Forum Discussion
Advanced Threat Protection (ATP) is ruining Outlook.com
About a week ago, I noticed that all URLs were suddenly extremely long/obscure, and beginning with something like: https://nam02.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=
It destroys the URL visibility experience.
I quickly realized that this was an Office 365 (E5) feature called https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/exchange-online-advanced-threat-protection-service-description.aspx?f=255&MSPPError=-2147217396, but I'm not talking about Office 365 here but rather the consumer Outlook.com site.
I need to find out if we're going to be able to disable this, and when.
It's unbelievable that MS just foisted it on us, since it's not even in the vast majority of Office 365 plans! I realize that some people have been seeing it longer than one week.
74 Replies
To add here is the page with more details - https://support.office.com/en-gb/article/Advanced-Outlook-com-security-for-premium-subscribers-882d2243-eab9-4545-a58a-b36fee4a46e2. The included FAQ says this about disabling these features and it also confirms the behaviour you are seeing:
Can I deactivate these security features?
To provide the best protection for your account, these features are on by default and not designed to be turned off. You can contact our customer service team via in-product support to have them deactivate the features on your behalf, but we do not recommend it.
Why do links in my messages look different?
After you activate the advanced security features, links in your email might look different. For example, in some messages links might appear longer than usual, and include text such as "na01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com." This is related to the checks we perform to protect you from phishing attacks.
Cian Allner does this have to be done by only Admin ?
- This wrapping of hyperlinks fails every time (as of 1/29/2019). If you can't fix this IMMEDIATELY, you need to turn it off.
How do I turn it off. I see no option. In the upper right of the normal Outlook screen there is a "Coming Soon" switch of things to come. That switch is OFF. I just had to totally install a fresh Office 365 because I lost access to all 2019 emails. I use Outlook.com on a WIN-7 HP laptop. If I turn that switch ON, will it give me the fix in your later post?
Thanks for the interest.
Microsoft has ruined my experience in OUTLOOk. What possessed M$ to come up with such a cluttered behavior? As a retired engineer I am more and more frustrated by M$ changes thrust on us without notice before hand.
This is now confirmed in today's announcement- https://blogs.office.com/en-us/2017/10/30/premium-outlook-com-features-now-available-to-office-365-subscribers:
For Office 365 Home and Office 365 Personal subscribers, we now offer additional security against the most sophisticated types of threats in two ways:
- Scanning attachments—Sophisticated techniques detect new types of malware previously not seen, giving you protection against today’s most advanced threats.
- Checking links—When you click a link in an email, it is checked in real-time to determine if the destination website is likely to download viruses or malware onto your computer. If the site is found to be malicious, a warning screen alerts you not to access the site.
- Hi all
In work we have a big problem with this now effecting 70 thousand employees.
Problem is that when you copy a link from a hyperlink and paste into word or excel or any other file or document. The link becomes unusable for anyone else accept the user who added it to the document.
The safelink has encryption within it to allows the experts to be able trace back the hyperlink if it leaves the work environment or if required to see who over time as spread the link. But by doing this hyperlinks have now become redundant. As the only way now around this is to each time just post the full link to the page or document and not use hyperlink. This is a pain un the arse. Delaying and preventing work being done. It will mean that business will stop using outlook and instead move to other forms if this continues. Please resolve this. This is a big problem that Microsoft are ignoring. Its causing a lot of issues and rework costing hi sums of wasted money from wasted time.
Regards Every Link in my hotmail.com will not open and gives me a nam10. safelinks. protection.outlook.com
Cian Allner wrote:
This is now confirmed in today's announcement- https://blogs.office.com/en-us/2017/10/30/premium-outlook-com-features-now-available-to-office-365-subscribers:
For Office 365 Home and Office 365 Personal subscribers, we now offer additional security against the most sophisticated types of threats in two ways:
- Scanning attachments—Sophisticated techniques detect new types of malware previously not seen, giving you protection against today’s most advanced threats.
- Checking links—When you click a link in an email, it is checked in real-time to determine if the destination website is likely to download viruses or malware onto your computer. If the site is found to be malicious, a warning screen alerts you not to access the site.
Cian Allner wrote:
This is now confirmed in today's announcement- https://blogs.office.com/en-us/2017/10/30/premium-outlook-com-features-now-available-to-office-365-subscribers:
For Office 365 Home and Office 365 Personal subscribers, we now offer additional security against the most sophisticated types of threats in two ways:
- Scanning attachments—Sophisticated techniques detect new types of malware previously not seen, giving you protection against today’s most advanced threats.
- Checking links—When you click a link in an email, it is checked in real-time to determine if the destination website is likely to download viruses or malware onto your computer. If the site is found to be malicious, a warning screen alerts you not to access the site.
i want to disable the new sec urity features.i cannot access some job invoices which i have to complete
It is terrible! I understand and appreciate the attempt to reduce the risk of phishing and malicious attacks, but they screwed up my primary method of avoiding them! Now, with the extra-long "safelinks.protection.outlook.com" link replacement, I don't feel safe clicking on any link! This is a major step backwards and a huge hindrance to my ability to determine if a message is legitimate (or a phishing attack) and if a link is safe or not. This "improvement" makes the product worse. Plus, it will probably cause more problems in the long run if it gives people a false sense of security that they will be protected if they click on a malicious link when (not "if") someone figures out how to imitate and hack the system so their malicious links look like the safe one. Unfortunately, this complaint will more than likely fall on deaf ears -- talking to Microsoft often is as effective as talking to a brick wall.
Talking to Microsoft is like talking to a brick wall? This is an insult to brick walls everywhere! How dare you!
- Do not like!
I’m a user of Cisco SpamCop and any email I determine is spam/phishing gets reported.
This “safelink” appears in an email and I’m trying decipher if it is as safe as it appears to be, or not.
Even I, the suspicious careful checker, thought “this looks different but genuine”!!
Absolutely not. After working to see what the real email sender’s intended URL is, then I follow through with my usual redirect checks and find the final destination is another Canada Pharmacy site in a “.ru” domain,
How do we switch OFF this unhelpful “service” Microsoft? (I have a hotmail.com address and review my emails using the native Apple iOS mail app on my phone, and AltaMail to get at the mail headers)
