Microsoft Office 365 Announces Changes to Anti-SPAM Features

Over the past few months, Microsoft has been updating how Office 365 deals with spoofing and phishing attacks.  While many of these new features come as a part of the add-on Microsoft Defender for Office 365 Plan 2 license, a few of them have affected all license levels and have taken some admins by surprise. As a recent example, automatic e-mail forwarding was disabled for all tenants, which surely created more than a few frantic calls to IT managers. 

The next big change involves removing the functionality of the Allow List and Block List from the SPAM Policy settings in Exchange Online.  C3 staff has been pretty clear over the years with our recommendation that clients should not use these functions. Now (or really, by the end of January 2021) these will no longer function as expected for most tenants. Despite our recommendations, we know that many of our clients utilize this functionality – so, now is the time to act and ensure that your mail flow is in proper working order! 

Microsoft has released an article on the changes to the anti-spam features, which provides an overview of both why the change is happening, and suggestions on how to prepare your tenants in advance of the change. As always, we encourage you to reach out to C3 for assistance on this action alert, by contacting us at info@c3isit.com.  

 C3 Integrated Solutions is a full-service IT provider that specializes in securing our nation’s Defense Industrial Base through cloud-based solutions and industry leading partners. C3 is a provider of Microsoft Government Cloud solutions including Office 365 GCC, GCC High and AzureGov, and specializes in helping clients achieve CMMC and NIST 800-171 compliance by providing MSP, security and Office 365 integration services. C3 offers an award-winning, tailored approach to each client, regardless of size and across a variety of industries.