Microsoft is introducing a roster of new security features for Office 365. The company is adding new security features to Office 365’s flagship services, OneDrive and Outlook, for all Home and Personal subscribers.

OneDrive is getting a new File Restore feature that’ll allow users to easily restore files from the last 30 days. This feature–previously only available to business subscribers–will be incredibly useful for those who may get affected by a potential ransomware attack and lose their files — but using OneDrive’s new File Restore feature, they’d easily be able to restore the files without losing any of their data. Microsoft is also bringing ransomware detection to OneDrive, and the service will now automatically inform users when signs of ransomware are detected in their files. And lastly, OneDrive is getting the ability to password-protect shared links, which means you will be able to now give users with a password to access your files or folders within OneDrive.

The more “interesting” features part of the latest Office 365 updates are for Outlook.com. In the coming weeks, Microsoft will start rolling out an improved end-to-end encryption feature for emails which will ensure your emails are completely encrypted regardless of what email client an email’s recipients might be using. Microsoft will give users with a one-time passcode that will allow them to read the encrypted outside of their default client — but that’s only if they aren’t already using Outlook. The encryption feature is getting a new “prevent forwarding” functionality that’ll prevent recipients from forwarding your encrypted email.

Microsoft’s bringing a key Outlook.com security feature to its Office apps later this year as well. The company’s real-time advanced link checking feature will be coming to Word, Excel, and PowerPoint applications later this year which will automatically check links within your documents, spreadsheets, or presentations are safe and warn you for threats like a malware download page, or phishing scams.

The new security features are only available to paid Office 365 subscribers, highlighting Microsoft’s commitment towards the service. Microsoft’s Office business has been growing rapidly along with its Cloud business, and with Office 2019 launching soon, two of Microsoft’s core businesses will be coming closer together than ever before.

Tagged with File Restore, Malware, Office 365, OneDrive, Outlook, Word