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Anti-Spam and Anti-Malware Protection
Topic Last Modified: 2013-05-09
Microsoft Exchange Online provides built-in malware and spam filtering capabilities that help protect inbound and outbound messages from malicious software and help protect your network from spam transferred through email. Administrators do not need to set up or maintain the filtering technologies, which are enabled by default. However, administrators can make company-specific filtering customizations in the Exchange admin center (EAC).
Using multiple anti-malware engines, Exchange Online offers multilayered protection that’s designed to catch all known malware. All messages transported through the service are scanned for malware (viruses and spyware). If malware is detected, the message is deleted. Notifications may also be sent to senders or administrators when an infected message is deleted and not delivered. You can also choose to replace infected attachments with either default or custom messages that notify the recipients of the malware detection.
For more information about anti-malware protection, see Anti-Malware Protection.
Exchange Online uses proprietary anti-spam technology to help achieve high accuracy rates. The service provides strong connection filtering and content filtering on all inbound messages. Outbound spam filtering is also always enabled if you use the service for sending outbound email, thereby helping to protect organizations using the service and their intended recipients.
For more information about anti-spam protection, see Anti-Spam Protection.
Messages identified as spam and messages that match a transport rule can be sent to the quarantine. Administrators can search for and view details about quarantined email messages in the EAC. After locating the email message, the administrator can release it to specific users and optionally report it as a false positive if it was misidentified as spam.
For more information about the quarantine feature, see Quarantine.
| Feature | Exchange Server 2013 | Office 365 Small Business | Office 365 Small Business Premium | Office 365 Midsize Business | Office 365 Enterprise E1 Office 365 Education A2 Office 365 Government G1 | Office 365 Enterprise E3 Office 365 Education A3 Office 365 Government G3 | Office 365 Enterprise E4 Office 365 Education A4 Office 365 Government G4 | Office 365 Enterprise K1 Office 365 Government K1 |
| Built-In Anti-Spam Protection | Yes 2 | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Customize Anti-Spam Policies | Yes but only through Windows PowerShell | Yes 3 | Yes 3 | Yes 3 | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes 3 |
| Built-In Anti-Malware Protection | Yes 1 | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Customize Anti-Malware Policies | Yes | Yes 3 | Yes 3 | Yes 3 | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes 3 |
| Quarantine - administrator management | Yes | Yes 3 | Yes 3 | Yes 3 | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes 3 |
| Quarantine – end-user self-management | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No |
 Note: |
|---|
| 1 Exchange Server 2013 uses only the Microsoft anti-malware engine. Exchange Online Protection uses multiple anti-malware engines. 2 Microsoft Exchange Server 2013 has most of the same built-in anti-spam capabilities as Exchange Server 2010. For a comparison of anti-spam capabilities between the Exchange hosted and on-premises offerings, see Comparing Anti-Spam Protection Features Between Exchange Products. 3 Only accessible via direct access to the Exchange admin center (EAC) management interface. |
| Feature | Exchange Server 2013 | Exchange Online Plan 1 | Exchange Online Plan 2 | Exchange Online Kiosk |
| Built-In Anti-Spam Protection | Yes 1 | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Customize Anti-Spam Policies | Yes, but only via PowerShell | Yes | Yes | Yes 3 |
| Built-In Anti-Malware Protection | Yes 2 | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Customize Anti-Malware Policies | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes 3 |
| Quarantine - administrator management | No | No | No | Yes 3 |
| No |
| Note: |
|---|
| 1 Microsoft Exchange Server 2013 has most of the same built-in anti-spam capabilities as Exchange Server 2010. For a comparison of anti-spam capabilities between the Exchange hosted and on-premises offerings, see Comparing Anti-Spam Protection Features Between Exchange Products. 2 Exchange Server 2013 uses only the Microsoft anti-malware engine. Exchange Online Protection uses multiple anti-malware engines. 3 Only accessible via direct access to the Exchange admin center (EAC) management interface. |
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