Protect your organizations against QR code phishing with Defender for Office 365
QR code phishing campaigns have most recently become the fastest growing type of email-based attack. These types of attacks are growing and embed QR code images linked to malicious content directly into the email body, to evade detection. They often entice unwitting users with seemingly genuine prompts, like a password reset or a two-factor authentication request. Microsoft Defender for Office 365 is continuously adapting as threat actors evolve their methodologies. In this blog post we’ll share more details on how we’re helping defenders address this threat and keeping end-users safe.user-reported phishing emails
Dear Community I have a technical question regarding user-reported emails. In Defender, under “Action and Submissions” -> “Submissions,” I can see the emails that users have reported under the “user reported” option. There, we have the option to analyze these emails and mark them as “no threats found,” “phishing,” or “spam.” The user is then informed. Question: Do these reported emails remain in the user's inbox when they report them? If not, do we have the option to return these reported emails to the user's inbox with the “No threats found” action? Because I don't see this option. In another tenant, under “Choose response Action,” I see “move or delete,” but the “inbox” option is grayed out. Why is that? Thank you very much!Microsoft Defender EOP
We have been experiencing an issue since last week where we are unable to view the details of quarantined emails. Could you please confirm if this is related to a known backend service issue, or if there are any specific troubleshooting steps we should perform on our end? Any guidance or updates would be greatly appreciated.
Built-in report button is available in Microsoft Outlook across platforms
Outlook and Defender for Office 365 are excited to announce the release of built-in report button in Microsoft Outlook across platforms (web, new Outlook for Windows, classic Outlook for Windows, Outlook for Mac, Outlook for Android, Outlook for iOS, and Outlook for android Lite) for both personal and commercial accounts. You can find the built-in button across Outlook: Outlook on the web. New Outlook for Windows. Outlook for Mac version 16.89 (24090815) or later. Classic Outlook for Windows version Current channel: Version 16.0.17827.15010 or later. Monthly Enterprise Channel: Version 16.0.18025.20000 or later. Semi-Annual Channel (Preview): Release 2502, build 16.0.18526.20024 Semi-Annual Channel: Release 2502, build 16.0.18526.20024 Outlook for iOS version 4.2511 or later and Outlook for Android version 4.2446 or later. Outlook for Android Lite Benefits the built-in report button provides for security admins It works out of the box with no setup required The reporting experience for end user is the same across consumer and commercial accounts The report button is consistent across Outlook clients The report button is front and center on all clients The report button is present on the grid view, reading panel, preview panel, context menu The report button enables the user to select in bulk and report messages at once You can turn on and off the pre and post reporting popups for users in your organization using You can customize the individual pre and post reporting popup by adding text and links in 7 diff languages The report button is present on shared and delegate mailboxes enabling end users to report emails. Now present on outlook for web, new outlook for windows, outlook for mac, outlook for android and outlook for iOS The end user reports made by these clients are routed as per the message reported destination configured in the user reported settings. You can view the user report as soon as they are made on the If you have configured Microsoft only or Microsoft and my reporting mailbox in the user reported settings, the result from Microsoft analysis are available on the result column You can turn off the built-in report button on user reported settings by Selecting non-Microsoft add-in button and providing the address of the reporting mailbox of the 3 rd party add-in, or Deselecting monitor reported messages in outlook Note: The report phish add-in and the report message add-in does not provide support for shared and delegate mailbox. The report phish add-in, the report message add-in, and the built-in report button all read from the same user reported settings and use the same internal reporting API. In a way there are two different doors (entry point) to the same house (the backend). For the moment, the report message and report phish add-in are in maintenance mode to provide enough time for customers to migrate to the built-in button. To learn more, please check out Transition from Report Message or the Report Phishing add-ins - Microsoft Defender for Office 365 | Microsoft Learn Report phishing and suspicious emails in Outlook for admins - Microsoft Defender for Office 365 | Microsoft Learn User reported settings - Microsoft Defender for Office 365 | Microsoft Learn Protect yourself from phishing - Microsoft Support Report phishing - Microsoft Support How do I report phishing or junk email? - Microsoft SupportBest Practices for Investigating Phishing Incidents in Microsoft Defender for Office 365
Discover best practices for investigating phishing incidents with Microsoft Defender for Office 365. Learn how to use the Incidents tab, analyze threats, and accelerate response with Security Copilot’s AI-powered guidance.Auto-Remediation of Malicious Messages in Automated Investigation and Response (AIR) is GA
We are excited to announce the GA release of auto-remediation of malicious messages through automated investigation and response (AIR) expanding this powerful tool and deliver on full end to end automation of key SOC scenarios. AIR works to triage, investigate and remediate and respond to high-impact, high-volume security alerts providing tenant level analysis to increase customer protection and optimize SOC teams. With this enhancement, customers will be able to configure AIR to automatically execute remediations for messages within malicious entity clusters saving SOC teams time and further expediting remediation by removing the need to for SOC teams to approve these actions! To highlight the key user submission scenario, in addition to AIR completing triage, investigation, remediation identification, and end user feedback responses, customers may now configure AIR to take this a step even further to automatically execute on identified remediations. Auto-Remediation Action When AIR recognizes a malicious file or URL, it creates a cluster around the malicious file or URL grouping all messages that contain that file or URL into the respective cluster. The automated investigation then checks the location of the messages within the cluster and if it finds