Microsoft 365 News 03-18-2021: Supplier Raises Awareness About On-Premises Exchange Server Vulnerabilities

Microsoft sign at the entrance of a building at Redmond corporate headquarters.In Microsoft 365 news this week, the supplier issued a notification raising awareness about the on-premises Exchange server vulnerabilities leading to cyberattacks for many organizations. More information is available from the Microsoft Security Blog. Keep reading for other updates, alerts and news related to Microsoft 365.

New Features

    • New SharePoint Page Analytics Feature
      • What’s happening: With the introduction of this feature, you’ll be able to monitor the number of viewers for all SharePoint pages. The analytics will also include info about how end users interact with new posts and pages.
    • AI-assisted Teams poll creation
      • What’s happening: Microsoft has announced plans to leverage Forms intelligence to enhance poll creation for Teams meeting presenters.
    • Option to reduce bandwidth used for Teams meetings and video calls
      • What’s happening: Microsoft has announced the introduction of an option that will let end users of the Teams mobile app for iOS and Android opt to reduce network data usage for video calls and meetings.
    • Microsoft browser usage report
      • What’s happening: Microsoft is adding a report on Microsoft browser usage to the usage dashboard in the Microsoft 365 Admin Center. This change is meant to support migration to the new Microsoft Edge.
    • Image display option for SharePoint Events web part
      • What’s happening: Microsoft is adding an option to display event images to the Events web part on SharePoint pages and news posts.
    • Microsoft Immersive Reader for SharePoint
      • What’s happening: SharePoint pages and news posts will soon have the Microsoft Immersive Reader built in. The Reader is already available in Teams, Outlook, Word, OneNote and other Microsoft apps.
    • New roles for Azure AD
      • What’s happening: To reduce Global Administration dependency, Microsoft is adding two new built-in roles: Domain name administrator and Authentication policy administrator.

Updated Features

    • Updates released for Microsoft 365 Apps
      • What’s happening: Updates for Microsoft 365 Apps are now available for the following channels: Current Channel, Monthly Enterprise Channel, Semi-Annual Enterprise Channel (Preview), and the Semi-Annual Enterprise Channel.
    • Updated: SharePoint site collection retention policies
      • What’s happening: Microsoft has announced updates to the behavior of SharePoint sites removed from a retention policy. These sites currently retain data and prevent deletion for 30 days after their removal to avoid unintentional data loss. With the update, if you remove a site from a policy or if you disable or delete the policy, you’ll be able to delete the site and move it to the recycle bin.
    • New Yammer experience to enter next phase
      • What’s happening: Microsoft previously introduced an opt-in toggle for all end users for the new Yammer experience. In this next phase, admins who have selected the Enable the new Yammer as opt-in setting will see the new experience became the default for all end users.
    • Updated: URL for Threat protection status report
      • What’s happening: Microsoft is aware of an issue in which the previous version of the Threat protection status report is still accessible to admins via an old URL in the production environment.
    • Updates available for Microsoft To Do app on macOS 10.14 and up, iOS 13 and up
      • What’s happening: To receive app updates for Microsoft To Do, you will need the latest versions of macOS and iOS. This doesn’t apply to organizations that don’t utilize macOS or iOS.
    • General availability of updated sensitivity label configuration for SharePoint sites, Teams sites
      • What’s happening: Microsoft is issuing an update to the configuration of sensitivity labels in order to allow for better control of external sharing settings for SharePoint sites and Microsoft Teams sites.
    • Microsoft Lists Person column enhancements
      • What’s happening: Microsoft is making improvements to the Person columns in lists. Specifically, more relevant suggestions will show up when you type.

Announcements

    • Alert: On-premises Microsoft Exchange Server vulnerabilities
    • PowerShell cmdlets not working for Exchange Online external message tags
      • What’s happening: Microsoft previously announced the introduction of a feature enabling Exchange Online admins to protect their organizations from phishing and fraud with tags for external messages. The supplier is aware that the PowerShell cmdlets are not working and will issue updates as soon as possible on the resolution of this issue.
    • 2021 Release Wave 1 implementation schedule
      • What’s happening: Microsoft has announced plans to deploy the 2021 Release Wave 1 globally starting April 1, 2021. Customers’ production environments will undergo the mandatory update during maintenance windows determined by region.
    • Paused: Retirement of OneDrive and SharePoint Send link to Outlook option
      • What’s happening: Microsoft previously announced plans to retire the Send link to Outlook sharing option in OneDrive and SharePoint. Based on customer feedback, the supplier has decided not to move forward with the retirement as planned, and the sharing option will still be available until otherwise specified.
    • Microsoft Edge Legacy officially retired
      • What’s happening: Microsoft Edge Legacy desktop app support ended on March 9. This application will no longer receive new security updates. As previously specified by Microsoft, the out-of-support app will be removed and replaced by the new Microsoft Edge with the implementation of April’s Windows 10 cumulative monthly security update.
    • Updated rollout timeline for macOS native notifications in Teams
      • What’s happening: To ensure the best possible customer experience, Microsoft has updated the implementation timeline for macOS native notifications in Teams.
      • Rollout start: Late March 2021 (previously early March 2021)
      • Rollout finish: Mid-April 2021 (previously late March 2021)

For more information about Microsoft 365, please take a look at our blog series detailing the business value of the suite. Our expert techs also have extensive experience working with Microsoft 365, as well as other types of IT solutions. To learn more, give us a call at 877-599-3999 or email sales@stratospherenetworks.com.

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