To help protect the campus community — and help you better recognize official emails — UAB will soon begin using a digital signature on emails from campus leadership, including the eReporter and Greenmail newsletters.

A digital signature added to an email provides an extra layer of security, confirming that the email was not sent by an imposter spoofing the sender’s address. In the past, attempted phish have spoofed email addresses of UAB leadership — including President Ray L. Watts, M.D. — to try to trick recipients into clicking malicious links.

Soon, the eReporter newsletter and subsequent emails from UAB executive leaders will include a “digital signature.” You can recognize the digital signature in a variety of ways, depending on your operating system or device. On Apple iOS, the sender name is accompanied by a checkmark. In Outlook on desktops, you will see a small lock icon with the words “This message was digitally signed by [sender].”

Supported clients include Apple Mail, iPhone iOS Mail, Microsoft Outlook and Microsoft Outlook on the web for Windows. Digital signature for Outlook on the web is not supported for non-Windows devices.

Here are other ways to recognize official UAB emails:

• All emails sent through Marketing Cloud, UAB’s primary mass email tool, come from This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. If you aren’t certain of the sender, hover over the sender name in Outlook to make sure it is legitimate.
• All Marketing Cloud emails also have a trusted security footer, which includes your name and UAB email address.