Page 1 of 15 | Dealing and avoiding internal spam | Best practices | Part 17#17

Written by Eyal Doron | o365info.com

DEALING AND AVOIDING INTERNAL

SPAM | BEST PRACTICES | PART 17#17

If you have read all the articles that included in the current

article series, you are quite familiar with all the aspects that

relate to the phenomenon of internal spam in general and In

particular, in the Office 365 and Exchange Online

environment.

Now let’s be realistic, I doubt that my reader will relay read all

the article series (I know about such as a reader, who lives in

north Malaya Mountains, but as far as I know, he passed away

last year at age 103).

Page 2 of 15 | Dealing and avoiding internal spam | Best practices | Part 17#17

Written by Eyal Doron | o365info.com

The purpose of the current article is – provide you, a short

checklist for all the steps and the operation that relates to a

scenario of – internal \ outbound spam.

Commercial E-mail

Avoid from using Office 365 and Exchange Online as a

platform for a commercial E-mail.

Page 3 of 15 | Dealing and avoiding internal spam | Best practices | Part 17#17

Written by Eyal Doron | o365info.com

In case that your organization makes extensive use of

commercial E-mail, “respect” that businesses need, by using a

dedicated platform that was created for this purpose, provides

the required tools, log, report, etc.

Note – You can read more information about this subject in

the article: Commercial E-mail – Using the right tools | Office

365 | Part 4#17

Obedience to the laws of E-mail

Learn about all the “do and don’t do” rules, that related to E-

mail-based communications. Educate your organization user

about how to write E-mail in the “right way” for preventing

Page 4 of 15 | Dealing and avoiding internal spam | Best practices | Part 17#17

Written by Eyal Doron | o365info.com

unwanted future scenarios, in which their E-mail will be

identified as spam\junk mail.

Note – You can read more information about this subject in

the article: My E-mail appears as spam | The 7 major

reasons | Part 5#17

Prevention and preemptive actions

Exchange Online – outbound spam

Use the Exchange Online – outbound spam feature

Page 5 of 15 | Dealing and avoiding internal spam | Best practices | Part 17#17

Written by Eyal Doron | o365info.com

The Exchange Online – outbound spam feature enables us to

immediately be notified about a scenario, in which E-mail

message that was sent out by our organization user was

identified by Exchange Online and EOP as a potential

spam\junk mail.

Note – You can read more information about this subject in

the article: My E-mail appears as spam | Troubleshooting –

Domain name and E-mail content | Part 12#17

Blacklist monitoring services

Consider purchasing blacklist monitoring services. Yes, it cost

money!

But …….

what is the business risk of not having this type of services?

Page 6 of 15 | Dealing and avoiding internal spam | Best practices | Part 17#17

Written by Eyal Doron | o365info.com

In case that your organization appears is blacklisted, what is

the “costs” that involved in this scenario?

Note – You can read more information about this subject in

the article: My E-mail appears as spam | Troubleshooting –

Domain name and E-mail content | Part 12#17

Internal spam troubleshooting methodology

Plan, write and use a predefined internal spam

troubleshooting methodology.

When you become aware of a possible event of internal \

outbound spam, don’t get panic, throw everything you have in

hands and try to cross the border to Mexico!

You can use the Outbound spam – troubleshooting checklist

document that I have prepared as an example or baseline for

a troubleshooting document that related to internal \

outbound spam scenarios.

Page 7 of 15 | Dealing and avoiding internal spam | Best practices | Part 17#17

Written by Eyal Doron | o365info.com

Download the: Outbound spam – Troubleshooting

checklist document Download

The most important step is to find out whether your domain

name appears as blacklisted. In case that this is the scenario,

implement all the required steps for de-list your domain name

from the blacklist.

Immediately afterward, start an internal investigation to be

able to locate the specific reason and the sequence of events

that lead to this scenario.

In case that the scope of the internal \ outbound spam is not

related to your domain name, the next step will be to verify if

Page 8 of 15 | Dealing and avoiding internal spam | Best practices | Part 17#17

Written by Eyal Doron | o365info.com

the scope is related to a specific E-mail message content or a

specific organization E-mail address.

In 90% of the cases, the issue relates to an E-mail message

content that was poorly written.

Implement the required troubleshooting steps that will help

you the point the specific cause and instruct your users how to

avoid such scenarios.

In case that you eliminate all the causes that relates to “your

side equation”, understand that you will have to get some help

from the “other side”.

Page 9 of 15 | Dealing and avoiding internal spam | Best practices | Part 17#17

Written by Eyal Doron | o365info.com

The fact that you are Office 365 customers and that the

Exchange Online infrastructure is a Microsoft mail

infrastructure, will not help you in any way in a scenario in

which the problem is related to the “other side”.

In simple words:

In case that the “other side” (the destination external recipient

or the destination mail server) “decide” to identify E-mail that

sent from your organization as spam\junk mail, the “element”

that you need to contact is not the Office 365 technical

support, but instead, a representative from the “other side”,

that will help you to “figure out” the reason for identifying mail

that comes from your organization as spam\junk mail.

