A Guide To Office 365 Data Loss Prevention
Learn the ins and outs of Microsoft 365 DLP and how to use it to its fullest capacity. Discover how Strac’s DLP mitigates the shortcomings of Office 365 DLP.
Learn the ins and outs of Microsoft 365 DLP and how to use it to its fullest capacity. Discover how Strac’s DLP mitigates the shortcomings of Office 365 DLP.
In 2021, Microsoft crossed the $2 trillion mark in market capitalization, an arguable feat that most companies dream of. However, in the same year, a report from Business wire surfaced, claiming:
“An alarming 85% of organizations using Microsoft 365 have suffered email data breaches, a research by Egress Reveals.”
This impacted the business heavily and tanked stock prices dramatically. The moral?
Cyber security is a tough nut to crack. However, whatever may be the case, cybersecurity is the shield that your business needs.
From another perspective, the newscast throws light on the reliability and security features of Microsoft 365 - a product that ranks second in market share and is used by millions of companies across the globe.
This article discusses everything you must know about Microsoft 365 DLP features. Let’s dive into detail.
Microsoft 365 data loss prevention protects data and prevents unauthorized sharing of sensitive information.
Early in 2017, Microsoft was tasked with creating the Security and Compliance Center for Office 365. This allowed users to manage and protect sensitive information through Microsoft Office 365’s data loss prevention features.
Office 365 DLP features worked similarly to other DLP tools in that segment, allowing users to secure their data through specific rules. For instance, a policy defined within Office 365 to govern data sends notifications when someone violates the rule.
Further, Microsoft Office 365 administrators can define and apply DLP policies across the network to automatically identify, monitor, and manage data flow at rest or in transit.
The software achieves these capabilities through deep content analysis and advanced machine learning algorithms. It allows DLP to uncover content that matches your policies and blocks data sent through email, cloud storage, or any other third-party app.
Businesses deal with critical information such as intellectual property (IP), customer information, financial data and business plans, and much of this data requires robust DLP policies.
Now, the question is, ‘Do we need Microsoft 365 DLP?’
The answer is yes and no. We’ll tell you why.
Microsoft 365 DLP policies can help you automatically identify, track, and protect sensitive data elements across its services like OneDrive, Exchange, Teams, and others. This makes it necessary to keep your data secure.
However, you do not need Office 365 DLP if you implement a robust DLP tool like Strac.
Strac is backed by Y-combinator; the company provides modern no-code scanners and Data Loss Prevention (DLP) softwares for every major SaaS product in the market. The software seamlessly integrates with Office 365, Zendesk, Slack, Gmail, ChatGPT, Salesforce, Box and many others
.
Reports suggest,
The report also suggests that human errors, technology glitches, and criminal acts mostly account for data breaches.
No doubt, having Microsoft Office 365 DLP makes sense in 2023.
Here are a few notable benefits of DLP in Microsoft 365.
Microsoft 365 data loss prevention helps prevent the loss of sensitive information and data, but it has its fair share of limitations. For instance, Microsoft DLP is ineffective against ransomware and phishing threats.
Office 365 has a Microsoft Purview compliance portal that provides users with several features to boost their data security. This portal includes all features dedicated to data loss prevention.
Setting up policies and rules. Office 365 DLP allows users to set up rules and policies that determine,
- which data needs protection,
- how it must be managed, and
- who should be notified if the data is shared in a way that violates the set policies and rules.
Make sure that your DLP policy details the conditions the content must match before enforcing the rule and taking actions automatically that you want the rule to take when a content match is identified.
Applying DLP policies. Office 365 DLP policies can be applied across Microsoft products like OneDrive accounts, SharePoint sites, Teams, Exchange Online, and more.
Here are a few Microsoft 365 DLP best practices that can help you make the most of the software features.
Office 365 DLP automatically identifies and classifies sensitive data. However, several other DLP tools classify data automatically and provide additional features.
For instance, Strac is one such DLP software that instantly detects and redacts PII, PHI, and sensitive data, like credit card numbers, health information, social security number, and more.
Another practice for effective data loss prevention is to restrict access to sensitive information. According to the Principle of least privilege, only those employees who need it to accomplish tasks and fulfil their roles should have access to specific data. The more restricted the access to data, the lesser the chances of data theft.
In cases of misplaced or stolen devices, utilize data encryption to prevent access to sensitive information. Data encryption adds a layer of protection to prevent unauthorized access.
Your approach to using Office 365 DLP isn’t right if you aren’t aware of the nature of your sensitive data in the cloud. Scan your data at rest, in motion and in transit to know the type of sensitive data (employee salaries, social security numbers, sheet containing IP addresses, password-protect files, etc.) are available in your Office 365 cloud. Once you know the sensitive data elements, you can better define your DLP strategy.
This is a general best practice to follow to streamline your DLP strategy. Once you identify the type of data stored in your Office 365 cloud and its location, remove any data that’s redundant and that you don’t need.
With Office 365, collaboration is easy. You can easily share data among teams or to external sources via emails. To ensure 100% data security, look into your collaborations. Determine what you share and with whom. Especially, track the sensitive data being shared constantly among teams.
Knowing your collaborations will help you enhance your data security, control access/ permissions, and also help you educate your teams on secure collaboration. Further, reviewing collaborations will also help you find anonymous links accessing sensitive data.
To sum up, Microsoft Office 365 data loss prevention features help organizations protect their sensitive data from unauthorized sharing and breaches. However, it fails in many aspects as well. This includes widespread attacks such as phishing and data intrusions. However, tools like Strac can help you keep your data secure.
Here’s what Strac can do for you ⬇️
☑️Automatically detect and redact sensitive data accurately across channels like Slack, Gmail, Office 365, Zendesk, Intercom, etc., with its machine learning models.
☑️Ensure compliance with PCI, SOC 2, HIPAA, GDPR, NIST CSF, and NIST 800-53.
☑️Allow users to define custom policies on the data to redact, user access, audit reports, and more.
☑️Help users detect and redact textual comments and unstructured documents like png, images, screenshots, .pdf, and more.
☑️Integrate seamlessly with Salesforce, Box, Zendesk, ChatGPT, and more. Check all our integrations .