My outlook account notices some unusual IMAP Login from Microsoft at Redmond

Anonymous
2022-07-12T08:27:40+00:00

I'm noticed from Microsoft Account Service that my outlook account has been exposed some IMAP Logins from each of the IPv4 addresses at 13.101.0.0-13.101.255.255 since 2022-07-11 JST informed as "unusual activity".

And I found with using whois service that these IP may be managed by Microsoft and placed at Redmond city in US.

Yeah I changed PW in usual way but these access can't stop anyway, so I'm guessing this is a specification for Outlook service.

But at the same time I am afraid of some attacks to Outlook service or Microsoft's collection of users data.

Does Anyone know some information about these kinds of access?

I already used technical help service of online chats in Japan, but he said that he doesn't have some clear idea.

Notification

Thanks to any users to read this thread and report the same issue.

I guess you all are as anxious as I am, but I'd like you to just keep focus on the topic of "unusual activity" from 13.101.0.0/16 here.

While many attacks on login to some system will happen all the time around the world, Thus this case is unique in that it's coming from IPv4 addresses inside Microsoft.

And here we hope to solve this strange problem.

Thank you for your cooperation.

S.E.

Outlook | Web | Outlook.com | Account management, security, and privacy

Locked Question. This question was migrated from the Microsoft Support Community. You can vote on whether it's helpful, but you can't add comments or replies or follow the question.

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Anonymous
2022-07-19T22:42:18+00:00

User @Chezlong Just placed this on my forum post

https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/outlook_com/forum/all/unusual-account-activity-from-ms-ip-addresses/974cc1c1-232f-44a2-b0eb-0f378fd2c801?page=5:

Finally got to talk to someone at MS- this was their reply:

Thank you for the information. Please be advise that Microsoft is aware of this known issue already. This started to happen even last week and we are already working with this matter. We even have created a ticket number for this issue while it is still happening.

The ticket number for the emerging issue is INC31680156.

So they are on it, but no idea when it will be fixed.

[EDIT] They also confirmed that the account was secure, no need to change passwords, etc

AND

Found the following on thread https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/outlook\_com/forum/all/outlook-mail-account-unusual-activity/6cfb226f-8cd7-41ae-bd0a-a80d100af543?page=9

posted by user @Pierre-LucMorais:

I have looked for other means to communicate to MS and I found an “official” thread to post this problem. Your mile may vary but i’ve had a reply on my thread and encourage ppl to try using them as well ?

https://www.reddit.com/r/microsoft/comments/o22lfc/microsoft\_official\_support\_thread/

They’ve responded that it is a backend accessing the service and a known issue.

Hoping this helps

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Anonymous
2022-07-22T15:39:05+00:00

Outlook email users alerted to suspicious activity from Microsoft-owned IP address—
People turn amateur sleuths to discover that the source of all those sign-ins seems to be in Redmond
https://www.theregister.com/2022/07/21/outlook_sign_ins/
Article has an update at the end:

Updated at 09.33 UTC on 22 July 2022 to add:
Following publication of this article, Microsoft sent us a statement:
"We're working to resolve a configuration issue causing some customers to receive these notifications in error," said a Microsoft spokesperson via email.

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  1. Anonymous
    2022-07-22T03:18:26+00:00

    Received this response on 07/20 for my help ticket:

    I would like to inform you that we are aware of the issue and we are investigating this issue with our Engineering team and we will get back to them once we have a update from the Engineering team.

    Last time I received an unusual activity detected for MS IP 13.101 variation was 07/19 4:32pm CST. However, I did find a successful sync from today at about 6:42pm CST for IP: 2a00:1450:4864:20::626. When I looked this IP up, it says it belongs to RIPE Network Coordination center out of Amsterdam!! https://whois.arin.net/rest/net/NET6-2A00-1/pft?s=2a00%3A1450%3A4864%3A20%3A%3A626

    Clicked the secure your account link, and it tells me I have already secured my account since this activity occured. Which isn't the case. So I had to manually go in and change my password.

    Cuz who the hell is RIPE from Amsterdam, and why are they syncing with my account.

    From what I can find: The RIPE NCC is one of five Regional Internet Registries (RIRs) providing Internet resource allocations, registration services and coordination activities that support the operation of the Internet globally. We're an independent, not-for-profit membership organisation that supports the infrastructure of the Internet through technical coordination in our service region. Our most prominent activity is to act as the Regional Internet Registry (RIR) providing global Internet resources and related services (IPv4, IPv6 and AS Number resources) to members in our service region. 

    It seems like Microsoft is tied to them somehow. But I don't understand how. Best guess is MS purchased and is using some of the IPv6 addresses from RIPE, and this is still a MS IP doing some weird sync to my account. It's all a little above my paygrade. Changed my password to be safe. If after I change my password, they sync with me again, then I guess I'll have my answer that it's definitely tied to MS.

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  2. Anonymous
    2022-07-22T16:07:15+00:00

    Just takes a bit of press to wag the tail…

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