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Microsoft 365 Security Checklist: A Guide to Improve Data Security

Maarten ~ Modified: July 4th, 2024 ~ Microsoft Office 365 ~ 9 Minutes Reading

Microsoft 365 is becoming more widely accepted across the globe. This is due to the mobility and collaboration features that Microsoft offers. However, since this is cloud-based, there are it has greater security vulnerabilities, and it has become very important to ensure the security of your files and data. To do this, you should follow a Microsoft 365 security checklist that will guide you through all the points that ensure that your security is as robust as it can be. Microsoft 365 offers various security measures and customer controls that help you configure the security according to your needs. However, they are only effective if they are configured correctly according to your business and needs. 

Table of Contents:

In this article, we have given you a comprehensive Microsoft 365 security checklist that will help you optimise the security of your systems.

Microsoft 365 Security Checklist

Following are the items that you should be aware of to improve the security:

  1. Enabling multi-factor authentication.
  2. Role-based access.
  3. Conditional access.
  4. Set up alerts.
  5. Enable Microsoft Defender for security reports.
  6. Manage application access on company and personal devices.
  7. Track the documents used by the users.
  8. Track instances of malicious activity.
  9. Set up controls for sharing documents.
  10. Setting up a reliable policy for passwords.
  11. Using updated software.
  12. Securing the privacy of information.
  13. Blocking the sharing of Sensitive information.
  14. Providing employees with security trainings.

Microsoft Security Best Practices

The best practices to follow in an Office 365 security checklist are:

  1. To protect sensitive information, and adhere to the compliance requirement, create and manage data loss prevention policies.
  2. For protection against ransomware attacks, deploy an anti-malware solution.
  3. Develop and implement protocols that require strong passwords and also discourage the reuse of passwords.
  4. Ensure that all incoming and outgoing emails are encrypted.
  5. Protect the mobile devices using Mobile Device Management (MDM).
  6. Turn on advanced threat protection to prevent unauthorised and harmful links.

Security Recommendations for Microsoft 365

Here are the security recommendations that a user should follow:

  1. Activate alerts for unusual activities to reduce the time needed for identifying risks.
  2. Using the role-based access control (RBAC), assign the administrator roles.
  3. Enable multi-factor authentication for administrator accounts.
  4. To support threat identification and investigations, use the Unified Audit Log (UAL).
  5. Disable legacy protocol authentication that does not support MFA features such as POP3, SMTP, and IMAP.

Also Read: How to Migrate Shared Mailbox to Office 365 – Step By Step Explained

Office 365 Security Features

The security features of Office 365 can be categorized into four segments – identity access, information protection, threat protection, and security risk management.

Identity Access Management:

It provides a framework of technology, processes, and policies to ensure that the right people can access the resources of an organisation. There are many user authentication methods to verify the identity of the user that they are claiming to be. This allows the administrators to verify the identity of not only people but software and hardware. Using this can help reduce as well as identify suspicious login attempts and protect the credentials of the users. These identity features should be a part of the Office 365 security checklist. The benefits of these are:

  • Seamless user experience
  • Secure adaptive access
  • Simplified identity governance
  • Identity management that is unified

Threat Protection:

It includes automated security solutions to help secure files, data, applications, and devices. It provides defence against hacking-based attacks that target sensitive files and data as well as monitors the activity of the attack so that the threat is identified as quickly as possible. 

A Microsoft 365 security checklist for threat protection should include the following benefits:

  • Endpoint Protection
  • Extended protection and response
  • Security information and event management 

Information Protection:

It helps the administrators locate and protect sensitive information across the cloud or any other location where the data is stored. This helps keep sensitive data secure and are used to configure data security policies with labels to assign security policies to files and data. A Microsoft 365 security checklist should have the following features:

  • Data classification
  • Data governance
  • Data loss prevention (DLP)

Security and Risk Management:

Tools are available in a centralised portal that allows the administrators to quickly identify and deal with the risks from malicious activities. It also allows the admins to perform investigations into incidents. A Microsoft 365 security checklist for security and risk management should have the following features:

  • Information barriers
  • Enforce communication compliance 
  • Insider risk management
  • Privileged access management (PAM)

Setting up reliable password policy:

One of the main concerns of Office 365 security is that users are careless with passwords. Most of the users have passwords that hackers can very easily crack in a few minutes. This is especially threatening for users that use the same passwords for multiple accounts and websites. They may also make it too simple to guess. This puts your data at a risk.

