How to Export Email Forwarding report in Exchange Online

By finding and managing Exchange Online mailboxes with email forwarding rules, you can help to protect your organization's data from unauthorized forwarding, including data leaks, spam, and malware attacks.

Forwarding emails to external addresses in Office 365 can pose several security risks, including:

While email forwarding can improve communication and efficiency, it can also be used to exfiltrate sensitive data. Therefore, it is important to carefully consider the risks and benefits of email forwarding before setting it up in your organization.

Both Exchange Online admins and Exchange Online mailbox owners can configure email forwarding in Microsoft 365.

Using Microsoft 365 admin center:

Using PowerShell:

Set-Mailbox –Identity <UserPrincipalName> -ForwardingAddress <UserPrincipalName> -ForwardingSMTPAddress <EmailAddress>
#If you specify both ForwardingAddress and ForwardingSMTPAddress, then ForwardingSMTPAddress will be ignored.

Using Microsoft Outlook:

Using PowerShell:

New-InboxRule “<Forwarding Rule>” -MyNameInToBox $true –ForwardTo <UserPrincipalName>
#When my name is in the ‘To box’, then the mail will be forwarded to <UserPrincipalName>. #Set a forwarding rule name as per your requirement replacing <Forwarding Rule>

To check shared mailbox forwarding rules,

• This report consists of forwarding enabled shared mailboxes, forwarding email addresses, rule name, rule configurations and so on.
• You can schedule this report by using the quick schedule option at the top of the report.
• By setting up the schedule frequency, admins can be updated on every email forwarding rule set to a shared mailbox.

The vulnerability in Exchange Online email forwarding feature may pose a risk of unintentional data breaches when forwarding sensitive information to external domains. Admins can block auto-forwarding in Microsoft 365 to external domains to prevent forwarding emails by a user mailbox.

Microsoft 365 admins must carefully monitor email forwarding rules to external domains, as they can inadvertently expose sensitive data outside the organization. They must exercise additional caution to prevent unauthorized data exposure and potential compliance violations.

To export the Microsoft 365 email forwarding report,

Microsoft 365 admin portals don't provide a detailed view of email forwarding info, such as a list of all users with active email forwarding enabled, configured rules, etc. in one place. Thus, checking the forwarding config for multiple users is time-consuming.

Get-Mailbox | Where-Object {($_.ForwardingSmtpAddress -ne $null) -or ($_.ForwardingAddress -ne $null)} | Select-Object DisplayName, ForwardingSmtpAddress, ForwardingAddress, DeliverToMailboxAndForward

AdminDroid provides a consolidated view of email forwarding by allowing organizations to see a complete list of all user accounts with active email forwarding, both internally and externally.

To monitor email forwarding with bird’s eye view,

AdminDroid's email forwarding bird's eye view is a valuable tool for Microsoft 365 users looking to enhance their security, compliance, and efficiency.

Monitoring forwarded emails in Exchange Online is essential for protecting your organization from data leakage, ensuring compliance with regulations, and troubleshooting email delivery issues.

To monitor the forwarded emails in your Exchange Online environment,

You can also view details about each forwarded message, such as the sender, recipient, and forwarding address.

Leverage the built-in alert system of Admindroid to receive instant notifications when an email is delivered to external users, enabling swift response to potential security breaches. Enhance data protection with real-time monitoring and proactive threat detection capabilities.

Create a ‘Quick alert’ that audits every change in inbox rules configurations with external forwarding rule and email the Microsoft 365 admin.

Managing email forwarding in Exchange Online is essential for controlling message routing and ensuring data security. It allows organizations to oversee email flow, prevent unauthorized data access, and maintain compliance with email policies.

To disable email forwarding for a user in Microsoft 365, you can follow these steps as an Exchange Online admin:

To disable auto email forwarding in Microsoft 365 using PowerShell, you can follow these steps as an Exchange Online admin:

Get-Mailbox -ResultSize Unlimited | Set-Mailbox -ForwardingSmtpAddress $null -DeliverToMailboxAndForward $false

AdminDroid simplifies email forwarding monitoring by offering a centralized and user-friendly interface for efficient Exchange Online management. AdminDroid's robust reporting capabilities ensure that administrators can continuously monitor the email forwarding statuses in their organization.

AdminDroid: The effective email forwarding monitoring tool to prevent data leakage, phishing attacks, and other severe security threats occurring in your Microsoft 365 environment.