Overview
April 28: ITS is now offering a way to opt out of the daily User Digest emails. We have included their instructions below under "Opting out."
USC ITS uses Proofpoint for email security and spam filtering. If you do not receive an email that you have been expecting, it may have been flagged as spam or as a malicious email, and the email was quarantined—that is, prevented from being delivered to your inbox. The quarantined email is held in the Proofpoint Protection Server for 14 days before auto-deletion. You can release legitimate emails, allow senders, and block senders.
This guide explains two ways to safely view and manage your quarantined emails:
- Log into the Proofpoint portal in your browser
- Click the subject link in the daily User Digest email
Using the Proofpoint portal
Log in to the Proofpoint portal
You can log in to the Proofpoint portal at any point to view quarantined emails:
- Go to https://00164701.pphosted.com:10020/euweb/login.
- The Shibboleth page appears. Sign in using your USC NetID and passphrase.
- The Duo page appears. Complete the verification.
- The Proofpoint portal loads and the list of quarantined emails displays.
Actions available in Proofpoint
View and take action on quarantined spam emails
The list of emails in your Spam - Quarantined folder appears on the page. You can click an email to preview it, but be aware that if the email exceeds the size limit, Proofpoint will not display the email.
Once you click an email, you can select an action from the upper menu bar:
- To block the sender: Click Block Sender
- To release the email to your inbox: Click Release
- To release the email and ensure future emails from the sender will go to your inbox: Click Release and Allow Sender
- To ensure future emails from the sender will go to your inbox: Click Allow Sender
- To delete an email: Click Delete
- To delete all emails: Click Options and select Delete All
View and take action on low priority emails
In the left menu, you can select another folder:
- Low Priority Mail - Delivered: These emails were delivered to your inbox, but may be unsolicited or from bulk senders (for instance, newsletters and announcements).
- Low Priority Mail - Quarantined: These emails were quarantined by Proofpoint and were not delivered to your inbox.
View your lists of safe (allowed) senders and blocked senders
- In the lower left menu, click Lists.
- In the left, select a list:
-
Safe Senders List: If you selected "Allow Sender" or "Release and Allow Sender" on an email, the sender appears on this list.
-
Blocked Senders List: If you selected "Block Sender" on an email, the sender appears on this list.
- You can take the following actions using the upper menu bar:
- To add a new sender to the list: Click New. Type the sender address and click Save.
- To delete a sender from the list: Select the sender, and click Delete.
Configure your daily digest settings
- In the lower left menu, click Profile.
- Select or deselect the checkboxes for the options listed, and click Save.
Receiving the User Digest emails
The User Digest is emailed to you from spamdigest@usc.edu once daily, and provides a list of quarantined spam email and low priority email. If you do not have any messages in your quarantine, you will not receive the User Digest.
Opting out
- Log in to Proofpoint at https://00164701.pphosted.com:10020/euweb/login.
- In the lower left menu, click Profile.
- Deselect the checkbox for Send digest with new messages in my End User Digest, and click Save.
Request digest on demand
You can manually request a digest email. This is a one-time email sent on-demand, and thus separate from the daily User Digest schedule.
- Log in to Proofpoint at https://00164701.pphosted.com:10020/euweb/login.
- At the top, click Options and select Request Digest.
- The digest is immediately emailed to you.
Quick actions available in the User Digest
You will need to use the Proofpoint portal to view all the actions possible, but you can take the following quick actions using the links in the User Digest:
- Release an email from quarantine to inbox
- Allow a sender
- Block a sender
Additional resources
The following resources were consulted for this guide:
Troubleshooting
If you released an email from quarantine but do not see it in your inbox, check your Other folder tab and your Junk Email folder.
If an email you're expecting does not appear in your inbox or in the quarantined emails in Proofpoint, and you are sure it was sent fewer than 14 days ago, it may have been classified as high risk. High risk emails do not appear even in Proofpoint, due to the potential threat to USC. If you believe a legitimate email was mistakenly classified as high risk, you can submit a ticket to ITS or email seceng@usc.edu.