Office 365 Phishing Protection – Is Native Microsoft Protection Safe?

For the last couple of years, there has been a surge in phishing attacks against businesses and unsuspecting users. What’s worse is that phishing, which was previously merely a fraudulent attempt to obtain sensitive information, is now spreading malicious content including ransomware.

While tech and cybersecurity companies are focusing on providing top-notch security to their clients, cybercriminals somehow find new ways to achieve their objectives. The question is what are your options and how can you protect yourself against growing online threats? If you are on the Internet you must have heard of Microsoft’s Office 365, a subscription service offered by the company as part of its Office product line which is currently being used by over 60 million commercial customers. However, the company also provides online threat protection services such as Office 365 Phishing Protection.

Regardless of the size of your business, Office 365 Phishing Protection has created a significant impression, thanks to its Office 365 ransomware protection and Office 365 spam protection. But is it capable enough of tackling evergrowing sophisticated cyber threats? DuoCircle.com, an email security company focusing on small and medium-sized businesses offers solutions against phishing threats associated with Office 365.

Let’s face it, phishing attacks have everything to do with malicious links. When a scammer is in the early stage of developing a bogus page to trick users into giving away their credentials, the first thing they focus on is making an authentic page and link that would deceive users without raising any suspicion.It is also noteworthy that phishing involves shady practices of trying to hoodwink users to visit a website where either their data is stolen or their systems are infected with some sort of malicious software. To get their hooks into would-be victims, the crooks usually leverage links or attachments in email messages, links in social media messaging, or texts in popular instant messengers.

Remember in 2016 when a Russian spammer abused Unicode 0262 to create a fake version of Google’s primary domain Google.com? The domain name’s fake web address appeared as ɢoogle.com. Although the scammer didn’t use the domain to carry out phishing attacks, it highlights the importance of recognizing the difference between authentic and fake domain link.

DuoCircle offers Advanced Threat Defense Suite equipped with Link Click Protection which scans for multiple URL reputation databases in real time and warns the user against the threat.

“Every link is checked against multiple URL reputation databases in real time, not only the first time the link is clicked, but every time. If the link is suspicious, a warning is issued to the user that they are headed to an unsafe site,” the company states on its website.Furthermore, the Advanced Threat Defense fights other threats associated with Office 365 including Spam Filtering Gateway, a feature aiming at protecting businesses from spam attacks. Between January and December 2018, Microsoft reported a 250% increase in phishing with more than 470 billion sketchy email messages polluting the Internet ecosystem.

According to Kaspersky, in 2018, the share of spam in mail traffic was 52.48% while Netscape recently found a spam campaign delivering LokiBot & NanoCore malware in ISO image files.

It is also a fact that scammers have been manipulating Google’s Search Engine results to redirect users to spammy sites. The bottom line is that spam is not as harmless as previously anticipated and users need protection against spam attacks delivering phishing links and other malicious content.

DuoCircle’s Advanced Threat Defense Suite also provides two exceptional features – Message Replay and Backup MX. Message Replay is aimed at protecting your emails by backing them up for a limited time to avoid permanent loss of data in case of unforeseen circumstances. The Backup MX feature backs ups an unlimited amount of emails on DuoCircle’s servers for up to a month. This feature is equipped with domain failover system which automatically transfers control to a duplicate system when it detects a fault or failure.

Nevertheless, DuoCircle’s Advanced Threat Defense Suite can be pretty handy for both small and medium business conscious about their online presence. 

Also, the internet is, unfortunately, full to the brim with untrustworthy sites and hackers looking to take advantage of your data. It’s always wise to invest inInternet security for your business to benefit from advanced security features and avoid putting yourself in a situation where your credentials are stolen and misused or sold on dark web marketplaces. Stay secure online!