Microsoft 365 is a cloud-based productivity suite with over a million enterprise users worldwide. As a widely adopted system, this set of applications is a top target for cyberattackers. Since its security setup requires proper configuration to be effective, M365 protection is often a concern for businesses and a time-consuming task for MSPs.
If users want robust security monitoring within their clients’ environment, their Microsoft 365 best practices shows how to prevent and address potential vulnerabilities.
Addressing potential vulnerabilities
What Is Microsoft 365 Security? Microsoft 365 security is a set of apps and features to protect user data within the suite. It combines built-in security controls and tools from third-party vendors. Here’s a breakdown:
- Data loss prevention (DLP): Prevents the sharing of sensitive information, minimising the risk of data compromises and compliance violations.
- Identity and access management (IAM): Controls user permissions within Microsoft 365, simplifying management for on-premises resources, cloud data and third-party applications.
- Encryption: Scrambles data to make emails and chat messages unreadable by unauthorised users.
- Threat protection: Blocks malicious activity, including phishing attempts and suspicious links within Microsoft Outlook, Teams and other apps.
Data privacy requirements
Improving Microsoft 365 security provides many benefits for their clients, including:
- Reduced risks of cyberattacks: According to the IMF, cyberattacks have doubled since 2020, resulting in losses estimated at $2.5 billion. With Microsoft 365 security best practices, users minimise the chance of invasions and data exposures.
- Cost savings: Prevention helps the clients avoid the costs of compliance violations, remediation and operational downtime resulting from data breaches. IBM reports the global average cost of these events reached $4.45 million in 2023.
- Improved compliance: Security controls help organisations meet ever-growing data privacy requirements, so they remain compliant with industry regulations.
- Proactive security posture: M365 protection best practices reduce the time users invest in incident responses and enable users to focus on preventive initiatives for the clients, such as vulnerability assessments and employee training.
Sharing sensitive information
Let’s look at the Microsoft 365 best practices to enhance clients’ security posture:
- Enhance Email Protection Strategy - Microsoft Outlook security is a top priority to prevent the risk of sharing sensitive information via email. Here are practices for a multi-layered approach:
- Require MFA for all user logins: Multi-factor authentication (MFA) safeguards users account from compromise by over 99.9%, according to Microsoft. It adds an extra verification step to protect users from unauthorised access through stolen passwords.
- Boost anti-phishing defenses: Phishing compromises user credentials, infects devices and leads to data exfiltration. Built-in features like email filters and spoof intelligence reduce these attempts in Outlook. Awareness training is also highly recommended to educate clients’ employees to identify and report suspicious emails.
- Enable mailbox auditing: By tracking who accessed inboxes or deleted messages, users identify compliance violations or potential involvement in data security breaches. This feature also indicates the need to adjust security and compliance protocols to prevent these occurrences.
Sensitive data elements
Prevent The Risk of Data Exposure - Less data exposure in Microsoft 365 means fewer attack targets for cyberattackers. Resources for a stronger defense include:
- DLP rules: Detect and block sensitive data from external sharing. Users configure these rules to define what is sensitive. The rules then scan emails, file uploads and chat messages searching for sensitive data elements. Check out MSP guide to implement Microsoft 365 data loss prevention.
- Least privilege access controls: Restrict users to only the level of access they need to perform their job functions. It reduces the risk of unauthorised individuals viewing or downloading confidential data.
- Data classification: Classifying data based on its sensitivity (e.g., confidential, public) helps clients understand which information needs the most protection.
Managing information security
Take Advantage of Microsoft 365 Security Tools - Microsoft 365 built-in tools are available for enterprise subscriptions and they should be a cornerstone of the security strategy. The set of solutions has options like:
- Microsoft Defender: An antivirus software with protection against malware, viruses and other cyber threats.
- Microsoft Purview: A set of tools to manage information security and ensure data privacy compliance, offering data classification, DLP and insider risk management.
- Microsoft Secure Score: A security assessment tool that analyses Microsoft 365 configuration and provides a score reflecting security posture.
Faster incident response
Security solutions like SaaS Alerts leverage automation to detect and remediate threats to Microsoft 365
Automate Threat Detection and Remediation - Gartner estimates that automation leads organisations to a 15% improvement in their ability to meet both security and delivery targets.
Security solutions like SaaS Alerts leverage automation to detect and remediate threats to Microsoft 365. After identifying a threat, they automatically trigger predefined actions, like expiring all sessions and preventing new login attempts. It facilitates faster incident response, minimising potential damage.
Protecting sensitive data
Manage Security Risks Through User Accounts - Effective user account management prevents unauthorised access to systems, protecting sensitive data from theft or corruption. Here’s how users minimise these risks:
- Clean up stale accounts: Stale accounts create vulnerabilities for attackers to exploit. Regularly removing inactive accounts reduces the attack surface in the Microsoft 365 environment. They recommend deleting accounts with no activity in the previous 30 days.
- Monitor guest accounts: Temporary users pose a security risk when left unmonitored. Checking these accounts helps identify unusual data transfer activities, preventing unauthorised access to sensitive systems.
Identifying unauthorised devices
Keep Microsoft 365 Secure with SaaS Alerts
Leverage Microsoft 365 security monitoring with SaaS Alerts to streamline clients’ protection. Monitor over 200 different events with SaaS Alerts so users can act faster and remediate compromises.
Their platform enhances security for Microsoft 365 tenants by:
- Identifying unauthorised devices and data exfiltration
- Detecting dangerous file-sharing practices
- Alerting security configuration changes
- Automatically remediating risky login attempts as soon as they happen
- Streamlining Microsoft security configurations with Fortify