Imagine that a user uses one password to access all of their social media profiles. If a hacker gets access to their password, then they will be able to try to get access to all of their profiles in a few minutes. You can prevent this from happening by following the points given below:

  1. Uniqueness of passwords.
  2. Length of the password.
  3. Variety of the characters.
  4. complexity of semantics.
  5. Changing passwords regularly.
  6. Backing up the data.

Using updated software:

You should keep your Office 365 suite up to date. Without regular security updates, the software will not be able to resist the malicious programs that become more sophisticated. Some of the ransomeware can even spread across the computer networks and even in the cloud. So you should make sure that you do not leave any room for any security loophole. Follow the steps to secure the data you own from malware:

  1. One of the best practices is to get the latest security updates to prevent attacks from malware.
  2. You should back up your data regularly. This way you can recover your information quickly and easily if you lose your data because of an attack.

Securing of the privacy of information:

The sharing of information takes place all the time among employees. Sometimes this links accidentally get shared with people outside the organisation who may use it for their own benefit. These people can watch, save, and edit the internal documents of the company. These documents are the most important asset that an organisation can have, and protecting it should be the priority of the employees. Here are a few ways that users can take advantage of the sensitive data:

  1. Infecting the document with the ransomware or malware to ask for ransom from the organisation.
  2. Gaining a profit from the document by selling the information of the customers and suppliers. They can also steal money or ideas to gain a profit.

You can secure the data by going to Admin > Service Settings > documents and site sharing. You can then turn off the external sharing option to prevent documents from going out of the orgnisation.

Blocking the sharing of Sensitive information:

Some of the information should not be shared with others. Sensitive information such as credit card numbers, and identifiable information. If these information is leaked accidentally by you, out to people with the wrong motive, then you can face legal implications.

You can define parameters by which the system can prevent sensitive information from getting out. This way the system will not let the data out or even save it to SharePoint or OneDrive. Using the Microsoft 365 settings, you can trace and block this type of information that can be shared.

Providing employees with security trainings:

Human error is one of the leading Microsoft 365 security issues. It is because of human errors that cybercriminals get access to the systems, and this is what makes it so dangerous. Educating employees about the security of the data is very important for preventing these mistakes from happening. People’s carelessness and ignorance in the security matters causes losses for businesses. Here are some of the mistakes that will harm your businesses:

  1. Sharing of sensitive information of a company with third-parties.
  2. clicking on links that are infected with malware.
  3. accidental deletion of information.
  4. Being tricked by social engineerings tricks.

So how do you educate your employees from preventing this from happening? You can provide the new employees with training sessions. You should also train employees to have a backup of all the files and folders.

Why are Security Capabilities of Office 365 not Enough?

There are several businesses that migrate to cloud platforms with the idea that the security is the responsibility of the cloud platform. While these providers are responsible for the security of the data to a certain extent, it is the ultimate responsibility of the user to protect your data. This dual responsibility is also called the shared responsibility model. The shared responsibility model defines the cloud service provider’s responsibilities as well as the responsibilities of the user.

What to do When Your Data is Compromised?

If at all, your data does get compromised, you would have to shift all your sensitive files to another, safer location where your data isn’t at risk. Since Microsoft does not offer any way of migrating your files from one location to the other, you would have to use an automated tool. Migrator Wizard Office 365 Migration Tool is one of the best-automated tools out there that can help you move all your files securely and with ease.

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It has the following features:

  1. Migrate documents, emails, tasks, calendars, and contacts from OneDrive. 
  2. It supports Office 365 shared mailbox migration between two mailboxes. 
  3. The tool helps you migrate from online SharePoint to SharePoint. 
  4. It has account-based priority migration to prioritize the account to migrate first. 
  5. Advanced utility to migrate groups from Office 365 to Office 365. 

Also Read: Step-By-Step Process to Migrate Office 365 Domain to Another Tenant

Conclusion

Microsoft 365 is used by millions of organisations. Due to continuous advancements, Microsoft 365 has become one of the most secure productivity suites. To get all the benefits of the security that protects Microsoft services and products, it is important to understand that it follows a responsibility with regard to security.

With the shared responsibility model, Microsoft accepts responsibility for the applications and servers that it provides. The organisations are responsible for the data within the cloud. By following the checklist, you ensure that your data is secure.