Skip to main content

Whitelisting domains with safe links (Microsoft Defender)

Updated

By default, Microsoft Defender blocks certain elements, including our learning pages. To prevent that, certain domains used by SoSafe must be added to a policy in Microsoft Defender for Microsoft 365. Doing so only takes a few minutes and we have prepared a step-by-step guide to make things easy for you.

Browser warning page reading this website has been classified as malicious, with the address bar masked and a Close this page button, the kind of block a user sees without the Safe Links whitelisting in place.

  1. Log in to your Microsoft Defender with an administrator account.

  2. Expand the Email & collaboration menu, select Policies & rules, and then choose Threat policies. On this page, select Safe Links.

If you cannot see Safe Links, you do not have the required Microsoft Defender license. However, this also means that you do not need to complete this whitelisting step.

  1. Select Create to add a new policy.

    Microsoft 365 Defender Safe Links page, reached via Policies and rules and Threat policies, with the Create button marked above an empty list of existing Safe Links policies.

If you already have Safe Links policies in place, keep in mind that only the policy with the highest priority will apply to users in scope.

  1. Give the policy a name and description so you can identify it if you need to make changes in future. Select Next to continue to the Users and domains step.

  2. Here, add your organization’s domain(s) in the input box titled Domains. Select Next to continue to the URL & click protection settings step.

  3. Make sure the checkbox On: Safe Links checks a list of known, malicious links when users click links in email. URLs are rewritten by default is active.

  4. On the same page, select Manage 0 URLs. A new dialog will open.

    Create safe links policy wizard on the URL and click protection settings step, with the Manage URLs link under do not rewrite the following URLs in email marked, above the click protection settings below.

    You will now have to add all URLs shown under List of domains used in the phishing links in the SoSafe Manager (Settings / Whitelisting).
    Important: The format of the domain should always be like this: https://myDomain.com/* (e.g. https://elearning.sosafe.de/*).

    1. Select Add URLs on the Microsoft page.

    2. Enter the first URL shown in the SoSafe Manager.

    3. Select Save and repeat steps a-c until you have added all URLs.

      Manage URLs to not rewrite dialog in Microsoft Defender Safe Links settings, with the Add URLs button marked above an empty list of URLs excluded from link rewriting.
      Add URLs panel with a single URL input field showing the placeholder format https://example.com/*, used to enter each domain from the SoSafe Manager one at a time.

Related articles