Lately a ton of junk mail is coming into my regular email even though the senders are not on my contact list. My filter is set to “exclusive”. So, what gives?

Ever since about two or three days ago, when Outlook prompted me to enter a new, alternate email address, for security upgrades, I have been receiving a lot of spam and junk email into my regular Inbox. I have checked my "Junk Mail" Filter setting, and it is still set on "Exclusive" indicating that I should ONLY receive emails from those senders who are in my  "Contact List", yet I'm STILL, NOW, getting junk mail in my Inbox from senders who are NOT in my Contact List. Why is this NOW happening, how to fix it?