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
    2022-07-16T19:55:29+00:00

    That's interesting about drown. This has to be something else though because some of us have probably updated our email clients in the last decade.

    I've noticed that if you use POP instead of IMAP, the suspects start using POP as well, showing that they are indeed copying our every move. What do you think this might mean? There are definitely accesses from these same addresses that don't coincide with our legit logins as well. If not for that I would think microsoft is proxying our connections and the proxy appears in the list by mistake.

    by the way there is a more centralized thread here https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/outlook_com/forum/all/outlook-mail-account-unusual-activity/6cfb226f-8cd7-41ae-bd0a-a80d100af543

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  2. Anonymous
    2022-07-16T14:44:20+00:00

    HI. I never use the links even from trusted sources. I always manually enter the information. So I went into my outlook.com site, from there I went to my account and recent activity. I updated my password after I told them it wasn't me for the unusual activity. So not sure how this would work as an attack, unless it is on MS side.

    I am definitely getting multiple unusual activities from MS IP addresses. And have changed my password multiple times.

    I'm wondering if

    https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/exchange/clients-and-mobile-in-exchange-online/deprecation-of-basic-authentication-exchange-online

    doesn't have something to do with the issue. It sounds like they are going to force individual users into downloading their outlook app on their mobile devices, because they are getting rid of POP3 importing. But I will admit I didn't completely understand the article

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  3. Anonymous
    2022-07-16T14:27:57+00:00

    Hi.

    Same issue. Reference my post:

    https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/outlook_com/forum/all/unusual-account-activity-from-ms-ip-addresses/974cc1c1-232f-44a2-b0eb-0f378fd2c801?rtAction=1657978593399

    This post also has a lot of info:

    https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/outlook_com/forum/all/outlook-mail-account-unusual-activity/6cfb226f-8cd7-41ae-bd0a-a80d100af543?page=2

    Both of us have started support tickets.

    I found a post from 2015, where a replier had received this answer:>>>>Good day! I understand the situation you are in and let me do my best to help you. Please be informed that IP addresses from Microsoft are generated from when your account is accessed by our system to apply updates to the account. This is the system accessing the account, not any particular individual from Microsoft accessing the account. <<<<

    Also, someone posted a link to this article about deprecation of basic authentication. I didn't really undertand the article. It sounds like they are going to force users to download their Outlook app to Android or Apple phones to be able to access your email because they are phasing out POP and IMAP.

    https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/exchange/clients-and-mobile-in-exchange-online/deprecation-of-basic-authentication-exchange-online

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