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Microsoft Email Quarantine
Over the next several weeks Booth IT will be upgrading several components of our Microsoft 365 email delivery system. These upgrades are intended to increase email reliability and security. Most of the changes will be transparent to anyone with email services on Microsoft 365. One exception is the Microsoft quarantine messaging service. You may occasionally get an email from “quarantine@messaging.microsoft.com” notifying you that you need to review a message. It will look like this:
This is not a phishing email but a notice letting you know that Microsoft email security has quarantined an email that it detected as suspicious.
What do I do?
You have three options; Review, Release, or Block Sender.
Review:
This option will take you to the Microsoft security portal where you can view your quarantine items and see technical details on the email. This will tell you who the sender was, why it was quarantined (reason), and some advanced email data for security.
Release:
This is the option you use if this is an expected email and the quarantine was an error. Clicking this will allow the email to be delivered to your mailbox.
Block Sender:
As you might think, this adds the sender to your block list. Do this if the mail is malicious, spam (junk), or just plain annoying.
Email filtering is part art, part science.
Keeping your mailbox free of junk mail is a balancing act. If we turn up the sensitivity of the protection services too much, you will get more legitimate emails caught by the filter. If we turn it too low, you will see spam and malicious emails get into your mailbox. We try to find a good balancing point where we catch the bad, but you still get the good emails. Please remember, the hackers are smart. They are always changing their techniques and working on ways to fool the filters. You should never rely 100% on the email protection filters. Always follow good email habits.
Email security best practices to remember
- Use strong passwords
- Remember your awareness training
- Use two-factor authentication (2FA)
- Use encrypted connections (VPN)
- Back-up files regularly (Code42)
- Keep devices patched and up-to-date
- Keep an eye out for suspicious emails