Despite the attempts to raise user awareness of this fraud, phishing emails are still widespread.
They’re the starting point of most hacking activities and can make organizations lose millions of dollars. In addition, the victim may face legal action, diminished reputation, reduced customer confidence, and business disruption.
Numerous safety mechanisms are available, but Microsoft 365 Defender might be your best option. It comes with various security layers to safeguard against successful phishing attempts.
This article will list the seven key features of Microsoft 365 Defender that can help protect your business from phishing.
To start, plain phishing attacks are one of the more severe threats to your business’ security. These fraudulent actions can cause your team members to accidentally share financial, customer, and account information with cybercriminals.
How does this happen?
The issue is that the attackers seem credible since they’re impersonating trusted sources and high-level executives. As a result, your team members may not even have second thoughts about distributing sensitive personnel or corporate data.
The 7 Key Features of Microsoft 365 Defender
Feature #1 - Phishing Email Protection
The most dangerous type of phishing scam involves emails whose sender seems to be an actual entity. The attacker often uses cunning tactics, like referring to the victim by their name or nickname. Sometimes, they can even use real accounts and use them to trick businesses.
Using machine learning, Microsoft Defender 365 lists the contacts you regularly communicate with. Then, it uses advanced tools to differentiate suspicious from acceptable behavior. The result is more accurate detection of phishing emails.
Feature #2 - Malware Defense
Different types of malware can spread through phishing emails. For example, ransomware that locks your files and systems until the attacker receives a ransom can originate from a simple phishing email.
Spyware can be even more dangerous. It steals your information by copying clipboards, taking screenshots, or recording keystrokes.
Microsoft Defender 365 addresses such malware with robust safety mechanisms, namely:
- Layered malware defense
The platform comes with multiple malware scan engines to help diagnose potential threats. They provide a robust heuristic inspection to shield your system even in the earliest stages of an outbreak. This type of protection is superior to using just one anti-malware program. - Real-time response
During outbreaks, the platform provides your team instant access to devices, allowing you to investigate and contain threats in real time. It also enables your team to collect data and proactively tackle malware. - Rapid definition deployment
The Microsoft 365 Defender team maintains a close relationship with anti-malware engine developers. Consequently, users of the platform receive malware definitions on time. Plus, the company checks for definition updates every hour to help protect you against the latest malware. - Common attachments filter
Some file types aren’t meant for emails, such as executable documents. With that in mind, the common attachment filter lets you automatically block them without any scanning. Some of the file types it can remove include .ace, .exe, .app, .ani, and .scr.
Feature #3 - Spam Block
Another common culprit for phishing campaigns is spam emails. Blocking them is an excellent way to shield your organization from attacks.
Defender boasts powerful anti-spam technology to address spam emails by examining the message’s source and contents. If the email comes from untrustworthy sources or contains suspicious information, it automatically goes to your spam folder.
On top of that, this feature examines your team members’ activity to help make sure they don’t send spam emails to other users.
Feature #4 - Safe Links
Phishing emails don’t only contain attachments — they can also include URLs to lead your team members to a fraudulent website. These web pages often look legitimate but generally require the victim to provide some information. Furthermore, they can lead to websites that install or download malware on your computers.
Safe Links shield your system from malware transmissions using URL detonation, which scans email links and checks for suspicious behavior.
Microsoft Defender 365 warns you not to visit links that open malicious websites. Otherwise, you can open your destination URLs just as normal. It’ll also rescan the links later and look for any potential security concerns.
Another great thing about this feature is that it scans email links from all personnel within your organization, plus it works great on documents uploaded to SharePoint and Microsoft Teams.
Feature #5 - Sandbox Isolation
Some users, especially if they’re thoughtless, may commonly open malicious email attachments without second thoughts. They can expose company data to prying eyes as a result, which can ruin your reputation and give your competitors the edge.
Defender can reduce this risk by opening all email attachments in a sandbox. It serves as isolation, meaning malicious files can only affect the sandbox rather than your system.
Once the program isolates malware, it warns you not to open it. But if the attachment is safe, you can use it normally.
Feature #6 - Enhanced Filtering
Enhanced Filtering is perfect for enterprises that route emails to on-premises environments with third-party services before sending them to Microsoft 365.
The platform has inbound connectors that verify your email sources’ trustworthiness. The higher the complexity of the routing scenario, the higher the chances that email connectors don’t reflect their source.
What’s more, this feature preserves the authentication signals that may have disappeared while routing emails. It enhances the filtering capabilities of Microsoft 365, allowing it to detect phishing and spam emails more effectively.
Feature #7 - User Submissions
Microsoft Defender lets you set specific mailboxes where you can send any threatening emails.
This feature allows you to determine the criteria for safe and malicious email while identifying the mailboxes that will store these messages. Thus, your administrators have more control over flagging emails and reporting them to Microsoft.
Secure your Emails with the Help of Microsoft 365
Phishing attacks can spell disaster for your company. Integrate your office’s computers with Microsoft 365 Defender to neutralize the threat.
This platform can keep your system intact with dependable security measures and can detect malicious activity on time, enabling you to address it before it spreads and compromises your privacy.
Using Microsoft 365 Defender is just one part of your cybersecurity. If you’d like a non-salesy chat to help determine other potential risks in your network, contact us today.
Article used with permission from The Technology Press.
