Microsoft fights ’email bombing’ attacks with Office 365 security update

Microsoft has begun rolling out a new feature in Office 365 to stop email bombing, a type of cyberattack that has grown increasingly common in recent years. Email bombing is when lots of emails are sent to a target’s inbox in an attempt to overwhelm them and make it difficult (or impossible) to access legitimate emails.

In a note regarding the new update, Microsoft wrote: “We’re introducing a new detection capability in Microsoft Defender for Office 365 to help protect your organization from a growing threat known as email bombing. This form of abuse floods mailboxes with high volumes of email to obscure important messages or overwhelm systems. The new ‘Mail Bombing’ detection will automatically identify and block these attacks, helping security teams maintain visibility into real threats.”

Mail Bombing Detection will be available via Microsoft Defender for Office 365 soon, with the update starting to roll out in late June and completing its rollout by late July. The new feature will be enabled by default, so email bombing should start going straight to the trash.