Microsoft365 Defender Can Protect You From Phishing Scams

Phishing Can Lead to Big Losses and Expose Sensitive Information.

Phishing attacks pose a serious threat to your business. Your team members may accidentally divulge financial, customer, and account information to cybercriminals due to these fraudulent scams. How does this occur? The cybercriminals impersonate trusted sources and high-level executives, thus appearing credible. Therefore, your team members may not think twice about distributing sensitive and confidential data. Phishing emails are still prevalent, despite efforts to increase user awareness. Most hacking activities begin with these seemingly benign actions but can lead to more serious cybercrimes, costing organisations millions of dollars. Furthermore, the victim may face legal action, reputational damage, reduced customer confidence, and business disruption.
For these reasons, protecting your company and employees from phishing attacks is of the utmost importance. There is a number of safety measures you can take, but Oxygen IT recommends Microsoft 365 Defender. The risk can be drastically reduced by Microsoft 365 Defender due to several unique features. This program offers multiple security layers to protect you from phishing scams.
Our article will present seven of the most effective features of Microsoft 365 Defender for protecting your business.

The Seven Key Features

Phishing Email Protection

Among the most dangerous phishing scams are those that appear to be sent by actual entities. Deceptive strategies are often employed by attackers such as referring to victims by their name. Often, they use real accounts to fool businesses. With the help of machine learning, Microsoft Defender 365 identifies contacts you regularly communicate with. Advanced tools are then applied to distinguish between suspicious and normal communication. This detects phishing emails more accurately.

Malware Defense

Phishing emails can spread different types of malware. A ransomware attack, for instance, locks up your files and systems until the attacker receives a ransom. The risk of spyware is even greater. It copies clipboards, takes screenshots, or records your keystrokes in an attempt to steal your information. The Microsoft Defender 365 platform protects against such malware with its vigorous safety mechanisms, such as:
Layered malware defence - The software includes multiple malware scan engines that help identify potential threats. The system provides a robust heuristic inspection to prevent an outbreak at its earliest stages. This form of protection is desired and recommended instead of relying on just one anti-malware program.
Real-time response - In an outbreak, the platform provides your team with access to devices, allowing you to immediately investigate and contain threats. It also allows you to monitor and prevent malware intrusions in advance, therefore it is a reliable precautionary measure.
Rapid definition deployment - Microsoft 365 Defender maintains close communications with anti-malware engine developers. As a result, malware definitions are delivered on time to users. Additionally, the company updates its definitions hourly so that you are aware of recent forms of malware.
Common attachments filter - Some file types cannot be attached to emails, for example executables. In light of this, the common attachment filter automatically blocks them without requiring any scanning. This program can remove .ace, .exe, .app, .ani, and .scr files.

Spam Block

Spam emails are a common source of phishing campaigns. By blocking them, you can prevent your organization from being attacked. Defender intercepts spam emails with advanced technology which examines the sources and contents of all communications. Emails from untrustworthy or suspicious sources are directed to your spam folder. Additionally, this feature monitors your team members' activity to ensure they don't send spam emails to other team members.

Safe Links

Phishing emails often include more than just attachments. Your team members can be re-routed to fake websites by URLs embedded in messages. Although they often appear legitimate, these web pages generally seek personal information from victims. Moreover, they can lead you to malicious websites that install or download malware on your computer. Safe Links protect your system against malware transmissions by leveraging URL detonations. This product scans email links for suspicious activity.
Microsoft Defender 365 warns you against clicking on links that open malicious websites. If links are deemed secure then you can proceed normally. Afterwards, it will rescan the service for any security issues. This feature also scans email links from all employees in your organization. It also works on SharePoint and Microsoft Teams documents.

Sandbox Isolation

It's common for users to open malicious email attachments without a second thought. As a result, your company data could be exposed which could cause reputational damage and benefit your competitors. To reduce this risk, Defender opens all email attachments in a sandbox. In other words, malicious files cannot infect your system, but only the sandbox. Whenever the program identifies malware, it warns you not to open it. You will still be able to use the attachment if it is safe.

Enhanced Filtering

With Enhanced Filtering, enterprises can route emails to on-premise environments with third-party services before they are sent to Microsoft 365. Inbound connectors on the platform verify whether email sources are trustworthy. Email connectors are less likely to reflect their true source if the routing scenario is complex. This feature preserves authentication signals that might have been lost during email routing. Microsoft 365 gains enhanced filtering capabilities, allowing it to detect spam and phishing emails more effectively.

User Submissions

The Microsoft Defender software allows you to use specific mailboxes for sending threatening emails. By using this feature, you are able to determine safe and malicious email criteria, as well as identify the mailboxes that will store these messages. Consequently, your administrators have greater control over marking emails as spam and reporting them to Microsoft.

Defender Is A Reliable Solution

Phishing attacks can have detrimental impacts on your business. Using Microsoft 365 Defender will allow you to protect office computers from malicious threats. It provides you with reliable security measures, safeguarding your system. It can also immediately detect malicious activities, enabling you to deal with them before they spread and compromise your privacy. However, Microsoft 365 Defender is only one aspect of a robust security program. If you would like a candid conversation to evaluate the security of your network, reach out to our IT service business, Oxygen IT. We are based in Christchurch, Wellington and Tauranga.