Proofpoint End User Digest User Guide

About Proofpoint

Proofpoint is an email security product that serves as a security gatekeeper for USC email servers. The product inspects many message attributes and currently has a high degree of success detecting spam and malicious emails. Once examined, legitimate messages are routed to the recipient's mailbox, while Proofpoint quarantines suspected spam and malicious emails.

What is Proofpoint End User Digest?

Proofpoint End User Digest is a summary email from spamdigest@usc.edu that you receive twice daily, around 7 AM and 2 PM Pacific Time. It contains a list of the suspected spam quarantined since the previous digest was sent. The digest lets you preview the subject and sender of the quarantined messages. In the rare event that a message classified as spam is legitimate, the message can be released to your inbox with a click of the link. The digest can then be deleted like any other email.

When will we begin to receive Proofpoint End User Digest?

Proofpoint End User Digest will be rolled out by ITS in phases to Viterbi constituents under the below schedule:

Full-time faculty	2024 Q1
Full-time staff	2024 Q1
Part-time faculty	2024 Q1
Part-time staff	2024 Q1

What can you do with Proofpoint End User Digest email?

Opening the End User Digest email displays an email listing of the suspected spam messages.

Release - releases the email from quarantine and delivers it to your inbox. (Note: if you have a Junk E-mail or spam filter enabled on your desktop mail client such as Outlook, the filter may also place the released email into a Junk folder. Consequently, if you do not see the released email in your inbox, check your mail client's Junk folder).

Allow Sender – allows all future emails from this sender to your inbox.

Block Sender – blocks all future emails from this sender to your inbox.

Three additional links are located at the bottom of the End User Digest email.
Request New End User Digest - sends you an updated End User Digest reflecting all of your quarantined emails plus any email filtered since your last digest was sent.
Request Safe/Blocked Senders List - sends a summary of your Safe and Blocked Senders. The summary includes further links to add or delete senders.

Manage My Account - opens a web page that accesses your account on the Protection Server. You may view quarantined messages, access your safe/blocked senders list, and perform other management functions.

email options

Proofpoint FAQs

The Spam – Quarantined (upper) table shows those quarantined messages that were not delivered to your inbox. You may click on the subject line for a preview of the message. If you wish to receive the message, click [Release] to deliver it to your inbox. If this is a sender that you wish to always receive emails from, click [Allow Sender]. If this is a message/address you do not wish to receive emails from, you can click [Block Sender].

The Low Priority Mail (lower) table shows messages delivered to your inbox. However, these messages may be unsolicited or from bulk email senders. This table allows you to block the sender of future mailings [Block Sender] or to confirm that you wish to receive messages from the sender [Allow Sender].

High-Risk emails (e.g., malware, phishing, pornography, gambling, firearms, etc.) are not visible to USC email users, given the threat that could be unleashed on the USC computing environment. In the rare event that some legitimate messages were misclassified as high-risk, or if you suspect that you did not receive a legitimate email due to potential misclassification, you can submit a support ticket with ITS HERE and select Security Engineering Services under Business Service, or send an email to seceng@usc.edu to request that these legitimate messages be released to your inbox.

Proofpoint Account FAQs

Review Quarantined Emails

Once logged into the Proofpoint Protection Server, you can review all Quarantined emails. The Spam–Quarantined folder holds suspected spam messages on the Proofpoint Protection Server. Messages older than 14 days will be automatically deleted. Messages held in the quarantine do not take up your mailbox space.

View Email Contents

You can view the contents safely when an email is quarantined on the Proofpoint Protection Server.

Log into the Proofpoint Protection Server.
Select the email you wish to review.
Click the green up/down arrows to expand or narrow the viewing box.
1. Click the blue right or left arrows to move to the previous or next emails.
2. Click the red X to close the viewer.

Modify the Status of a Quarantined Email

Place a check in the checkbox of the message(s) that you wish to modify.
Select the desired option on the toolbar to modify the status of the quarantined email.

Toolbar Options

Find – allows you to search the quarantined emails for a specific message. You can search using criteria from one or more of the From, Subject, or Age fields. When you have finished searching, clicking Clear removes the find criteria and displays all the quarantined messages again.
Block Sender – blocks all future emails from this sender to your inbox.
Release – removes the email from the Proofpoint quarantine and delivers it to your inbox if you find, upon examination, a false positive. Remember that if spam or Junk E-mail filters are enabled on your desktop mail client, such as Outlook, it may also place the same email into its Junk folder.
Allow Sender – allows all future emails from this sender to your inbox.
Delete – deletes the email in quarantine before the 14-day time frame.
Release and Allow Sender – releases the email from the quarantine into your inbox and places the sender on a safelist so that subsequent emails from the sender arrive in your inbox.
Options
- Request Digest – sends an updated End User Digest reflecting all of your quarantined emails plus any email filtered out since your last digest was sent. This option is useful if you suspect an incoming email was quarantined after receiving the digest.
- Refresh – checks the Proofpoint Protection Server for recent activity and updates the quarantine view. For example, if the quarantine page has been open for a period of time, clicking refresh checks the server for any newly filtered spam messages.

Where can I get further assistance?

For additional questions or concerns, please contact the Email Security team at seceng@usc.edu. You can also submit a ticket with ITS HERE and select Security Engineering Services under Business Service.

Published on April 25th, 2023

Last updated on February 28th, 2024