Impact of the change on users:

M365 users will begin seeing banners at the top of email messages indicating if they originate from outside George Mason University’s email system. These banners are a reminder to examine the origin of messages from outside of the university email system. Messages originating from within our email system require the sender to authenticate and will not contain the notification.

Users may experience challenges upon launch, such as banners potentially appearing on messages that are from a gmu.edu address they are familiar with. In most cases, these messages do not originate from our mail system but instead are created by external tools such as listserv, Emma, or bulk mailers used for notices and newsletters. If you usually receive mail from someone without the banner and their messages are being marked as external, extra caution should be taken, including contacting the sender about the change.

Reason for the change: ITS is implementing new functionality to provide the users with visible indication that messages have originated from outside of the university email system. (ID # 530485)