GA of ATP Safe Links for Office Clients on iOS & Android and ATP Safe Attachments Document Preview

[Debraj Ghosh]

Today we are very excited to the announce the official GA for two features which will expand the security of Office 365 Advanced Threat Protection.  Our goal has always been to secure our growing number Office 365 customers from the evolving cyberthreat landscape and the general availability of these features helps us further continue this pursuit.

Safe Links for Office Clients with iOS and Android  

Earlier this year, we launched Safe Links for Office ProPlus Desktop Clients for Windows OS.  Of course, as enterprises further rely on a mobile workforce and even support BYOD, the ability to provide powerful advanced security on multiple operating systems becomes crucial.  Today, Office 365 Advanced Threat Protection’s Safe Links will be available for both iOS and Android platforms. The expansion of Safe Links to these mobile operating systems now enables us to provide time-of-click protection against potentially malicious links such as those used in sophisticated phishing campaigns.  By deploying Safe Links to these additional mobile platforms, we broaden the scope of our security and help ensure the protection of more users.  The feature requires no additional setup by admins as it is automatically enabled when already enabled for desktops.

 Figure 1. Safe Links warning page on iOS when user clicks on a malicious URL.

Office 365 Advanced Threat Protection Safe Attachments Document Preview

Today we are also excited to GA Document Preview for Safe Attachments in Office 365 Advanced Threat Protection.  Document Preview enables users to view the contents of an attachment even while it is being scanned for malware and coupled with Dynamic Delivery, eliminates the small delay caused by the scanning of email attachments.  While our latency times for scanning attachments is a mere 60 seconds, we understand that for our end users, the ideal is having no delay.  Document Preview and Dynamic Delivery combined provide a user experience where there is no longer any significant latency with email delivery.  Office 365 is ultimately a productivity suite, thus securing the platform should never slow down our users.  Launching Document Preview allows users to enjoy maximum security with almost no impact to productivity.

Figure 2. Document Preview and Dynamic Delivery Working Together

[#2]

Thanks for these updates, they really add even more value to ATP and make it more seamless.

[#3]

The preview feature is great, should alleviate most of the complaints with EOP ATP Safe Attachments. Hopefully more customers will turn it back on now after they decided they didn't like the delays.

[#4]

How do I disable these features for Home versions of Office 365?

[#5]

Just to confirm what I said in the other discussion where you asked this, this feature can be disabled and requires contacting the customer service team via in-product support.

[#6]

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@Cian Allner wrote:

Just to confirm what I said in the other discussion where you asked this, this feature can be disabled and requires contacting the customer service team via in-product support.

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Just to reiterate, I have contacted product support and requested them to disable it multiple times. I would not be bothering making public requests for help had I not exhausted that option already. They haven't even responded to my most recent request made several days ago.

[#7]

Understood, it would be great if someone could chip in with something official.  I agree you shouldn't have to go through this many hoops to get a feature turned off that isn't working for you.  

I think there should be an option for customers to be able to control this feature themselves, especially if the support team are not in a position to help.  I'd suggest a UserVoice product feedback idea, to garner support for this option, if nothing else comes forward.

[#8]

There is already a user voice request. There is also a thread in the Outlook product forum. And my reply criticizing the thought process behind this "Security" feature was deleted in the other thread you referenced. And my multiple requests to product support, as the option Microsoft themselves said I had, have been ignored.

What "should" happen won't happen unless a public backlash on this starts, similar to the Xbox One backlash when they launched that product.

[#9]

Great! Just only wondering why ATP page has "Coyright 2015" in footer. :)