Microsoft 365 Security and Compliance Guide

What is Microsoft 365 Security and Compliance

Microsoft 365 is a platform that provides multi-layered security. Among Microsoft 365’s features are the Office Suite, cloud storage, security and compliance, communication, and collaboration. A powerful suite of productivity and collaboration tools designed to help businesses of all sizes stay connected, organized, and productive. It offers a wide range of tools to help businesses perform better and be more efficient.

A collection of policies, guidelines, and practices for data management, retention, and protection must be followed by users to attain compliance. These include following applicable consumer privacy laws, accounting standards, cybersecurity frameworks, and data protection laws. The procedures that an organization uses to manage systems and data in accordance with external regulations are also included.
Simply put, security refers to the steps your administrator takes to backup and safeguard the organization’s data, while compliance is a set of data protection laws.

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Key Aspects of Microsoft 365

Let’s explore the key aspects that make Microsoft 365 a front runner in its industry:

1. 1. Cloud Storage:  Among Microsoft 365’s main benefits are its cloud storage capabilities, which include OneDrive and SharePoint. These tools enable teams to collaborate and share documents seamlessly while providing secure cloud storage for all their information. By using Microsoft 365, businesses can ensure that important data is always backed up and accessible, even in the event of loss or theft. With the ability to save and access data from anywhere at any time, businesses can better protect and manage their data.
   2. Office Suite:  The Office Suite from Microsoft 365, which offers many features, is a useful tool for individuals and businesses looking to streamline their processes. It includes well-known applications such as Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Outlook. These tools enable users to create, edit, and share documents, spreadsheets, presentations, and emails effortlessly. This functionality not only enhances productivity but also promotes effective teamwork.
   3. Security and Compliance:  Microsoft 365 provides significant security features that help businesses operate in a secure and compliant environment. By utilizing Microsoft 365, organizations can benefit from enhanced security and compliance, ensuring their operations and data are safeguarded against cyberattacks while meeting regulatory requirements. Features like multi-factor authentication add an extra layer of protection against unauthorized access, while advanced threat protection detects and responds to cyberthreats in real-time.
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What is Microsoft Purview?

Microsoft Purview is a data governance solution that helps manage, safeguard, and govern data for the organization.It assists in providing businesses with total control over their data so that they may manage it effectively while lowering security risks and fulfilling regulatory obligations. Discovering, categorizing, and managing data assets throughout the entire company is made possible with Microsoft Purview.

Key Features of Microsoft Purview

Here are a few key characteristics Microsoft Purview has to assist organizations in managing their own data:

1. Data Discovery and Classification: Microsoft Purview offers a comprehensive data-finding and classifying tool. Data Discovery and Classification enables companies to automatically find and categorize data throughout their digital property. This feature is essential for figuring out what kind of data is being stored and making sure the right procedures and safeguards are followed. This feature makes it easy to trace data from on-premises databases, cloud databases, SaaS data, and any other data platform. Having rapid access to and comprehension of a vast amount of data across the entire database might significantly save time and effort. This feature facilitates simple and effective administration of enterprise data by acting as a basis for data governance and discovery.

2. Data Governance: Data governance solutions are included in this feature, which allows for global data service management. Microsoft Purview provides a full suite of capabilities, including automated data classification, policy management, and data discovery. Doing so would enable you to update your data map and ensure that it complies with regulations.

3. Data Catalogue: Both business and technical users can quickly and easily discover data with this capability. It is simple to manage and arrange the data assets through the unified data catalogue features. Visual tracing of the lineage of data assets is made possible by the curation tool. A company can use this capability to maintain metadata, track impact analysis, and establish a business glossary.

4. Data Lineage and Impact Analysis: This comprehensive capability guarantees insight into the flow and transformation of data throughout an organization’s data estate. Providing end-to-end data lineage and effect analysis is another essential component. In order to trace the data flow throughout the data estate, this will be useful. Purview facilitates the process of locating the source of data, tracking its genealogy, and understanding how it affects systems downstream. With the use of solutions like Purview, data lineage and impact analysis make managing vast, interconnected data estates easier and more manageable.

5. Risk and Compliance: Purview integrates risk and compliance solutions to assist organizations in meeting regulatory requirements and managing compliance issues. This would include data protection, management, policy, and classification. This package includes programs like eDiscovery, Microsoft Purview Audit, Communication Compliance, Compliance Manager, and Data Lifecycle Management.

6. Data Sharing and Data Policy: With its integrated solution that addresses the challenges and requirements of modern data governance, security, and compliance, Microsoft Purview represents a significant breakthrough in data management. In addition to centrally managing data sharing relationships, Purview guarantees safe and interorganizational data sharing. The Data Policy app simplifies the process of managing data access from several sources while maintaining security and compliance. Microsoft Purview tackles the conventional issues that data creators, users, and security managers encounter with its sophisticated features.

Microsoft Defender Solutions

Microsoft’s objectives for Microsoft Defender were expanded upon in 2020. They added new features and capabilities to Defender in order to integrate their security products across Azure and Microsoft 365. The phrase “Microsoft 365 Defender solutions” refers to a platform that is integrated and comprises multiple Microsoft products. It is a collection of security tools designed to protect against online threats and vulnerabilities. One of the main functions of Microsoft Defender is its capacity to detect and remove viruses from your personal devices. Microsoft Defender, which consists of Azure Defender and Microsoft 365 Defender, is simply an extended detection and response system (XDR).

