What is mail.protection.outlook.com

mail.protection.outlook.com is a domain name used by Microsoft Outlook to provide a secure way for users to send and receive emails. It's a part of Microsoft's Office 365 suite of services.

Here's what it does:

1. Outlook Protection Service: The mail.protection.outlook.com domain is used to provide an additional layer of security for Outlook users. It helps protect against spam, phishing, and other types of email threats.
2. Sender Policy Framework (SPF): This domain is also used to implement the Sender Policy Framework (SPF) protocol, which helps prevent email spoofing by verifying the authenticity of email senders.
3. DomainKeys Identified Mail (DKIM): mail.protection.outlook.com is also used to implement DomainKeys Identified Mail (DKIM), a digital signature system that verifies the authenticity of emails and helps prevent email tampering.
4. Outlook's email infrastructure: The domain is part of Outlook's email infrastructure, which includes servers and services that handle email delivery, routing, and storage.

When you send an email from an Outlook account, the email is routed through mail.protection.outlook.com before it's delivered to the recipient's email server. This helps ensure that the email is properly authenticated, scanned for malware and spam, and delivered securely.

In summary, mail.protection.outlook.com is a critical part of Microsoft Outlook's email infrastructure, providing security, authentication, and delivery services for Outlook users.