How to Stop Spam Emails

​The dreaded spam email! We have all gotten them and experienced what they can look like. Some users even fall for the trick and hand over everything from credentials to actual money! The bad actors are getting better and better at creating these and making them look like they are legit emails, so it's getting more important to learn how to detect them and what products and practices can be put into place to help prevent receiving them at all.

There are things that can be done both on the user side and on our side as your Cloud Solution Provider. These can be managed on a user by user basis, but it's also important to address this globally for your email tenant so that all users are protected. Here are some items and practices that can be used:

Mark Email as Junk: This is more on the end user side. If the email gets into your inbox, you can simply right click the email and "Mark as Junk." You can even mark as "Block" or "Phishing" in OWA. This will move that email and any other emails from that sender into your Junk Email folder going forward.

Apply/Change Spam Filter Level: This is a setting that we can apply for you as your CSP. The Spam Filter can be set a different strengths to monitor your inbox for emails that it suspects as spam and then moves it to the Junk Email Folder automatically. It's important to monitor this when first applied as it can move legitimate emails into the junk folder, especially if the setting is on the stronger side.

Blacklist Unwanted Emails or Domains: This is another setting that we can apply for you. If you are receiving a lot of spam email from a single address, this is a great option. We can add that specific address or the entire domain to the blacklist as this will ensure that it goes to junk or that you won't receive it at all.

Create Mail Flow Rules: This is an option that you can get pretty granular with. We can set up rules for a user or tenant that will move spam emails directly to the deleted folder as it comes in. You can even go as far as setting the rules to monitor email addresses, specific headers or subjects, and even add conditions and specifics of who sent the email. This is an automatic setting, so once in place, there is no needed action on your end when the mail comes in.

Microsoft Defender Licensing: There are a number of licenses that Microsoft offers to help defend from hackers and phishing. A great example of this is Advanced Threat Protection (ATP). These licenses do a number of things like help prevent from targeted attacks and detect any suspicious content flowing through. These can be applied at any time and we can help train and consult on what is best for your tenant.

These are all great options to help stop spam from coming through to your inbox, and there are more. RyanTech can help customize the right fit and options for your users and tenant. The most important thing that we find is that training is key. Knowing what you are looking at in conjunction with the items listed above is a sure fire way to defend against bad actors!