Securing Microsoft Office 365 Business

With over 180 million monthly active users, many organisations have already embraced Microsoft Office 365 Business to fulfil their cloud-based application needs. Your organisation’s data is critical to its success, which is why fortifying your network’s security is so vital. As with all technology services, particularly cloud-based, Microsoft Office 365 security is an area that requires closer scrutiny:

Office 365 Business Security Statistics:

* 71.4% of organisations have at least one compromised account each month.

* 57.1% of organisations discover at least one internal threat each month.

* 45.9% have at least one privileged user threat each month.

* Statistical source

Does Microsoft Provide Security for Office 365?

Both cloud applications and online email are continuously bombarded with new and improved threats each day. Microsoft provides several in-built security measures with Office 365 Business, depending on the version you purchase. Below is an overview of the main security features.

– Office 365 Business ‘Basic’ and ‘Standard’

• Basic spam and malware protection using Exchange Online Protection
• Security groups and custom permissions
• Security and privacy controls
• Create specific user access and password policies
• Basic Multi-factor authentication

– Office 365 Business ‘Premium’

• All the features of ‘Basic’ and ‘Standard’ versions, plus…
• Microsoft Advanced Threat Protection (ATP) cloud-based email filtering service that protects against malware, ransomware, and malicious links.
• Windows Defender protects Windows 10 machines against viruses, spyware, and other malicious software.
• Enhanced Multi-factor authentication (MFA)
• Data loss prevention (DLP) policies
• Mobile Device Management (MDM)

The first security hurdle most organisations face with Office 365 Business is realising their IT team will be responsible for enabling, configuring, monitoring, and maintaining these security features. These features can be time-consuming to manage and maintain.

In addition, increasingly advanced and sophisticated application and email attacks are requiring a “next-generation” level of security that is seriously lacking in Microsoft Advanced Threat Protection (ATP). Enhanced 3rd party versions of anti-ransomware, anti-spam, and anti-phishing combined with superior threat detection, and detailed alerting are becoming necessary to keep one step ahead.

A Complete Security Solution

The Securus Office 365 Security Suite is a comprehensive all-in-one security solution that provides an enhanced layer of security to your entire Office 365 Business solution.

Our integrated security solution provides advanced threat prevention, detection, scanning, and detailed network monitoring using SEIM. By maintaining security and integrity, the result is a resilient, robust network that will quickly alert and recover in the event of a malicious attack or system failure.

We fully manage threat detection and response through our 24×7 Cyber Security Operations Centre (CSOC) on your behalf. Our team of security experts can also work alongside your IT security team should you prefer.

Our complementing Securus Office 365 Backup Suite uses Cloud-To-Cloud technology to ensures all of your Office 365 data, Exchange Online email, OneDrive and Sharepoint data are all securely backed-up. Let’s now focus on the six key areas where Securus can secure your entire Office 365 Business solution:

1. Office 365 Security

Structuring any cloud security strategy involves balancing distributed applications and data with protection against ransomware and other threats. The Securus Office 365 Security Suite enables you to create comprehensive, unified protection, data security and retention in one simple to use solution.

We can help protect your cloud workloads from threats with a deep learning neural network that tracks and identifies known and unknown malware. We also provide signature-based and non-signature-based protection from multiple threats.

• Advanced multi-factor authentication
• Role-based access control
• Next-generation ransomware protection
• Malicious file encryption detection
• Endpoint Anti Virus scanning
• Fully integrated advanced endpoint protection
• Enhanced user account exploit protection
• Machine learning to identify and address the most sophisticated threats
• Detailed security alerting from a single GUI using SEIM technology
• 24/7 threat detection and response via the Securus CSOC

Using the Securus Office 365 Backup Suite solution, you can also deploy Office 365 backup and DR protocols to public and private clouds while protecting your data against cyberattacks. In addition to cloud environments, the system also protects any virtual and physical machines that are running Linux or Windows applications.

Benefits include the following:

• Ability to restore folders, files, and workloads quickly when needed.
• Offsite cloud backups and DR are more cost-effective than using local tapes or disks.
• Neutralise exploits, malware, and ransomware with Securus endpoint protection with Artificial Intelligence (AI).
• Visibility from a single user console, enabling you to track cloud usage, manage failovers and failbacks, and schedule backups.
• In the event of emergency application failover or failback, maintain business systems with remote virtual standby or manually triggered failover-to-remote functions.

2. Exchange Online Email Security

Securus applies the same security technology to your Exchange Online email network, blocking malware and other undesirable malicious attacks all from one easy to use GUI.

The Securus Office 365 Security Suite offers enhanced threat monitoring of email. We apply the most current threat intelligence available by using machine learning to quickly detect any of the thousands of new threats discovered each day.

With Securus, you can design and maintain multiple lines of defence to thwart email threats, and respond to those threats faster and more efficiently.

