What is Microsoft 365 Security and Compliance?

An Upwork study found around a quarter of the professional workforce will work outside of the office by 2025. This shift to remote and hybrid work, away from the traditional ‘inside our four walls’ business model means the reliance on cloud and SaaS platforms, such as Microsoft 365, has drastically increased.

And if you’re reading this, that probably means someone at your office – or more likely a team – works remotely and you’ve got questions. Microsoft 365 is an excellent tool with plentiful security features that will keep your business compliant and working.

We’re asked all the time to talk about how Microsoft 365 can benefit businesses, so rather than blab on about it anymore, we’ve got some information for you that should clear things up, starting with the most important.

If you are ready to start protecting your business from cyber threats, click here

What is Microsoft 365?

Microsoft 365 is a subscription-based service for businesses, families, or really, anyone with a computer. It’s a cloud-based service, offering the high-processing capabilities you need no matter what you do. You can subscribe to different versions like Microsoft 365 Personal, or Microsoft 365 Family, Microsoft 365 Business, and Microsoft 365 Enterprise, all of which are tailor-made for users in those categories and offer specific security and compliance features for each respective group.

How does M365 work with your role specifically? Discover Microsoft 365's Top Features for Your Role

Remember “Office 365”? That was the name for a cloud-based suite made up of productivity applications you may have heard of, like Outlook, Word, PowerPoint, and more. Essentially, Microsoft 365 is the current name of a bundle of services that includes the aforementioned Office 365, plus other new services.

What Security and Compliance Features Does Microsoft 365 Offer?

Like we said before, if you’re here it’s for a reason. We’re certain that if you’ve made it this far reading this blog, you’re in the need of some answers when it comes to Microsoft 365 and cyber security. The good news is: There are more than plenty of reasons to trust Microsoft 365 when it comes to security and compliance.

1. Identity and Access Management (IAM)

According to Gartner, identity and access management is the discipline that enables the right individuals to access the right resources at the right times for the right reasons. Microsoft IAM solutions then allow your IT team to manage digital identities within your digital office, allowing secure access to your company’s resources such as applications, networks, and databases from anywhere.
1. Seamless User Experience: The built-in IAM reduces the problems that arise from managing passwords, allowing your users to sign into applications quickly. This process helps keep your users secure while boosting productivity.
2. Unified Identity Management: Workers working from anywhere can mean identifying who is doing what can be a major problem. Effectively manage all your identities and access to apps, regardless of whether they are in the cloud or on-premises — all from a central location.

2. Threat Protection

Microsoft threat protection is robust. It includes integrated, automated security solutions that help keep your email, data, applications, devices, and identities secure against emerging cyber threats.

1. Security Information and Event Management (SIEM): Azure Sentinel allows you to detect and prevent potential threats to your system before they cause any damage internally. SIEM gives you a complete and total view across your organization.
2. Extended Detection and Response (XDR): XDR capabilities of Microsoft 365 Defender and Azure Defender enable you to prevent and detect attacks across your identities, endpoints, email, data and cloud apps while protecting your Azure and hybrid cloud workloads.

3. Information Protection

Information is money. Microsoft Information Protection (MIP) solutions aid you in knowing your data, protecting your sensitive information, and preventing data loss. It does this by locating, organizing, and protecting your organization’s sensitive information across clouds, apps, and endpoints.
1. Data Classification: Enables you to find important info in the cloud and on-premises systems and add appropriate labels to control where that data travels to in its lifetime.
2. Data Loss Prevention (DLP): Allows you to protect your organization’s most sensitive information like financial data, credit card numbers, health records, social security numbers, and more by allowing you to create and manage DLP policies in the Microsoft 365 Compliance Manager, which we’ll talk about shortly.

4. Security & Risk Management

Microsoft 365 security and risk management offerings allow you to quickly find and limit risks from both malicious external and unintentional internal actors to protect your organization’s important information.
1. Insider Risk Management: Exactly what it sounds like – this enables you to identify, detect, analyze and take appropriate actions against risks from within your organization through measures such as insider risk policies.
2. Communication Compliance: One of the easier tools, this helps mitigate both internal and external communication risks by allowing you to quickly find and fix dangerous messages that violate your company’s code-of-conduct policy.
3. Customer Lockbox: This tool allows your team to better control over your company’s data in general. This feature allows you to manage how Microsoft support engineers themselves access your content by allowing you the ability to grant or deny access to your data.
4. Privileged Access Management (PAM): Privileged access points are specially designated permissions that are above and beyond the standard user’s abilities on any given program.

