Advanced Threat Protection (ATP) is ruining Outlook.com

[rpodric]

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 ATP, 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.

[#2]

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.

[#3]

This is now confirmed in today's announcement- 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.

[#4]

To add here is the page with more details - Advanced Outlook.com security for premium subscribers. 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.

[#5]

Are we supposed to assume that Microsoft will GUARANTEE that ALL the URL links that they replace with their " https://nam02.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=" are SAFE for me to click on?  If that is not the case, then Microsoft has made things worse.  I want to see some official documentation from Microsoft that says Microsoft certifies and guarantees that the URL links that they replace are 100% safe (now and in the future).  Again, Microsoft is a rude company for changing something so important without any kind of notification or opt-out capability.

[#6]

You can opt-out of this per the info I posted earlier if it's really too much and then you won't get these types of links anymore. 

Bear in mind this is a feature that's been around for years on the commercial side of Office 365, that's very much trusted.  I know the links look a bit odd and it may seem strange but this is adding a level of protection that only comes with the top of the range Enterprise edition of Office 365 and will keep customers, now including consumers better protected from cyber-threats.

[#7]

Lol...

[#8]

Absolutely agree that this has completely stuffed up my outlook. I run a hotmail.com account and a work Office 365 account and all this has done has driven me to gmail (maybe that was the idea). 

Height of arrogance to turn this on with no ability to turn it off. e.g. I cant click on a facebook, linkedin link. 

Please turn it off. 

Tony 

[#9]

In fact I get no warning message to make a decision. This is what I get back

This page can’t be displayed

•Make sure the web address https://nam02.safelinks.protection.outlook.com is correct.
•Look for the page with your search engine.
•Refresh the page in a few minutes.

[#10]

Past years, Microsoft was taunting Google to read the emails of their users with "Gmail Man".
But today, Microsoft modifies the emails of their users without asking.

At least, it could have been like a post modification in the ui... but even with other mail client, the urls are ruined.

Just... why ?!

[#11]

Another Microsoft disaster ! I have been asking them to switch this off for my account for 3 weeks now, with no action.

[#12]

The "why" is easy. If you look at the advertisement for this feature to corporations, at https://products.office.com/en-us/exchange/online-email-threat-protection?irgwc=1&clickid=wvJ1wuSUzz...

you'll find:

"Get rich reporting and track links in messages

Gain critical insights into who is being targeted in your organization and the category of attacks you are facing. Reporting and message trace allow you to investigate messages that have been blocked due to unknown viruses or malware, while URL trace capability allows you to track individual malicious links in the messages that have been clicked."

I wonder, for all non-corporate entities on the Office365 platform, who gets access to the message link tracking and rich reporting data?

[#13]

Looks like it doesn't work - I've spent 30 minutes trying to see if an email link is safe due to the new safelink address making it unreadable. So I read this https://blogs.office.com/en-us/2017/10/30/premium-outlook-com-features-now-available-to-office-365-s... and assumed I would get a warning if the link was not legitimate. h**s://eur02.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fisasj9ber25gfspqybdnd23dl8tgo.whatsappsec.club&data=02%7C01%7Csimonbannister%40hotmail.co.uk%7Cec72a33f54c949f3d1a808d532556ed0%7C84df9e7fe9f640afb435aaaaaaaaaaaa%7C1%7C0%7C636470264862145789&sdata=a%2BwuT4xNMaVWMDrbdmDvlxPXfNjDaeBYFEgtxaHoXts%3D&reserved=0

Turns out this is hosted by http://carpentiericorrado.com/ and not WhatsApp.

[#14]

Besides obscuring the url, these extra long links get broken on my Android device, so when I click on the link I get a page error. It forces me to use my laptop instead of my mobile.

But wait! there is another solution.

I am switching back to making Gmail my primary email account. 

Ah yes, sanity has been restored. Once again I can see the link, I can click on it, and it opens on my phone without waiting forever, and getting a broken page link.

Microsoft, give me the power to decide please. I want to choose what happens to my links.

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@Brian Fumo wrote:

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 ATP, 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.

---

[#15]

---

@Cian Allner wrote:

This is now confirmed in today's announcement- 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- 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.

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i want to disable the new sec urity features.i cannot access some job invoices which i have to complete

[#16]

Wished I had not got up this morning. 

Office 365 Home user.

Any link from an email in Outlook now gives me:

Can’t connect securely to this page

This might be because the site uses outdated or unsafe TLS security settings. If this keeps happening, try contacting the website’s owner.

Can directly connect to the relevant page without problem - using edge - how do I fix this 'new feature' of ATP?

[#17]

Fixed it - I hope.

Changed the default browser to IE and problem went away.

Changed default back to Edge and did not return.

URL now changed, goes to safelinks etc and then switches to normal url.

Back to the rest of the day.

[#18]

I'm still waiting for a method to disable this abject failure of Outlook/Office 365 "ATP". It obfuscates links in all emails - making it impossible for me to evaluate the trustworthiness of a link, while preventing me from navigating to legitimate and necessary web sites!  I have a SIGNIFICANT amount of time invested in this product and a LOT of data under its management. My frustration level is rising to an unprecedented level over something very easy for Microsoft to fix!

Out of nowhere - Microsoft decided to completely change the operational model of interaction with links in emails and released it without providing users with a way to disable this "feature" if it causes them usability problems - like in my case - where it has completely hobbled my ability to navigate to needed web sites!!!

Microsoft...!!! Come on... wake up and listen to totally valid and reasonable requests to allow long-time paying customers of this product to undo this mess you foisted on us... please!

Respectfully,

Jeff TX

[#19]

1. how do I disable it

[#20]

"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."

How do I do that?