• Enhanced Ransomware – Securus offers highly advanced anti-ransomware technology that uses behavioural analysis to prevent ransomware and boot-record attacks entering your email system.
• Stealth Attacks – This email security system employs time-of-click URL protection and checks the originating website reputation of email links before delivering. And, it rechecks them when the user clicks, thus blocking delayed attacks that other email security suites can miss.
• Anti-Spam/Phishing Imposters – Securus blocks Spam and phishing imposters and protects your employees from attacks using deceptive, fraudulent email addresses that mirror those of trusted contacts.
• Email cleansing, identity-based encryption, malicious file encryption detection, and detailed threat alerting.
• 24/7 threat detection and response via the Securus CSOC

Securus Email Security uses a combination of DKIM, SPK, and DMARC authentication techniques, along with email header anomaly analysis, and lookalike domain analysis to protect against threats attempting to pass through your inbound email traffic. Our system blocks, quarantines, and tags suspicious messages with a subject line warning, or banner with a direct link to a user-level block list.

3. OneDrive For Business Security

The power behind OneDrive for Business is that users can store thousands of business-essential files there and access them anytime from anywhere. 

If you wish to protect proprietary information stored on OneDrive from hackers or prevent unintentional data loss, you may need to go beyond what Microsoft currently offers.

The Securus Office 365 Security Suite enables you to maintain and monitor your entire OneDrive userbase from one simple GUI; keeping your OneDrive solution secure and allowing productivity from anywhere anytime.

Furthermore, to eliminate the risk of accidentally losing critical files and business data, we offer the Securus Cloud Backup for Office 365. This solution can back up all or select OneDrive accounts as well as recover folders, single files, or entire accounts if needed. The system can store your OneDrive backups somewhere on-premises or in a designated cloud storage area.

4. SharePoint Online Security

As you already know, collaboration is a crucial element to any successful project. Microsoft’s SharePoint creates an online collaborative environment that keeps team members connected and projects moving forward. Securus provides superior SharePoint cybersecurity, backup, and restore services that keep your critical data secure.

The Securus Office 365 Security Suite protects your entire SharePoint library, every list, file, and document from cybersecurity threats. It also provides mission-essential backup processes to keep your collaboration data secure and accessible to your workforce. 

Sharing the same protocols as our security for OneDrive for Business solution, we can help you:

• Secure SharePoint data from cybersecurity threats
• Recover your entire library, or just specific lists, files, or documents
• Global duplication to reduce storage capacity requirements 
• Copy backups to tape devices, libraries, and cloud storage
• 24/7 threat detection and response via the Securus CSOC

5. Microsoft Teams Security

Microsoft Teams is an increasingly popular collaboration tool and is, of course, fully integrated with the other Office 365 applications. Teams is a user-friendly way to integrate communications with productivity across your organisation. 

Microsoft Teams comes with several basic security features as standard:

• Certification and compliance: Protect your cloud data using Tier-C compliance
• Authentication: Two-factor authentication or single-sign-on
• Encryption through an Active Directory
• Auditing and reporting to identify potential threats quickly
• Data location: Establish your date location based on region
• Customisation access permissions to customise and enhance the security of deployments

The Securus Office 365 Security Suite provides further enhancements to improve Teams security:

• Malicious file encryption detection
• Endpoint Anti Virus scanning
• Fully integrated advanced endpoint protection
• Enhanced user account exploit protection
• Machine learning to identify and address the most sophisticated threats
• Detailed security alerting from a single GUI using SEIM technology
• 24/7 threat detection and response via the Securus CSOC

Securus helps you ensure that you’re employing the correct tools and protocols to protect your data and all sensitive information in your cloud networks. The added security enables you to enjoy all the productivity and collaboration opportunities that Microsoft Teams has to offer.

6. Backup and Restore Is A Security Factor

Security goes hand-in-hand with backup and restore protocols for your organisation’s data. While cybersecurity takes care of incoming threats that risk the loss or theft of your proprietary data, there’s also the threat of loss due to system failure. Backup and restore/DR are as critical, then, as cybersecurity in maintaining the integrity of your network.

You may not be aware that Microsoft operates Office 365 under a shared responsibility model; meaning that although they maintain platform availability, preventing actual data loss is the sole responsibility of the user.

Securus Office 365 BAckup Suite is a complementing solution to our Securus Office 365 Security Suite. We ensure your data is securely backed-up and ready at a moments notice. 

Microsoft Office 365 Data Backup And Restore

Conclusion

When using Office 365, your organisation faces additional security challenges that come with cloud solutions. Considering your data is perhaps your most valuable asset, protecting it with an enhanced integrated threat management solution has numerous benefits.

While security is the responsibility of your IT and cybersecurity teams, know that employing a suite such as Securus Office 365 Security Suite offers a robust added layer of protection that thwarts ransomware, malware, and other threats. In today’s environment, you are open to attacks and external breaches if you don’t employ a third-party solution.

Please get in touch to discuss your networking requirements in more detail. We offer a completely free consultation with one of our technology experts to fully go over your precise needs.

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