Overview

Microsoft Defender Safe Links (along with ATP Safe Attachments) is a set of security features offered as part of the Microsoft Defender protection system. Safe Links help protect the Yale organization through scanning urls in email, chat and documents for malicious content.

The Safe Links service rewrites the URLs displayed in the body of the email, text or document following this pattern: https://...safelinks.protection.outlook.com.../ For example, if www.testsite.com appears in the email message, Safe Links will display it something like https://na01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=http:/link.scsend.com. 

Additionally, up to date versions of Outlook or browsers may continue to display the link in the original format, but hovering over the link will display the Safe Links wrapper. 

Safe Links will analyze all links sent to Yale by external senders, links in Teams chats, and those found in documents stored in OneDrive, Teams, or SharePoint. It will also analyze the links in any emails exchanged between Yale.edu accounts that are not links to something in the yale.edu domain.

At a high level, Safe Links protection works for URLs in Yale email in the following ways:

• Email is sent to a Yale user's email address.
• The email goes through the Exchange Online Protection system, where it is scanned for malware, spam and other malicious email indicators.
• Email is then delivered to your mailbox.
• The email is opened and the URL in the email message is clicked.
• The Safe Links feature immediately checks the URL before opening the website. The URL is identified as blocked, malicious, or safe. Note: If the link is clicked while the URL is still being scanned you will see a screen that tells you the link is still in the progress of still being scanned. Simply wait a minute then click the link again.

Common Issues

Issue	Result
The URL is determined to be safe.	The website will open.
The URL is to a website that has been determined to be malicious.	A warning page will open.
The URL is to a website that is included in a University "allow" list such as with sites that end in yale.edu.	The website will open.
The URL is to a website that is included in Yale's custom blocked URLs list.	A warning page will open.
The URL goes to a downloadable file and your organization's Safe Links policies are configured to scan such content.	The downloadable file will be checked.

Need Further Assistance?

Contact the ITS Help Desk

• Phone: 203-432-9000
  • Hours: Monday–Friday, 8:00 a.m.–5:00 p.m. (Escalation support remains available after hours, on weekends, and during holidays for time-sensitive, health, life, or safety critical issues).
• Schedule a Callback
• Visit an in person support center