One of the main reasons why enterprises don’t immediately choose MS Office 365 migration is the concern regarding the safety of data in the cloud. Unfortunately, the platform has also raised security fears that stop more businesses from rapidly adopting it.
The good news is, Microsoft is committed to investing in the security of its cloud services. Below are tools that will help increase security once your organization makes the switch to MS Office 365.
Office 365 Advanced Threat Protection (ATP)
The primary focus of ATP is securing all employees from cyber threats that come from email. Although it mainly targets email threats, the Safe Links and Safe Attachments features are also applicable to any content found in One Drive and/or SharePoint.
These features work by scanning any link within a file or the file itself via a detonation chamber, to ensure that the link isn’t malicious. Only then will you be able to open the file on your device.
Office 365 Secure Score
With this tool, you get a calculated score for users based on features available to help secure the environment. It can also be used to search for collaboration-related recommendations, as well as provide guidance on configuring them.
Due to varying requirements and licensing, however, not all the security recommendations found within this tool can be applied to every business.
Compliance Manager
If you need to create and manage your compliance regarding certifications that include ISO 27001, NIST 800-53, GDPR, and more, this is the tool you use. It allows you to create assessments which can be used to test and document any implementation plans you have against every control in each of your compliance policies.
Office 365 Cloud App Security (CAS)
CAS makes monitoring and taking action on all cloud apps used across the company easier to handle. Thanks to its security features, an administrator is immediately alerted of malicious and potentially dangerous behavior.
It can also fight against a so-called shadow IT by blocking usage of particular apps. This tool has the capacity to apply conditional access policies as well to any content found in other collaboration apps like G-Suite, Dropbox, and Box.
Idle Session Timeouts
You can configure these timeouts to alert and later on sign employees out of OneDrive and/or SharePoint, which they’ll be able to access after 365 migration. The timeouts happen if no browser activity in a pre-defined period has been recorded.
Privileged Identity Management (PIM)
With this administrative feature, you can create a request or approval workflow process for getting admin access via Office 365. This just means that your administrators could in fact be standard workers most of the time. You only elevate their access and permissions when there is a need for it – for instance, if a help desk ticket should be completed.
As with any other release that affects the functionality of your workers, an MS Office 365 migration requires you to have an education and communication plan in place. Adoption will likely suffer if you fail to prepare in advance, so feel free to use the above tools for a smooth and secure migration to Office 365.