Page 10 of 15 | Dealing and avoiding internal spam | Best practices | Part 17#17

Written by Eyal Doron | o365info.com

Internal \ outbound spam in Office 365

environment | Article series index

A quick reference for the article series

My E-mail appears as a spam | Article

series index | Part 0#17

The article index of the complete

article series

Introduction to the concept of internal \ outbound spam in general

and in Office 365 and Exchange Online environment

My E-mail appears as a spam –

Introduction | Office 365 | Part 1#17

The psychological profile of the

phenomenon: “My E-mail appears as

a spam!”, possible factors for causing

our E-mail to appear a “spam mail”,

the definition of internal \ outbound

spam.

Internal spam in Office 365 –

Introduction | Part 2#17

Review in general the term: “internal \

outbound spam”, miss conceptions

that relate to this term, the risks that

are involved in this scenario,

Page 11 of 15 | Dealing and avoiding internal spam | Best practices | Part 17#17

Written by Eyal Doron | o365info.com

outbound spam E-mail policy and

more.

Internal spam in Office 365 –

Introduction | Part 3#17

What are the possible reasons that

could cause to our mail to appear as

spam\junk mail, who or what are this

“elements”, that can decide that our

mail is a spam mail?, what are the

possible “reactions” of the destination

mail infrastructure that identify our E-

mail as spam\junk mail?.

Commercial E-mail – Using the right

tools | Office 365 | Part 4#17

What is commercial E-mail?

Commercial E-mail as part of the

business process. Why do I think that

Office 365\ Exchange Online is

unsuitable for the purpose of

commercial E-mail?

Introduction if the major causes for a scenario in which your

organization E-mail appears as spam

My E-mail appears as spam | The 7

major reasons | Part 5#17

Review three major reasons, that

could lead to a scenario, in which E-

mail that is sent from our

organization identified as spam mail:

Page 12 of 15 | Dealing and avoiding internal spam | Best practices | Part 17#17

Written by Eyal Doron | o365info.com

1. E-mail content, 2. Violation of the

SMTP standards, 3. Bulk\Mass mail

My E-mail appears as spam | The 7

major reasons | Part 6#17

Review three major reasons, that

could lead to a scenario, in which E-

mail that is sent from our

organization identified as spam mail:

4. False positive, 5. User Desktop

malware, 6. “Problematic” Website

Introduction if the subject of SPF record in general and in Office

365 environment

What is SPF record good for? | Part

7#17

The purpose of the SPF record and the

relation to for our mail infrastructure.

How does the SPF record enable us to

prevent a scenario in which hostile

elements could send E-mail on our

behalf.

Implementing SPF record | Part 8#17

The “technical side” of the SPF record:

the structure of SPF record, the way

that we create SPF record, what is the

required syntax for the SPF record in

an Office 365 environment + mix mail

environment, how to verify the

existence of SPF record and so on.

Page 13 of 15 | Dealing and avoiding internal spam | Best practices | Part 17#17

Written by Eyal Doron | o365info.com

Introduction if the subject of Exchange Online - High Risk Delivery

Pool

High Risk Delivery Pool and Exchange

Online | Part 9#17

How Office 365 (Exchange Online) is

handling a scenario of internal \

outbound spam by using the help of

the Exchange Online- High Risk

Delivery Pool.

High Risk Delivery Pool and Exchange

Online | Part 10#17

The second article about the subject

of Exchange Online- High Risk

Delivery Pool.

The troubleshooting path of internal \ outbound spam scenario

My E-mail appears as spam –

Troubleshooting path | Part 11#17

Troubleshooting scenario of internal \

outbound spam in Office 365 and

Exchange Online environment.

Verifying if our domain name is

blacklisted, verifying if the problem is

related to E-mail content, verifying if

the problem is related to specific

organization user E-mail address,

moving the troubleshooting process

to the “other side.

Page 14 of 15 | Dealing and avoiding internal spam | Best practices | Part 17#17

Written by Eyal Doron | o365info.com

My E-mail appears as spam |

Troubleshooting – Domain name and

E-mail content | Part 12#17

Verify if our domain name appears as

blacklisted, verify if the problem

relates to a specific E-mail message

content, registering blacklist

monitoring services, activating the

option of Exchange Online outbound

spam.

My E-mail appears as spam |

Troubleshooting – Mail server | Part

13#17

What is the meaning of: “our mail

server”?, Mail server IP, host name

and Exchange Online. One of our

users got an NDR which informs him,

that his mail server is blacklisted!,

How do we know that my mail server

is blacklisted?

My E-mail appears as spam |

Troubleshooting – Mail server | Part

14#17

The troubleshooting path logic. Get

the information from the E-mail

message that was identified as

spam\NDR. Forwarding a copy of the

NDR message or the message that

saved to the junk mail

Page 15 of 15 | Dealing and avoiding internal spam | Best practices | Part 17#17

Written by Eyal Doron | o365info.com

My E-mail appears as spam |

Troubleshooting – Mail server | Part

15#17

Step B – Get information about your

Exchange Online infrastructure, Step

C – fetch the information about the

Exchange Online IP address, Step D –

verify if the “formal “Exchange Online

IP address a

De-list your organization from a

blacklist | My E-mail appears as spam

| Part 16#17

Review the charters of a scenario in

which your organization appears as

blacklisted. The steps and the

operations that need to be

implemented for de-list your

organization from a blacklist.

Summery and recap of the troubleshooting and best practices in a

scenario of internal \ outbound spam

Dealing and avoiding internal spam |

Best practices | Part 17#17

Provide a short checklist for all the

steps and the operation that relates

to a scenario of – internal \ outbound

spam.