Microsoft 365 will soon offer extra security configuration
The feature is set to debut in Q1 next year
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Microsoftis working to enable users ofMicrosoft DefenderforOffice 365to customize a new authentication mechanism in a bid to further extend its anti-spoofing protection.
Named Authenticated Received Chain (ARC), Microsoft has already enabled the new authentication mechanism for all Office 365 hosted mailboxes to help preserve authentication results even when anemail hopsthrough multiple intermediaries.
“With this change, admins will be able to add trusted intermediaries in the Microsoft 365 Defender portal to allow Microsoft to honor these ARC signatures, thereby allowing legitimate messages,”notes Microsoftin its roadmap.
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Reporting on the development,BleepingComputersays that the ability to customize ARC configurations to include additional trusted intermediaries enables message alterations with proper attribution and links the intermediary’s signatures to their domain name, thus keeping the ARC chains intact.
Message arc
Explaining the need for the new functionality, Microsoft explains that traditionally email senders use authentication mechanisms such as Sender Policy Framework (SPF), DomainKeys Identified Mail (DKIM), Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting, and Conformance (DMARC) to authenticate emails.
However, in the current arrangement, a legitimate intermediate service may potentially make changes to the email, which would result in the message to fail authentication by the time it lands in therecipient’s inbox.
Microsoft says that ARC helps preserve the email authentication results through all the intermediaries, between the originating server and the recipient’s mailbox, enabling Microsoft 365 to be able to verify the authenticity of the sender.
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According to the roadmap, the ability to customize ARC configuration is estimated to be generally available to all Office 365 users in March 2022.
With almost two decades of writing and reporting on Linux, Mayank Sharma would like everyone to think he’sTechRadar Pro’sexpert on the topic. Of course, he’s just as interested in other computing topics, particularly cybersecurity, cloud, containers, and coding.
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