Delving into Office 365's email security
I was surprised to learn last week at Microsoft's MVP Summit that most Exchange MVPs haven't been invited to the private beta for Office 365. Yet here I was, a new MVP, with beta access, thanks to my columnist connection with InfoWorld, no doubt. (Several infoWorld editors have Office 365 beta accounts, and InfoWorld has published its own take on Office 365's strengths and weaknesses in its beta incarnation.) It was a no-brainer that I should make friends with my colleagues and peers by giving everyone who wanted it access to Office 365 -- which is what I did.
In the process of playing with Office 365 and talking to my MVP colleagues, something new came on the radar: Forefront Online Protection for Exchange (FOPE, pronounced "fa-pee") is now integrated within the Mail Control security settings. Thus, every Exchange Online customer, of both Business Productivity Online Suite (BPOS) and Office 365, is a FOPE customer.
FOPE is a hosted service that protects both incoming and outgoing mail from spam, viruses, phishing scams, and email policy violations through a variety of layered technologies. It's the latest iteration of what had been previously named Exchange Hosted Filtering (EHF) and Forefront Online Security for Exchange (FOSE).
