Microsoft have included spam-filtering in Exchange for many years, under the SmartScreen name. But from 1st November that will change: there’ll be no more updates and the feature\u00a0won’t be included\u00a0in new versions of Exchange Server.<\/p>\n
Updates for SmartScreen client-side spam-filtering for Outlook on Windows will also be ending, although SmartScreen will remain current\u00a0in Microsoft’s web browsers. Despite sharing the name the in-browser\u00a0feature protects against malicious websites.<\/p>\n
If you’re using SmartScreen now\u00a0the existing definitions you have will still be there, and will still work, but there won’t be any more updates to them after 1st November.<\/p>\n
The motivation for this seems to be twofold – the blunt instrument of applying a spam-confidence level to an email isn’t very effective, and Microsoft’s\u00a0online protection offering does a far better job. Realtime filters can react faster to spoofed email, hijacked accounts, and user feedback.\u00a0Coincidentally Exchange Online Protection is chargeable for on-premises users, perhaps as a further incentive to move to Office 365.<\/p>\n
There is no net effect on Nexus from this change (Oxmail does the job of spam-scoring for the University) but, as many of you know, messages categorised as legitimate can still end up in ‘junk’ because of Outlook applying filters – it’s why we’ve always advised that users set spam filtering via the SCL and not via Outlook’s SmartScreen. The absence of future updates mean that client-side spam filtering will only become less effective over time.<\/p>\n
In the longer term Nexus’ move to Office 365 should ensure that Exchange Online Protection has an opportunity to take over spam-filtering responsibilities.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Microsoft have included spam-filtering in Exchange for many years, under the SmartScreen name. But from 1st November that will change: there’ll be no more updates and the feature\u00a0won’t be included\u00a0in new versions of Exchange Server. Updates for SmartScreen client-side spam-filtering … Continue reading