5. Compliance Manager

No matter what line of work you’re in, compliance is key. Keeping your files, documents, images, and safer from prying eyes – and away from potentially hazardous situations – should be a top priority regardless of the steps you need to take. Here are some Offered by Microsoft 365’s compliance manager:
1. Multifactor Authentication: Microsoft says enabling Multifactor Authentication (MFA) can block up to 99.9% of all attacks on your account. No wonder it’s a built-in feature.
2. Message Encryption: There are several encryption options within Microsoft 365, such as the titular Office Message Encryption, that ensures the email messages shared and received within and outside your organization are encrypted.
3. Data Loss Prevention (DLP): Inside of the Compliance Manager you’re able to create and manage DLP policies in the Microsoft 365 Compliance center to stay compliant with your specific industry regulations.

Additional Security and Compliance Considerations

The Evolving Cybersecurity Landscape

As cyber threats grow in sophistication, businesses must continuously enhance their security measures. Microsoft 365 plays a pivotal role in this landscape by offering robust tools to safeguard sensitive data and maintain compliance with evolving regulations. With remote and hybrid work models becoming the norm, the demand for comprehensive security and compliance solutions has never been greater. Microsoft 365 provides a versatile platform that adapts to modern work environments, ensuring that businesses can effectively protect their digital assets.

Advanced Threat Analytics and Intelligence

Microsoft Threat Intelligence

Microsoft 365 uses AI and machine learning to provide advanced threat intelligence, offering proactive protection against evolving cyber threats. The platform continuously analyzes global data to identify patterns and detect potential threats before they impact your organization. This intelligent analysis helps businesses stay ahead of cybercriminals by anticipating attacks and implementing preventive measures.

Threat Intelligence Dashboard

The Threat Intelligence Dashboard within Microsoft 365 offers a comprehensive view of the latest threats and vulnerabilities:

Real-Time Threat Detection: Immediate alerts about potential threats targeting your organization.
Global Threat Landscape: Insights into worldwide cyber threats, helping you understand the broader security environment.
Customized Alerts: Notifications based on your organization's specific risks and vulnerabilities.

These capabilities empower IT teams to take swift action, mitigating risks and enhancing overall security posture.

Data Governance and Retention Policies

Retention Policies and Labels

Microsoft 365 provides robust tools for data governance, enabling organizations to manage their data lifecycle effectively. Retention policies allow businesses to specify how long data should be kept and when it should be deleted, ensuring compliance with various industry regulations.

Retention Labels: Apply to documents, emails, and other data types to classify and manage them according to their importance and sensitivity.
Automated Retention: Set up automated rules to retain or delete data based on predefined criteria, reducing manual effort and minimizing human error.

Advanced Data Governance Tools

In addition to basic retention policies, Microsoft 365 offers advanced data governance tools such as archiving and eDiscovery:

Archiving: Store older, inactive data while keeping it accessible for future reference or legal requirements.
eDiscovery: Efficiently search, identify, and retrieve electronic information, simplifying legal holds and data reviews.

These capabilities ensure sensitive information is properly managed, stored, and disposed of, protecting against data breaches and ensuring regulatory compliance.

Audit and Reporting Capabilities

Comprehensive Audit Logs

Microsoft 365 offers extensive audit logging capabilities, enabling organizations to track user activities and administrative actions. These logs are essential for maintaining transparency, accountability, and compliance, helping businesses quickly identify suspicious activities or unauthorized access.

User Activity Tracking: Monitor and record actions such as file access, email communications, and login attempts.
Admin Activity Logs: Document changes to configurations, permissions, and security settings.

Customizable Reports

The reporting features in Microsoft 365 allow organizations to generate detailed, customizable reports that provide insights into their security and compliance posture. These reports can be tailored to specific metrics, such as data usage and security breaches.

Pre-Built Templates: Utilize templates for common reporting needs, like compliance checks.
Custom Reports: Create custom reports focusing on specific aspects of your organization's IT environment.

These capabilities enable businesses to manage risks proactively, streamline compliance efforts, and make informed decisions based on comprehensive data analysis.

Security Awareness and Training

Security Training Programs

Microsoft 365 offers various security training programs to raise awareness and improve the overall security literacy of employees. These programs cover topics like recognizing phishing attempts and understanding data privacy protocols.

Interactive Modules: Engage employees with interactive training modules that explain complex security concepts.
Regular Updates: Ensure training materials are up-to-date with the latest threat intelligence and security best practices.

