If you use Office 2010 or 2013 on Windows, or Office 2016 on Mac, and use it to connect to any Microsoft-powered email service, you’re going to have a bad time come mid-October. As of October 13, 2020, if you use your desktop version of Outlook for email, you’ll need Office 2016, 2019, or the apps that come with Office 365 to connect to the following online services:

• Microsoft/Office 365
• Exchange Online
• Hotmail
• Outlook.com

This is happening because Microsoft is dropping older insecure connection methods to their services, including requirements for TLS 1.2 security and removal of basic authentication. You should have never been using basic (non-secure authentication) to connect to online services anyway, but this will force the issue if you connect to their services.

This was a long-time coming (announced years ago). So what do you do if you’re still using one of those older programs? Put simply, you’ll need to upgrade. Most likely that system is running an old, out-of-date version of Windows and combined with insecure Office apps, it’s an accident and security breach waiting to happen. Contact us today to discuss replacing things that need replacing and to get your company setup with Office 365.