Different Microsoft Defender Solutions

This is a comprehensive list of the various Microsoft Defender solution types. Every product and service listed below safeguards a distinct component of an organization’s infrastructure.

• Defender for Endpoint: Microsoft Defender for Endpoint solutions, also known as Defender Advanced Threat Protection, provide cloud-based security, threat analysis, detection, and response for every endpoint in the business. Defender for Endpoint, in conjunction with Defender’s other capabilities, ensures that hackers cannot gain any access to the endpoints of your business. It also reduces the possibility of assaults spreading from one endpoint to another. Threat intelligence, cloud security analytics, and endpoint behavior sensors are some of Defender for Endpoint’s primary features.
• Defender for Office 365: Office 365 Advanced Threat Protection was the previous name of this defense, which assisted in preventing and looking into malicious emails, URLs, and data kept on cloud services. A couple of examples include One Drive for Business and SharePoint. Protecting cloud storage of this type is essential since more and more companies depend on employees who work in hybrid environments. Employees must have safe and secure access to emails and files from any location. One way to use Defender Office 365 can be done through control mail routing for hybrid employees.
• Microsoft Cloud App Security: This solution provides automated capabilities, centralized management, and easy implementation. The duty of safeguarding SaaS applications that are present in the Defender environment falls to Cloud App security. This would include apps from third parties, such as Amazon Web Services (AWS). When your security team notices potentially dangerous activities that might be linked to a cyber threat, Cloud App Security can identify and look into suspicious behavior.
• Defender for Identity: It was formerly called Azure Advanced Threat Protection. Microsoft Defender for Identity uses cloud-based learning algorithms to actively prevent compromise of on-premises active directories. It does this by keeping an eye out for unusual activity across all of your active directory accounts and notifying your security team of any threats that may require further examination. Additionally, active directories are protected from well-known cyberthreats

Microsoft 365 Security and Compliance Best Practices

The Microsoft 365 environment can be secured in a variety of ways. Organizations can improve their security posture and safeguard their resources from cyber attacks by securing and implementing the security infrastructure. Let’s talk about the best practices for protecting your Microsoft 365 environment.

1. Enable Multi-Factor Authentication with Password Policy: Turning on multi-factor authentication will increase security by requiring users to enter additional credentials to verify their identity, preventing identity theft, and improving the security of user logins and transactions. Establishing a robust password policy to strengthen the security defaults is also one of the practices. Additionally, password restrictions such as strong passwords and password expiration should be established in order to access Microsoft 365.
2. Policy of Least Privilege: The principle of the Policy of Least Privilege states that administrators should be given as minimal privileges as possible, only enough to enable them to do their jobs. It is crucial to regularly monitor those activities through the administrative audit logs since changes in admin rights may be a sign of a bad actor attempting to access the private information of your company. By doing this, possible breaches are reduced because users are guaranteed to access just the resources required for their tasks.
3. Reviewing Audit Logs: Audit logs offer important information on security-related activities, like file access and login attempts, which can be crucial for early detection of possible security problems and prompt response. Administrators can view audit logs, keep an eye on user activity, and spot irregularities by default. To cover their tracks, a malicious insider with administrator privileges can attempt to alter the audit logs. By routinely going over audit logs, you can keep an eye on and record user activity in your Microsoft 365 environment.
4. Conducting Risks Assessments: Regularly conducting risk assessments to find weaknesses in your Microsoft 365 setup is the primary compliance activity. The risk assessment guarantees that the biggest threats to the organization are prioritized and that suitable mitigation techniques are implemented.
5. Software updation: Updating your software is essential to protecting your Microsoft 365 environment. In order to defend against the most recent cyberthreats, fixes for recently found vulnerabilities are frequently included in regular updates. In addition to preserving functionality, keeping all software components updated improves your security posture. Take a look at these SaaS security recommended practices to learn more about safeguarding your SaaS apps.

How Does Lepide Help Secure Microsoft 365?

Strong security mechanisms, careful monitoring, and strict adherence to compliance rules are all balanced in the essential layers of Microsoft 365 security. Businesses may use this information to help them navigate the complexities of cybersecurity and get the most of Microsoft 365 while ensuring that it is a dependable and secure platform that supports business operations and protects sensitive data.

• • The Lepide Data Security Platform helps to reduce your attack surface area and maintain Zero Trust by identifying and addressing users with excessive access.By doing this, companies can ensure a secure digital environment that fosters growth and innovation by giving users access to what they need, whilst mitigating over-exposure of sensitive data.
  • Our Office 365 Auditing Solution gives organizations more visibility over how your data is being shared, accessed and modified, to help improve Office 365 auditing and spot and react to potential data breaches. Our auditing tool enables you to see where your sensitive data is, spot changes to permissions, and analyze user behavior across your Office 365 environment.

Set up a demo with one of our engineers right now to discover how Lepide protects your data in Microsoft 365.