Microsoft Defender for Office 365: Anti-malware policies

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. ...

December 23, 2023 · 3 min

Microsoft Defender for Office 365: Anti-phishing policies

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. ...

December 22, 2023 · 8 min

Microsoft Defender for Office 365: Anti-spam policies

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 Security Portal, 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. ...

December 18, 2023 · 8 min

Get a handle on your SPF record

In this post, I will share my best practices for getting a handle on your SPF record. Why it makes sense to have a good SPF procedure in place In a previous blog post, I explained the limitations of SPF and how it works with DKIM and DMARC. It’s crucial to have a well-structured SPF procedure to avoid future problems, especially since exceeding the DNS lookup limit of 10 can cause issues, such as: ...

December 17, 2023 · 8 min

Microsoft Defender for Office 365: Quarantine policies

Quarantine policies let you control the quarantine on how users can use it. This post will cover the default policies and how to create a custom policy. What are quarantine policies Back in April 2020, Microsoft made it possible for users to view, release, or delete quarantined messages (expect high confidence phishing). Some organizations were not happy about users having access to their own quarantined items. Quarantine policies give you more control over quarantine for your end users and which quarantined items they can release. ...

December 11, 2023 · 3 min

SPF, DKIM and DMARC explanation

In this post you will learn to understand how the DNS protocols SPF, DKIM and DMARC work together to protect your domain from phishers and spammers. Why deploy SPF, DKIM, and DMARC? SPF, DKIM, and DMARC are critical email authentication protocols that help prevent email spoofing, phishing attacks, and domain impersonation for outbound email. Enabling these protocols together strengthens your domain’s email authentication mechanisms, improves security, and builds trust with your recipients by ensuring that email sent from your domain is legitimate and trustworthy. ...

December 9, 2023 · 11 min