Understanding What is Email Spoofing?
Email spoofing occurs when a malicious actor forges the 'From' address in an email to make it appear as though it originated from a legitimate source, such as yourself. This is often a tactic used in phishing campaigns to trick recipients into providing sensitive information.
If you're receiving emails from your own address, it's highly likely your account *isn't* compromised, but rather, you're the target of a spoofing attack. The attacker is attempting to deceive recipients, not necessarily access *your* account.
Steps How to Protect Your Microsoft 365 Account
You can take several steps to protect your Microsoft 365 Exchange Online account from spoofing attempts:
1. Enable Anti-Spoofing/Anti-Phishing in Microsoft Defender: Navigate to Policies & rules > Threat policies > Anti-phishing. Edit your existing policy or create a new scoped policy. Turn on 'Honor DMARC record policy' to automatically take action on messages failing DMARC with p=reject or p=quarantine. Add your own domain to the Domain impersonation list to block attackers pretending to be internal senders. (Refer to Microsoft's documentation for detailed instructions.)
2. Create a Transport Rule: Create a transport rule to filter and block spoofed emails. The conditions should be: *Condition 1:* 'Header From' matches your internal domain. *Condition 2:* The message header includes the IP address associated with the spoofed or suspicious email. This helps you identify and block potentially malicious messages.
Implementing these measures will significantly increase your protection against email spoofing attempts.
“Email spoofing is a deceptive tactic that uses forged 'From' addresses to trick recipients.
Microsoft Security Expert
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Further Seeking Additional Assistance
If you require further assistance or have specific questions, consult Microsoft's official support documentation or seek expert advice from a cybersecurity professional. Stay vigilant and regularly review your security settings to maintain a robust defense against evolving cyber threats.