In this post, I will explain how to configure Microsoft Defender for Office 365 in your tenant. Since I have already covered most of these settings in my earlier blogs, I thought it was time to combine all the information into one post. I will link to my previous articles, so you can use this post as a summary to help strengthen your Microsoft Defender for Office 365 configuration, @ the speed of email! ...
In this post, I’ll explain what RFC compliant emails are, share examples, and discuss what this means for senders. Especially those who may unknowingly be using improperly formatted sender addresses. Microsoft 365’s enhanced detection Recently, Microsoft has made a significant improvement in how it detects and handles non-RFC compliant emails. Microsoft has enhanced its detection mechanisms to better identify these types of messages, helping to protect users from potential risks. ...
False positives block important emails, while false negatives allow harmful ones through. Learn how to manage these emails effectively in Microsoft Defender for Office 365. How inbound email works in Microsoft 365 To understand why your environment experiences false positives and false negatives, you first need to understand how Microsoft 365 handles inbound email. Microsoft 365 uses implicit email authentication to determine the final verdict for inbound messages. This approach goes beyond traditional SPF, DKIM, and DMARC checks by incorporating additional signals to evaluate inbound email. By leveraging these extra signals, emails that would typically fail standard authentication can pass implicit authentication and be successfully delivered to Microsoft 365. ...
Safe Attachments scans and evaluates attachments for malicious content before delivering messages to recipients. What you can manage with a Safe Attachments policy With a Safe Attachments policy, administrators can configure an additional layer of protection against malicious content in email attachments. Safe Attachments scans and evaluates attachments in a virtual environment before delivering messages to recipients. You can create a custom policy to, specify actions for unknown malware, select a quarantine policy, and configure global settings to protect files in SharePoint, OneDrive, and Teams with Safe Attachments. ...
Improve email security in Microsoft 365: Fine-tuning DKIM, configuring DMARC for the MOERA domain, and blocking inbound DMARC failures from reaching user inboxes. Fine-tune DKIM by frequently rotating the DKIM keys After setting up DKIM in Microsoft Defender for Office 365, it is also important to set up frequent rotation of these DKIM keys to prevent adversaries from intercepting and decrypting your cryptographic keys. Key rotation helps to minimize the risk of compromising the private keys. In Microsoft 365, you can rotate the DKIM keys for your domains to increase security. The recurrence must be every 3 months because rotating the DKIM keys every 3 months ensures a complete rotation of both selectors every 6 months. You can rotate the DKIM keys manually using the Defender portal or Exchange Online PowerShell, but it is easy to forget if you do it manually. So you should delegate this to Azure Automation by using the runbook below: ...
With Microsoft Defender for Office 365, you can create an attack simulation training to identify vulnerable users and mitigate potential threats before they impact your organization. Think before you click Understanding the intricacies of cybersecurity is crucial in today’s digital landscape. Attack simulation training is indispensable for users as it provides hands-on experience in recognizing and defending against potential threats. This proactive approach empowers individuals to enhance their security awareness, identify vulnerabilities, and contribute to a more resilient organizational defense against cyber attacks. ...
Safe Links scans URLs in incoming messages and checks the links for malicious content at the time they are clicked. What you can manage with a Safe Links policy With a Safe Links policy, administrators can configure and manage this policy to protect users from clicking harmful links and being redirected to malicious websites. Safe Links provides URL scanning for links in email messages, Microsoft Teams, and supported Office 365 applications. You can create custom Safe Links policies that apply to specific users, groups, or domains. ...
Malware is specifically designed to harm or exploit devices, networks, or users. It includes various types of harmful software such as viruses, worms, trojan horses, ransomware, spyware, and adware. Malware can be distributed through email attachments, infected websites, malicious downloads, or other deceptive means. What you can manage with an Anti-malware policy Mailboxes in Exchange Online benefit from automatic protection against malware through Exchange Online Protection (EOP). EOP offers a multi-layered malware protection system designed to detect all known malware. ...
Phishing is an email attack that aims to steal sensitive information through messages that appear to be from legitimate or trusted senders. You can enhance the security of your Exchange Online mailboxes by implementing anti-phishing policies. What you can manage with Anti-phishing policies Anti-phishing policies provide enhanced control over incoming phishing emails, for instance, in cases where someone may attempt to impersonate your CEO or send messages from a domain that closely resembles yours. By default, a policy named ‘Office365 AntiPhish Default (Default)’ is automatically applied to all users. ...
All inbound e-mail is automatically protected from spam by Exchange Online Protection (EOP) for Microsoft 365 organizations with mailboxes in Exchange Online. EOP uses anti-spam policies as part of your organization’s overall spam defense. What you can manage with Anti-spam policies Anti-spam policies provide you with control over both inbound and outbound email in Exchange Online. Within the Microsoft Defender XDR, you can access the Anti-Spam Policy section, where three default policies are available for editing. Additionally, it is possible to create custom policies, and further details on this will be discussed later in this post. ...