Microsoft Safe Links is a feature of Microsoft’s Defender for Office 365 which is designed to protect students, faculty, and staff from phishing attempts and other malicious activity. Safe Links works by analyzing any links for known malicious sites identified either by Microsoft or by the UM IT Information Security Office. If a site is identified as suspicious or malicious, you might be blocked from opening the site when you click it. Instead of going directly to the site, you might see a warning page.
What should I do when I encounter the Safe Links protection page?
Verify that the site you were trying to access is correct by looking closely at the site named in the browser bar. Sometimes a misspelled word or string of characters in the site name takes you to a web site you may not have intended to visit. If you think that this was blocked in error, and there is a business or academic reason to get to the site, contact UM IT Help.
Does Safe Links work when I use SharePoint, OneDrive, Teams or other Office 365 applications?
Yes.
If I get the Safe Links protection page, does that mean I was infected with malware?
No. You were prevented from accessing the malicious site before you could become infected or otherwise compromised.
Does Safe Links protect me from malicious sites when I'm browsing the web?
No. Safe Links only scans email and other Office 365 applications to identify phishing links and links to web sites that are malicious.