or safe.

A phishing attempt that IronScales would mark as suspicious.

Actions to take in the first week

IronScales will learn and adapt as more users give feedback on emails. The first week can be a slight adjustment period, so there are a few things you should do to make the transition easier.

Install the Outlook plugin or the Gmail side panel app. These nifty add-ons will create a button for reporting phishing right next to your suspicious email. This make reporting even easier.

Please note: this may be set up when IronScales is enabled, so check if it is already available to you before you try to re-install.

Check your junk mail regularly for false positives. As it learns, IronScales may mark emails as suspicious or send them to your junk/trash folder that are actually legitimate. This will improve over time, and you will see less false positives. However, during the first week, we highly encourage you to check these folders and move any false positives back to your inbox. Either click options and mark as not junk/spam, or in Outlook select move to inbox.

Just a few clicks in Outlook to mark an email as “not junk”.

Report anything you think may be suspicious. Err on the side of reporting rather than ignoring. The IronScales admin portal allows an administrator to review any reported emails. This allows a person who knows your company to review emails and mark any false positives or confirm your report.

Report suspicious emails to IronScales with the click of a button.

How to report a suspicious email to IronScales

IronScales learns and adapts with every reported email. While you can bypass the reporting function and simply delete the email, reporting to IronScales will help prevent similar emails from reaching your mailbox in the future. There are a few ways to report an email depending on which platform you use.

For Outlook- click the report phishing IronScales button at the top of your email window.
For Outlook Mobile – navigate to the options menu to locate the report button.

The look of the Report Phishing button from the IronScales Outlook Plugin may vary depending on your version of Outlook.

For Gmail browser/desktop – Install and enable the IronScales side panel access for quick reporting. You can use the side panel while viewing an email to report in a flash.
For Gmail mobile – click the options menu and then click the IronScales report button.

The side panel offers quick access to IronScales reporting from your inbox.

Continue with security best practices

IronScales is a great tool to prevent breaches from Phishing emails, but it is still important to use best practices when it comes to your security. While this tool will learn and develop as new threats emerge, you should still be able to recognize some red flags and use your judgement in situations where it may not have flagged a suspicious email. For example, someone’s email password may have been stolen and IronScales may not flag a phishing email from them if they were whitelisted previously. To learn more about security best practices, check out our video series from our knowledgebase.

If you are an administrator and want to learn more from the admin side of IronScales, please read our articles on the admin portal, launching a phishing test campaign, and reviewing flagged emails.