Enhance Your Organization's Security with First Contact Safety Tips in Microsoft 365

Protecting your organization from cyber threats is paramount in today's fast-paced digital world. One valuable defense mechanism within Microsoft 365 is the First Contact Safety Tip, a feature designed to help shield your organization from impersonation attempts. This article details the advantages of this feature and provides a step-by-step guide on its activation.

What is the First Contact Safety Tip?

The First Contact Safety Tip is a security function available within Exchange Online Protection (EOP) and Microsoft Defender for Office 365. When activated, it introduces an additional layer of defense by presenting a safety notification to recipients under these specific circumstances:

  • They are receiving an email from a sender for the very first time.
  • They do not frequently receive emails from the sender.

This notification prompts recipients to be cautious, helping to thwart potential impersonation attacks. Consequently, it serves as a beneficial enhancement to your organization's security measures.

How to Activate the First Contact Safety Tip

There are two primary methods for enabling this feature: either through an Anti-Phishing policy located in the Microsoft 365 Security Center or by utilizing a Transport Rule within the Exchange Admin Center (EAC).

1. Activation Via Anti-Phishing Policy

  1. Access Microsoft 365 Security Center: Navigate to https://security.microsoft.com and log in using your Microsoft 365 administrator credentials.
  2. Go to Anti-Phishing Policies: Proceed to Email and collaboration > Policies and rules > Threat policies.
  3. Select Anti-phishing policies: Choose Anti-phishing policies from the available list of policies.
  4. Edit Action: Find the policy you wish to modify and click on Edit Action.
  5. Enable First-Time Contact Security Tips: Tick the box labeled Show first-time contact security tips.
  6. Save Changes: Remember to save your modifications to apply the new policy configurations.

2. Activation Via Transport Rule

  1. Log in to Exchange Admin Center (EAC): Access the Exchange Admin Center using your administrator credentials.
  2. Navigate to Mail Flow Rules: From the EAC dashboard, go to Mail Flow > Rules.
  3. Create a New Rule: Click on the "+" icon to initiate the creation of a new mail flow rule.
  4. Name the Rule: Assign a clear and descriptive name to the rule, such as "Enable First Contact Safety Tip."
  5. Specify Conditions: Under Apply this rule if…, select The sender is located > Outside the organization.
  6. Define Actions: Under Do the following:, select Modify the message properties > Set a message header.
  7. Set Message Header: Input "X-MS-Exchange-EnableFirstContactSafetyTip" as the message header and set its value to "Enable."
  8. Save the Rule: Once all settings are configured, save the rule to implement it within your organization's email flow.

Testing and Monitoring

Following the activation of the First Contact Safety Tip, it is advisable to send test emails from external accounts to confirm that the safety notifications are appearing as expected. Regularly assess the feature's effectiveness and modify your policies as necessary to enhance both security and user experience.

Conclusion

Integrating the First Contact Safety Tip into your organization’s security approach is a proactive step towards preventing impersonation attacks. By leveraging this feature, you not only safeguard your users but also fortify your organization's overall cybersecurity stance. Ensure your Anti-Phishing policies are current and consider adopting this safety tip as part of your broader email protection strategy.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Unveiling Primary Mailbox Statistics

Keep your Microsoft Exchange environment running smoothly with these simple PowerShell commands. Primary Mailbox Insights Want to know how much space primary mailboxes are using? This single command gives you a clear picture of storage status, item count, and total size: PowerShell Command Get-Mailbox -ResultSize Unlimited | Get-MailboxStatistics | Select DisplayName, StorageLimitStatus , @{ Name = " TotalItemSize (MB) "; Expression = { [math]::Round(($_.TotalItemSize.ToString().Split("(")[1].Split(" ")[0].Replace(",", "") / 1MB), 2) }}, ItemCount | Sort " TotalItemSize (MB) " -Descending | Export-CSV " C:\temp\All Mailboxes.csv " -NoTypeInformation This command does all the heavy lifting: It fetches all user mailboxes fast. It gathers essential stats like size and item count. It converts sizes to MB for easy reading. It sorts mailboxes from largest to sma...
Read more

Manage DL Members in OWA Without Allowing DL Creation – A Practical Solution

Today, I'd like to share a real-world workaround that solves a common issue in Microsoft 365: giving users the ability to manage Distribution List (DL) members through Outlook on the Web (OWA) without giving them permission to create or delete DLs. This is a frequent request for organizations focused on strict governance and efficient delegation. The Challenge A client recently encountered a problem where a user was unable to manage Distribution Group (DG) members via OWA. After some investigation, we discovered that the MyDistributionGroups role was not included in their role assignment policy. While enabling this role would solve the immediate issue, it comes with a significant drawback: it also grants the user the ability to create and delete DLs. For organizations with strict governance policies or those that prefer centralized DL creation, this isn't an ideal scenario. The Goal Our objective was clear: Allow users to manage existing Dist...
Read more

PowerShell Basics for Office 365 Administration (Episode 3)

At its core, PowerShell is designed around the concept of objects. Unlike traditional command-line interfaces that often work with text streams, PowerShell processes structured data in the form of objects. Understanding how objects, properties, and methods function, how variables store and manage this data, and how the pipeline enables seamless command chaining is fundamental to effective Office 365 administration. Understanding Objects, Properties, and Methods In the world of PowerShell, virtually everything you interact with is an object. An object is a structured data entity representing specific items, whether it's a user account, a mailbox, a group, or a system service. These objects possess two primary characteristics: Properties: These are the attributes or characteristics that describe the object. For example, a mailbox object might have properties like DisplayName , EmailAddresses , or RecipientTypeDetails . Methods: These represent the actions or functions that the ob...
Read more