When choosing any Cloud service, one of your first priorities should be security. With increases in data breaches, malware, ransomware and more, you want to minimise the risks to your organisation.
Unfortunately, one way your business might be susceptible is through using ‘dodgy’ Cloud-based software. Make sure your staff are only using reputable software that is regularly patched.
Cloud-based software we couldn’t recommend enough is Microsoft 365. Whether you want access to your emails on the go, or are looking for advanced project management software, the range of apps available would suit any business. And there are a number of features you can use to strengthen security across your users, devices, apps and data. check out our top 10 security deployment actions in Microsoft 365.
1. Identify Users
The easiest way to identify who your users are is by creating a single, common identity for each user. Deploy Azure Active Directory and connect it to your on-premise resources. With a single, common identity for each user, you’re providing them with secure access to all corporate resources that are easy to manage.
2. Manage Authentication and Safeguard Access
Do this by enabling Single Sign-On in Azure AD, to manage authentication across devices. Gone are the days when users would access company resources behind a firewall from a single, approved device. Now, staff are using laptops, tablets and mobiles to get their jobs done. To secure company data, be sure to enable Multi-Factor Authentication to authenticate user sign-ons from different devices.
3. Identity Protection
It’s not a matter of if an attacker will successfully compromise your corporate resources, but when. For this, you need both a prevention and a cure for cyber-attacks. With Azure Active Directory Identity Protection, you can define security policies to protect individual user identities against account compromise in real time. And Azure AD Privileged Identity Management lets you manage, control, and monitor privileged access permissions to protect your organisation.
4. Conditional Access Policies
Conditional Access lets you apply security policies that are triggered automatically when certain conditions are met. You can block access if the data suggests the user has been compromised or if it’s highly unlikely that the user would sign in under those conditions.
5. Mobile Device Management
Perfect for companies with BYOD. You can use Intune to manage corporate data on personal devices, without affecting the rest of the device. Intune can also be used to secure and manage company owned devices, and how your staff uses them – for example limiting emails being sent to people outside of the organisation.
6. Manage Mobile Apps
Deploy Intune App protection policies on all devices in Intune to control how data is used in mobile apps. An example of this would be an app protection policy that can ensure that corporate data can only be saved to OneDrive for Business and SharePoint, and not to local storage. This prevents data leakage to unsecured, consumer cloud storage services and remains encrypted in the event of device loss.
7. Discover Shadow IT
With Microsoft Cloud App Security, you can see the Cloud apps and services that are used in your organisation, assess them for risk, and provide sophisticated analytics. You can then make an informed decision about whether you want to sanction the apps you discover or block them from being accessed.
8. Protect Document and Email
Configure Azure Information Protection policies to classify, label, and encrypt documents and email. Then configure Office Advanced Threat Protection to protect your email against all known and unknown malicious links and malware.
9. Protect Your OS
Protect Windows 10 with Microsoft Defender Advanced Threat Protection. It is built into Windows 10 and provides instant detection and blocking of new and emerging threats. In an advanced threat, hackers and cybercriminals infiltrate your network through compromised users or vulnerable endpoints and can stay undetected for weeks, or even months, while they attempt to exfiltrate data and move laterally to gain more privileges. Microsoft Defender ATP helps you detect these threats early and take action immediately.
10. Detect and Investigate Security Incidents
Azure Advanced Threat Protection detects suspicious user activity in real time. It identifies suspicious user and device activity with both known-technique detection and behavioural analytics. It protects user identities and credentials stored in Active Directory and allows you to view clear attack information on a simple timeline for fast triage.
Want to benefit from secure, productive Cloud services in Microsoft 365? Book a free consultation with one of our Cloud specialists to find out more.
