What is the TREK Email Assistant?
The TREK Email Assistant is an email protection product that uses sophisticated machine learning and artificial intelligence to analyze incoming messages for signs of phishing, spam, and other email-based threats.
Why am I seeing these banners at the top of my email?
The color-coded banners are inserted to alert you of any possible threats in your emails. The banners also display the email sender's address and mark if an email is internal (from someone in your organization) or external. If you see these banners, it means your IT staff has deployed TREK Email Assistant and included you in the group of protected users.
What do the different banner colors mean?
Gray banner: Nothing unusual or suspicious was found. Even though the message is not classified as threatening, always check the displayed sender address and source type to be sure it makes sense (e.g., an external webmail address for a message from a colleague may be cause for concern).
Yellow banner: Something unusual was found. It is not necessarily phishing or dangerous but something you should be aware of. For example, a request for sensitive personal information deserves extra scrutiny. Mail that seems out of the ordinary or spammy may receive a yellow banner.
Red banner: The message is suspicious and likely phishing or dangerous. This includes brand impersonations (e.g., a fake "account alert" email from your IT department), blocked phishing URLs, or attempts to spoof mail to look like it came from an internal company account.
What should I do if I receive an email with a yellow banner?
Look carefully at who the mail is from and whether it is from someone you trust. Be especially careful about clicking any links in the body of the email or opening any attachments.
What should I do if I receive an email with a red banner? Why did I receive it if it's considered dangerous?
In most cases, you can simply delete the message and move on. In many deployments, your IT staff, security team, or email administrator will configure your mail server to quarantine or delete red-flagged mail before it reaches your mailbox. In other cases, the mail will still be delivered with the banner telling you to be careful.
What does the "Report This Email" link do? How do I provide feedback?
If you think TREK has made a wrong classification, or if you just want to confirm it got it correct, click the "Report This Email" link found in the bottom right corner of each banner. This will take you to a web form where you can indicate that the message is truly Safe, Spam, or Phishing, and leave a comment. Feedback is used to automatically improve predictions going forward. Submissions are also manually reviewed to keep the overall system accurate.
Why do I see a block page when I click a link in an email?
Part of the protection is the ability to perform real-time checks on any links you click. If this feature is enabled, clicking on links in a yellow or red banner email will take you to a page reiterating that the message is unusual or suspicious. In some cases a message that originally had only a gray banner contains a link that is later detected as a dangerous phishing URL. When you click it, the real-time check catches it and you'll see a blocker page alerting you.
What should I do if I have questions or comments?
Please contact your IT staff, security team, or email administrator. They can pass feedback along to the appropriate TREK support contact and fine-tune policies and settings to help make things work as smoothly as possible.
How can I learn more?
Visit Protection by TREK to learn more about the product and how it works, or contact us at support@trekconnex.tech.