NCSC tweaks add-in to allow Office 365 users to report phishing attempts

Users reporting suspect emails to admins can now bcc the government cyber security agency

The National Cyber Security Centre has added functionality to Microsoft's Report Phishing plugin for Office 365 allowing business users to report suspect emails directly to the agency.

The Report Phishing app, which can be downloaded from AppSource, provides an Outlook taskbar button allowing Office 365 users to report suspicious messages to company administrators and Microsoft, moving the messages to the deleted items folder. It is available in corporate versions of Office 365.

The NCSC - the cyber arm of GCHQ - has added its own functionality to the add-in, enabling users to copy in the agency's Suspicious Email Reporting Service (SERS) when they report a suspect email.

The NCSC is empowered to investigate and remove scam email addresses and websites, cutting off the problem at source by blocking addresses and requiring ISPs and hosting organisations to take down suspect sites.

The organisation claims it has removed 127, 000 bogus URLs and disrupted 10,000 text scams since November 2021.

To use the service, businesses using Office 365 need to add a couple of lines to the suite's mail flow rules, adding the SERS email address to the bcc field.

Individuals can also report suspected phishing emails to SERS via an online form or by email.

Phishing emails are still the primary way that cyber criminals work their way onto a network. While many phishing attempts are caught by automated filters, criminals are adept at changing their approach to evade such protections.

Despite increasing awareness of the issue, distracted individuals will still fall for a convincing phishing email.

A recent global study using millions of simulated phishing emails found that 53 per cent were opened, with recipients taking further action such as clicking on a link or downloading a file in a fifth of all cases.