Auditing - Ensure Mail Forwarding Rules Are Reviewed At Least Weekly

By Ashwin Venugopal -

 









Summary

E-mail can be forwarded automatically after configuring the Exchange Online environment with the help of Transport Rules in Admin Center, Auto Forwarding per mailbox, and client-based rules in Outlook. Administrators and users both are provided with many methods to automatically and quickly e-mails outside of an organization.

Reason

By reviewing the rules weekly, the Messaging Administrator can gain insight into possible attempts to exfiltrate data from an organization; it can also help in creating a recognition of baseline, legitimate activity of users which in turn can aide in identifying the more malicious activity of bad actors when/if they chose to use this side-channel.

What If?

There is no impacting to reviewing these reports.

How to?

To review mail forwarding rule, use the Microsoft 365 Admin Center:
  1. Go to Exchange admin center.
  2. Expand Reports then pick Mail flow.
  3. Now, click on Auto forwarded messages report.
  4. Review.
Note: Mail flow reports cannot be viewed from the Classic Exchange Admin Center

Monitor:

To verify mail forwarding rules are being reviewed at least weekly, confirm that the necessary procedures are in place and being followed by the assigned employee.























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