Daily printout: Feb. 6

The Postal Service wants employees and contractors to watch out for phishing emails, which are how cyberattacks often originate.

A typical USPS employee or contractor with computer access receives about 120 emails on a given workday, so it’s important to know the types of messages to look out for and how to report them.

One recent example involves a message that appears to be from an internal source. However, the email is flagged as “[EXTERNAL]” and the message contains a pressing request such as “I require urgent help.”

Vendor invoice fraud is another phishing scam to avoid.

This occurs when an attacker takes over a vendor’s account, copying the company’s branding and impersonating its legitimate domain.

The CyberSafe at USPS team advises employees and contractors to take the following steps if they receive a suspicious email:

• Slow down. Evaluate the message, particularly if it has an “urgent” request.

• Check the spelling. Misspellings and grammar mistakes can indicate a phishing attempt.

• Be wary of attachments. Don’t open anything attached to a suspicious email.

• Verify the sender’s identity. If the email is from an “[EXTERNAL]” address, proceed with extra caution.

• Hover but don’t click. To ensure all hyperlinked descriptions are accurate, hover your cursor over the link to see the actual website or email address.

Employees and contractors should also select the suspicious email and click the Report to CyberSafe button on the Outlook toolbar. If the message is already open, the button will appear in the email toolbar.

The USPS ServiceNow website has instructions on installing the Report to CyberSafe button.

The CyberSafe at USPS Blue and LiteBlue pages have additional information.

The Postal Service will release its Saul Bellow stamp — the 34th in the organization’s Literary Arts series — on Tuesday, Feb. 6.

Bellow is widely acknowledged as one of the greatest novelists of the 20th century.

Born in 1915 in Quebec, Canada, he moved with his family in 1925 to the city inextricably linked with his work — Chicago.

His first writing job was for the Works Progress Administration, where he composed biographies of Midwestern authors.

He published two novels in the 1940s, but it was his third — 1953’s “The Adventures of Augie March,” written in a freewheeling, comic vernacular — that broadened his audience. It also won the National Book Award for fiction.

The book’s famous opening line references Bellow’s adopted hometown:

“I am an American, Chicago born — Chicago, that somber city — and go at things as I have taught myself, freestyle, and will make the record in my own way: first to knock, first admitted; sometimes an innocent knock, sometimes a not so innocent.”

Bellow is the only person to have won the National Book Award for fiction three times. He received many literary accolades before his death in 2005, including the Pulitzer Prize and the Nobel Prize in literature.

The stamp features an illustrated portrait of the author in a fedora with a Chicago street scene in the background. Illustrator Joe Ciardiello provided the original art, based on photographs from 1982.

The stamp was designed by Ethel Kessler, an art director for USPS.

The 3-ounce stamp is available at Post Offices and usps.com.

No national dedication ceremony is planned.