How to Stay Safe From Phishing Attacks Against Office 365 Users

Phishing — impersonating another entity to obtain sensitive information — continues to be one of the most common cybersecurity threats. A 2021 report by Menlo Security found that users’ Microsoft Office 365 login credentials are among the data most commonly targeted by phishing attacks. Phishing is popular in part because it can be used against almost anyone and only requires a momentary lack of attention to be successful. Successfully defending against phishing requires your team to be aware of the threat.

Understand What Microsoft Office 365 Login Phishing Looks Like

A large percentage of phishing attacks serve a fake but convincing Outlook or Office 365 login page. Depending on how sophisticated the attack is, the fake page may be a perfect replica of the normal login page that allows the user to authenticate and then use Microsoft products as if nothing were awry.

Phishing attacks are often initiated via emails; however, the technique can be applied through other channels as well. Occasionally, phishing attacks will be targeted at specific organizations or even individuals. Some are specifically targeted at executives or other senior-level targets.

Attackers may use special tactics to circumvent traditional detection methods. For example, they may use tactics such as local HTML decoys or data URLs to conceal the phishing content. As these attacks improve, awareness and caution are becoming more important than ever.

Teach Team Members Good Cybersecurity Habits

Phishing attacks continue to get more sophisticated, so the best line of defense is often to train team members to identify and be wary of potential phishing attacks. This is not foolproof because even the most trained eye can be tricked by a convincing Microsoft Office 365 login page. However, paying attention to gut feelings that something is wrong can make a huge difference.

Some cues to be of wary include urgent calls to action, spoofed email addresses and out-of-the-blue messages. Sometimes issues such as weird-looking links or poor grammar can tip off recipients. However, these indicators are not necessarily reliable, as many phishing attacks today are less sloppy.

If you provide training, make sure it is up to date on the latest phishing tactics. Many older campaigns would be considered comically bad by modern standards. While these can serve as good demonstrations of concepts, it is important that team members have a realistic understanding of modern techniques.

Leverage Microsoft Anti-Phishing Protections

Fortunately, Microsoft offers several tools to help deal with phishing. For example, Microsoft Defender for Office 365 allows your organization to establish policies, configure anti-impersonation settings, apply intelligent mailbox protection and even test phishing attack preparedness with a simulator. Organizations can also implement anti-phishing measures with Exchange Online Protection, a cybersecurity feature for Exchange email, regardless of whether they are using Defender. This includes spoof intelligence and enhanced email authentication. These protections can help to defend against phishing emails before they even hit the inbox.

Microsoft also provides tools for investigating phishing and other cybersecurity incidents. This can help your organization to stay safe by addressing potential breaches quickly and adjusting policy to better reflect current threats. Centralized policy setting and controls can help your IT staff protect your business.

Report Phishing Attempts Against Microsoft Office 365 Credentials

In addition to handling phishing incidents internally, organizations can also report incidents to Microsoft. This helps Microsoft to offer better protections through Office 365. Plus, some of Defender’s functionality is powered by machine learning. So, marking suspected phishing emails can help to train the system to better identify threats.

Reports can be submitted directly from Outlook, including marking false negatives and false positives. Users can manually send specific email reports to Microsoft. Additionally, administrators have special tools for reporting phishing.

Harness the Full Potential of Office 365

Although there are a lot of cybercriminals trying to phish Microsoft Office 365 login credentials, there are also many ways that your organization can protect itself. Simply by using the tools provided by Microsoft, your team can more efficiently detect and neutralize these attacks. Cloudficient can help you to harness the full power of Office 365 and related products by helping your company migrate to the Microsoft cloud. With unmatched next generation migration technology, Cloudficient is revolutionizing the way businesses retire legacy systems and transform their organization into the cloud. Our business constantly remains focused on client needs and creating product offerings that match them. We provide affordable services that are scalable, fast and seamless. 

If you would like to learn about how to bring cloudficiency to your migration project, visit our website, or contact us.