Organizations increasingly rely on Microsoft 365, both to eliminate the need to purchase, install and maintain software and to give remote workers access to essential productivity applications and collaboration tools. More than a million organizations have adopted M365, which has about 240 million active users.
M365 offers a number of benefits over traditional software models. Organizations pay a monthly subscription fee for the number of licenses they need and don’t have to maintain onsite servers to support M365 applications. There’s no need to upgrade the software every few years — users always have access to the latest features. The M365 platform is flexible, scalable and highly secure.
However, it’s important for users to remember the shared responsibility model of the cloud. Microsoft is responsible for the security of the cloud — the compute, storage and networking infrastructure within the cloud data center. Customers are responsible for securing what’s in the cloud — that is, the data itself.
Data Protection Tools
Microsoft’s Services Agreement states, “We don’t claim ownership of Your Content. Your Content remains Your Content and you are responsible for it.” In other words, Microsoft doesn’t mine or share your data, but you are solely responsible for securing it.
The good news is that Microsoft provides an array of tools to help organizations secure their data in the cloud. It’s a matter of taking advantage of them and ensuring that they’re configured correctly.
Microsoft Information Protection solutions include data classification and data loss prevention (DLP) tools. Data classification allows users to apply sensitivity labels specifying whether information is personal, public, general, confidential or highly confidential. Organizations can then use DLP to control how the various classes of data are accessed, used and shared. DLP also provides tools for monitoring data access and detecting and blocking suspicious activity. Although it has limitations, it can help organizations prevent data loss and maintain compliance with data protection laws and regulations.
Email Security, MFA and Threat Protection
Email security is another key feature of M365. Exchange Online Protection monitors email traffic and uses anti-spam, anti-phishing and anti-malware tools to block unwanted, suspicious or malicious content. Organizations can also define mail flow policy rules to take specific actions with regard to messages as they pass through the Exchange online system. Some M365 plans also come with Microsoft Defender, which provides more robust protection against business email compromise and zero-day malware.
Multifactor authentication (MFA) is one of the most critical security tools in the M365 arsenal. MFA provides an extra measure of protection against credential compromise and account takeover attacks by requiring users to provide an additional authentication factor beyond just a password. M365 includes an MFA feature, but organizations gain more comprehensive protection using Azure AD. Azure AD is a cloud-based identity and access management tool that provides MFA for a wide range of cloud and on-premises applications, including M365.
M365 provides threat analytics and intelligence, threat protection and risk management tools. There are also data governance tools and auditing and reporting capabilities to aid in regulatory compliance.
How Verteks Can Help
M365 security is not something to be taken lightly. Because M365 is popular, it is a primary target of cybercriminals seeking to exfiltrate data, take over email accounts and otherwise wreak havoc on your organization. M365’s security controls are complex, and if you fail to configure one correctly, you could leave your users and data open to cyberattack.
The security experts at Verteks have extensive experience with M365 security. We can assess your M365 environment and make any changes needed to close security gaps. Let us help you secure M365 so you can use it with confidence.
