Microsoft Is Ringing in a New Year With Changes Designed to Fight Spam

One of the commonly uttered phrases during the New Year season is "out with the old and in with the new." Microsoft is taking this phrase to heart this holiday as they make changes to their Microsoft products,

Microsoft Is Ringing in a New Year With Changes Designed to Fightm Spam

One of the commonly uttered phrases during the New Year season is “out with the old and in with the new.” Microsoft is taking this phrase to heart this holiday as they make changes to their Microsoft products, primarily with the Microsoft Defender for Office 365 Plan 2. Still, these changes also extend to other Microsoft products. The changes, which started in December and are slated to end in January 2021, are designed to help fight spam and protect against spoofing and phishing. As a result, Microsoft business users may find that some of their favorite features no longer work at all or have changed and/or that there are new features.

What Are Some of the Changes That Are Taking Place?

Many smaller changes are taking place with Microsoft products and email. One of the changes that took place already had to do with automatic e-mail forwarding. That feature was disabled to protect against both spam and spoofing. One of the biggest changes that are expected to happen has not taken place yet. This change would remove the “allow,” and “block” lists from the SPAM policy settings within the e-mail exchange online. What this means is that if you or your employees have created a block or allow list for contacts within your Microsoft Office email exchange, the functionality of those lists is being eliminated, and blocked contacts may be able to contact you again, and allowed contacts might wind up in “spam” or “other” folders.

Why Does Your Business Need to Be Aware of These Changes?

Your business needs to be aware of these changes for a few reasons. First off, the way you use your Microsoft Office email exchange may now be changing. Everything from who can email to which folders those emails may wind up into forwarding emails can all be changing. Knowing what changes are coming allows you to prepare your employees, which ultimately can limit disruptions to your business.

Your business needs to be aware of these changes because your IT professionals can become bombarded with questions or concerns if your employees are not aware of these changes. They may think there is something wrong with their email or ask questions that could have been prevented. Preparing employees helps to save your IT professionals time so they can focus on more pressing issues.

The changes taking place to Microsoft products are designed to limit spam and reduce spoofing and phishing, all of which can help protect your business better. Learning about these changes and conveying those changes to your employees can ensure they are not calling your IT professional and asking why they can’t use a specific feature or wonder why their email settings may have changed. If your company requires an IT professional to help keep your business abreast of any changes to the technology products and services you utilize, Advantage Industries can help. Contact us today to learn more.

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Tim Happel

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