Phishing Simulations

To reinforce training, Microsoft 365 includes phishing simulation tools that allow organizations to conduct mock phishing campaigns. These simulations test employees' ability to identify and respond to phishing attempts, providing practical learning experiences.

Customizable Scenarios: Tailor phishing simulations to mimic real-world scenarios relevant to your organization.
Detailed Feedback: Provide immediate feedback on performance, highlighting areas for improvement and reinforcing good practices.

Zero Trust Security Model

Principles of Zero Trust

The Zero Trust security model shifts away from the traditional "trust but verify" paradigm to a "never trust, always verify" approach. In this model, no user or device is trusted by default, regardless of their location. All access requests are thoroughly authenticated, authorized, and continuously validated based on user identity and device health.

Least Privilege Access: Grant users only the minimum level of access necessary to perform their jobs.
Continuous Verification: Regularly reassess access permissions and security postures.
Micro-Segmentation: Divide the network into smaller segments to limit lateral movement, minimizing the impact of a potential breach.

Implementation in Microsoft 365

Microsoft 365 integrates Zero Trust principles across its services, employing multi-factor authentication (MFA), conditional access policies, and advanced threat protection. This comprehensive approach helps organizations safeguard sensitive data and maintain control over their digital environments.

Cloud App Security

Microsoft Cloud App Security (MCAS)

Microsoft Cloud App Security (MCAS) is a security solution that provides visibility and control over cloud applications. As businesses increasingly adopt cloud services, MCAS helps protect corporate data by offering advanced threat detection and protection.

Visibility: Gain insights into cloud application usage, identifying shadow IT and ensuring compliance with security policies.
Data Protection: Protect sensitive information through encryption and data loss prevention (DLP) policies.

Risk Assessment and Policy Enforcement

MCAS enables organizations to assess and manage risks associated with cloud applications. By identifying risky behaviors and potential threats, MCAS allows IT teams to take proactive measures to secure their data.

Risk Scores: Assign risk scores to cloud applications based on compliance and security certifications.
Automated Policy Enforcement: Set and enforce policies for accessing and using cloud apps.

Incident Response and Recovery Planning

Incident Response Capabilities

Microsoft 365 provides comprehensive incident response capabilities, enabling organizations to quickly detect, investigate, and mitigate threats. Tools like Microsoft Defender for Endpoint and Azure Sentinel offer real-time threat detection and automated response mechanisms.

Automated Threat Remediation: Use AI-driven automation to isolate compromised devices and block suspicious IP addresses.
Incident Investigation: Trace the source and scope of incidents, helping security teams prevent future attacks.

Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery

Microsoft 365 supports robust business continuity and disaster recovery planning. These features ensure organizations can maintain operations and quickly recover from disruptions, whether caused by cyberattacks, natural disasters, or technical failures.

Data Backup and Recovery: Automatically back up critical data to the cloud for quick restoration.
Resilient Infrastructure: Utilize Microsoft's globally distributed data centers and redundant systems to ensure high availability.

Future Developments and Innovations

Upcoming Security Features

Microsoft invests in research and development to enhance the security capabilities of its platforms. Future updates to Microsoft 365 are expected to include advanced features that further protect against emerging threats.

Enhanced AI and Machine Learning: Sophisticated algorithms to detect anomalies and potential threats with greater accuracy.
Advanced Identity Protection: New tools for safeguarding user identities, including biometric authentication.

Integration with Emerging Technologies

Microsoft 365 is poised to integrate with cutting-edge technologies, offering additional layers of security and compliance.

Blockchain Technology: Leveraging blockchain for secure, transparent data transactions.
Quantum-Resistant Encryption: Preparing for quantum computing by developing encryption methods resistant to quantum-based attacks.

By exploring new technologies, Microsoft 365 aims to provide the most advanced security features, helping businesses stay protected in a rapidly changing digital landscape.

Conclusion

This is not an exhaustive list by any means, but it does represent a huge portion of what we’re most commonly asked about. In fact, this is such a common topic for us we’d love to set up a time to talk with you about the questions you’ve come up with while reading this. Whether you’re working on adding Microsoft 365 to your business or have questions about its abilities. give us a call at (864) 552-1291 and we'll help you evaluate capabilities and options.

About PTG

Palmetto Technology Group (PTG) is an award-winning IT support and managed service provider headquartered in Greenville, South Carolina. We believe in delivering phenomenal IT experiences by people you’ll love.
As a trusted partner, our goal is to help business owners lower their risk, secure their data, and promote productive employees. To learn more, book a meeting with one of our solutions specialists here.