Office 365 update: Exchange Online Protection spam notifications!

Yet another Office 365 update! The email filter formerly known as Forefront Online Protection for Exchange (FOPE) which now goes by Exchange Online Protection (EOP), has a few new changes: localized end-user spam notifications, and the ability to adjust the frequency of these notifications, from 1-15 days.

This is in addition to the updates that were rolled out in June, including customized spam and malware filter policies and their application to specific domains, groups or users. EOP provides end-users with two options for spam: either to have unwanted content sent to the Junk Email folder in Outlook and the Outlook Web App or direct it into a web-based quarantine. Web-based quarantine is a great option for non-Exchange email systems that don’t support the former approach with the Junk Email folder. Although spam quarantine was supported by Exchange Online Protection before, administrators were the only ones able to release messages from the quarantine in the admin center – this has changed so that users can self-service, and access spam quarantined messages independently.

Here are several resources recommended by the Office 365 Technology Blog to configure and use end-user spam notifications (by TechNet):

• Enable End-User Spam Notifications via Content Filter Policies

• Release a Quarantined Message and Optionally Report it as a False Positive (End Users)

Office 365 administrators also enjoy these new updates:

• Configuration frequency from 1 to 15 days, an extension from 3 to 15 days

• Support for spam notification texts in languages beyond English

• Customized spam and malware policies for specific domains, groups or users

To learn how to configure these updates, Microsoft recommends visiting these TechNet articles:

• Configure Anti-Malware Policies

• Configure Content Filter Policies

Even more filtering improvements are on their way – so we’ll keep Office 365 users posted! And as always, if you have any Office 365-related questions, go ahead and send us a note.