Office 365 Security Concerns Answered

Security concerns over the cloud continually rank as a top reason holding back companies from Office 365 adoption. While valid, on-premise infrastructure is often less secure than public clouds. 

How is Office 365 security setting the standard for cloud?

Making 365 Cloud Security a Top Priority

Microsoft has made Office 365 security their driving factor and has made embracing the cloud well worth it. So worth it that Office 365 is now the most popular enterprise cloud service on the market.

Office 365’s robust service-level security makes it one of the 8.1% of cloud services that earn the highest McAfee Skyhigh Cloud Trust Rating of “Enterprise-Ready.” 

Making the Most of Office 365 Built-In Security

Standard for every customer, Microsoft's platform encrypts data in transit and at rest in the cloud, and offers device pinning. This requires no additional set-up on the customer's end.

Microsoft’s cloud-based productivity suite carries numerous security capabilities that can be enabled by the customer. 

Single Sign-on

Allowing users to have only one password across all applications offers convenience and easier password policy management. Office 365 integrates with third-party identify providers and offers its only single sign-on option, Azure Active Directory. 

Multi-factor Authentication

This feature makes it harder for a third party to access an account.  Multi-factor authentication requires an additional authentication measure after submitting the username and password.

Watch our Video: What is Multi-Factor Authentication?

IP Filtering

This offers another method to reduce accounts being compromised. IP filtering does not allow extranet access to corporate cloud services such as Office 365. For example, if an attacker obtains account credentials they wouldn't be able to log in until they are on the corporate network or accessing via virtual private network (VPN).

Office 365 Message Encryption

This service allows messages to be sent fully encrypted. Recipients receive an email containing a link to a download portal where they authenticate using their Office login or a one-time passcode to view the email.

Secure Multipurpose Internet Mail Extension (S/MIME) 

S/MIME uses certificates to digitally sign and optionally encrypt the email content itself. Doing this ensures that the message content is what the sender originally wrote. You don't need to set up user certificates, so it takes additional effort to get up and running compared to message encryption. 

How a Cloud Access Security Broker (CASB) Helps

CASBs are the control point for Office 365 cloud services. They offer better transparency of users' cloud activities. More importantly, they give the ability to enforce a wide range of security, compliance, and governance policies. 

Gartner reports that an estimated 85% of enterprises will secure their cloud usage using a CASB by 2020. CASBs are able to help extend enforcement of policies of Office 365 security in several ways.

1. Detecting if the user or administrator is taking a high-risk action with sensitive data.
2. Identify third parties logged in with compromised account credentials.
3. Help you understand how information is moving and better enforce data loss prevention, as well as internal and external sharing policies.
   
   

Your Biggest Office 365 Security Threat

Insider threats are often the biggest Office 365 security concern, not the platform itself.

By implementing the built-in security measures and using a CASB solution you can gain visibility and enforce security policies easier. With the security behind Office 365, you should have no reason to fear the cloud.

Still have questions? Contact us.