messages within user’s mailboxes, AIR will produce a remediation action. With the auto-remediation enhancement, if the customer has configured the cluster type to auto-remediate, this action will automatically be executed without the need for SecOps approval - removing identified threats at machine speed! Auto-remediated clusters showing in action center history with decided by stating automation: Configuration Auto-remediation will be controlled by a configuration within Settings > Email & Collaboration > MDO automation settings. Within the message clusters section, organizations may specify which types of message clusters they would like to be auto-remediated: Similar files: When the automated investigation recognizes a malicious file, it creates a cluster around the malicious file grouping all messages that contain that file into the cluster. Selecting this checkbox will opt the organization into auto-remediation for these malicious file clusters. Similar URLs: When the automated investigation recognizes a malicious URL, it creates a cluster around the malicious URL grouping all messages that contain the URL into the cluster. Selecting this checkbox will opt the organization into auto-remediation for these malicious URL clusters. The next configuration is for the remediation action, designating soft delete as soft delete is currently the only action supported through AIR. Auto-remediation of malicious entity clusters configuration found in settings>Email & collaboration>MDO automation settings: Note: Customers interested in auto-remediation must turn it on through the MDO automation settings page as it will not be on by default. Auto-Remediation Action Logging The Defender portal provides several ways for customers to review remediation actions to stay cognizant of the actions executed. These include within the investigation, action center, email entity as well as threat explorer and advanced hunting. Should customers disagree with the action executed, the ability to move the messages back to mailboxes is available as well based on configuration and timing. Auto-remediated messages showing in Threat Explorer Additional actions as Automated Remediation: automated: Auto-remediated messages showing in Advanced Hunting with ActionType as Automated Remediation and ActionTrigger as Automation: Learn More Register for the deep dive webinar on Microsoft Defender for Office 365 automated investigation and response (AIR) on June 25, 2025, at 8:00am PDT / 3:00pm UTC. Learn more about the feature enhancements, as well as how AIR can help optimize SOC teams and accelerate threat response. To learn more about the auto-remediation in AIR, please visit Automated remediation in AIR - Microsoft Defender for Office 365 | Microsoft Learn. To learn more about investigations in MDO, please visit the following pages: Automated investigation and response in Microsoft Defender for Office 365 - Office 365 | Microsoft Learn View the results of an automated investigation in Microsoft 365 - Office 365 | Microsoft Learn How automated investigation and response works in Microsoft Defender for Office 365 - Office 365 | Microsoft Learn Automatic user notifications for user reported phishing results in AIR - Microsoft Defender for Office 365 | Microsoft Learn
Microsoft Defender for Office 365's Language AI for Phish: Enhancing Email Security
Email security presents a complex challenge for individuals and organizations alike. Over the years, attackers have evolved from simple spam campaigns to sophisticated threats including ransomware, identity theft schemes, and carefully crafted phishing scams. Now, malicious actors are armed with Generative AI and are advancing at an alarming pace. In response, Microsoft Defender for Office 365 has dedicated extensive research and development efforts to making email security smarter, more flexible, and more proactive. This dedication led to the introduction of specialized language intelligence to fight Business Email Compromise (BEC) attacks, announced last year at Ignite 2024 (Microsoft Ignite: Redefining email security with LLMs to tackle a new era of social engineering | Microsoft Community Hub). With that announcement, we offered a significant leap in analyzing suspicious messages using advanced natural language processing, enabling organizations to better detect subtle manipulative emails designed to lure unsuspecting users into revealing confidential data or transferring funds. The threats, however, have not stopped with BEC. Phishing attacks are constantly evolving, leveraging new tactics and forms. As part of Defender for Office’s mission to stay one step ahead of these threats, we’re taking the same robust Language AI approach we used for BEC analysis and applying it to a broader spectrum of phishing attacks. Today we’re excited to announce Microsoft Defender for Office 365’s new Language AI for Phish model. This model progressively learns from thousands of real-world phishing attempts and analyzes all messages classified as phish. Furthermore, it incorporates advanced Machine Learning and Natural Language Processing (NLP) techniques to read, process, and understand email content the way a human analyst might, yet in a fraction of the time and at an immense scale. Our model has been operational since April 2025, achieving over 99.99% accuracy and blocking 1 million phishing emails daily. By advancing our language AI and rigorously training it on phishing email threats, we are further strengthening the comprehensive protections established by our BEC-focused innovations. These enhanced capabilities create an integrated security framework designed to proactively address evolving risks and accelerate response times to emerging threats. Through Microsoft Defender for Office 365’s commitment to continuous improvement, this expanded approach empowers organizations and individuals to maintain a strong security posture in the face of ever-changing cyber challenges. Learn More: To learn more about Microsoft Defender for Office 365’s Language AI capabilities, please read more here or visit our website.No URL Detection in Emails with Extensive %2580 Encoding
Hi Community, I encountered a concerning issue where emails containing URLs with extensive encoding (%2580) completely bypassed all detection and security mechanisms. These encoded URLs weren’t identified as links, which allowed them to evade security scanning. Issue Details: The email contained malicious URLs encoded with %2580. The URLs were not flagged or identified as links, allowing the payload to bypass filters entirely. Questions: Has anyone else encountered similar issues with encoded URLs bypassing detection? What’s the best process to submit this email to Microsoft for analysis and improvements to detection mechanisms, since no URL's were identified? Looking forward to your input and recommendations. Thanks in advance!
