HOW DO I PROTECT MY OFFICE 365 OR ORGANIZATION MICROSOFT 365 DATA?
You can protect or secure your office 365 data with top security features recommendation.
The following are the top 10 security features recommendation you can adopt to protect or secure your Office 365 data:
1. Raise the level of protection against malware in mail.
To increase the level of malware protection in email, complete the following steps:
Go to the protection page or portal of Office Online and sign in with your admin account credentials.
In the Security & Compliance Center, in the left navigation pane, under Threat management, click Policy.
Double-click the default policy to edit this company-wide policy.
Under Common Attachment Types Filter, Click On.
Note: The file types that are blocked are listed in the window directly below this control. You can add or delete file types later, if needed.
2. Protect against ransomware.
You can protect against ransomware by creating one or more mail flow rules to block file extensions that are commonly used for ransomware.
You can also protect against ransomware by warning users who receive these attachments in email.
The following mail flow rules can be created:
Warn users before opening Office file attachments that include macros.
Block file types that could contain ransomware or other malicious code.
To create a mail transport rule, complete the following steps:
Go to the Exchange admin center.
In the mail flow category, click rules.
Click +, and then Create a new rule.
Click **** at the bottom of the dialog box to see the full set of options.
Apply the settings to warn users before opening Office file attachments that include macros and block file types that could contain ransomware or other malicious code.
3. Stop auto-forwarding for email.
If hackers gain access to a user's mailbox, they can exfiltrate mail by configuring the mailbox to automatically forward email and users may not be aware of this change.
To prevent this from happening you can configure a mail flow or transport rule.
Go to the Exchange admin center.
In the mail flow category, click rules.
Click +, and then Create a new rule.
Click More options at the bottom of the dialog box to see the full set of options.
Apply the settings to reject Auto-Forward emails to external domains.
4. Use Office Message Encryption.
Office 365 Message Encryption works with Outlook, Yahoo!, Gmail, and other email services. Email message encryption helps ensure that only intended recipients can view message content.
Office Message Encryption provides two protection options when sending mail:
You might have to configure additional options that apply a label to email, such as Confidential.
To send protected email with encryption in Outlook For PC:
In Outlook for PC, click Options tab.
To send protected email with encryption in Outlook account:
In Outlook account, click Protect tab. The default protection is Do not forward.
To change this to encrypt, click Change Permissions.
To receive encrypted email
The recipient with Outlook 2013 or 2016, or 2019 and a Microsoft email account will see an alert about the item's restricted permissions in the Reading pane. After opening the message, the recipient can view the message just like any other.
The recipient using another email client or email account, such as Gmail or Yahoo will see a link that lets them either sign in to read the email message or request a one-time passcode to view the message in a web browser. If users aren't receiving the email, have them check their Spam or Junk folder.
5. Protect your email from phishing attacks.
Anti-phishing protection, a part of Microsoft Defender for Office 365, can help protect your organization from malicious impersonation-based phishing attacks and other phishing attacks. You need this if you've configured one or more custom domains for your Microsoft 365 environment.
To create an anti-phishing policy in Defender for Office 365, complete the following steps:
Go to the protection page or portal of Office Online.
In the Security & Compliance Center, in the left navigation pane, under Threat management, click Policy.
On the Policy page, click Anti-phishing.
On the Anti-phishing page, click + Create. A wizard launches that guides you through defining your anti-phishing policy.
Specify the name, description, and settings for your policy.
After you have reviewed your settings, click Create this policy or Save.
6. Protect against malicious attachments and files with Safe Attachments.
Microsoft Defender for Office 365 includes Safe Attachment protection, but this protection is not turned on by default. We recommend that you create a new rule to begin using this protection.
To create a Safe attachment policy, complete the following steps:
Go to the protection page or portal of Office Online and sign in with your admin account credentials.
In the Security & Compliance Center, in the left navigation pane, under Threat management, click Policy.
On the Policy page, click Safe Attachments.
On the Safe attachments page, apply this protection broadly by clicking the Turn on ATP for SharePoint, OneDrive, and Microsoft Teams check box.
Click + to create a new policy.
Apply the settings you want.
After you have reviewed your settings, click Create this policy or Save.
7. Protect against phishing attacks with Safe Links.
Safe Links, part of Microsoft Defender for Office 365, can help protect your organization by providing time-of-click verification of web addresses (URLs) in email messages and Office documents.
To get to Safe Links, complete the following steps:
Go to the protection page or portal of Office Online and sign in with your admin account credentials.
In the Security & Compliance Center, in the left navigation pane, under Threat management, click Policy.
On the Policy page, click Safe Links.
To modify the default policy:
On the Safe links page, under Policies that apply to the entire organization, double-click the Default policy.
Under Settings that apply to content across Office 365, enter a URL to be blocked, such as example.com, and click +.
Under Settings that apply to content except email, click Office 365 applications, Do not track when users click safe links, and Do not let users click through safe links to original URL.
To create a new policy targeted to all recipients in your domain:
On the Safe links page, under Policies that apply to specific recipients, click + to create a new policy.
Apply the settings you want.
8. Set up multi-factor authentication.
Using multi-factor authentication is one of the easiest and most effective ways to increase the security of your organization. It's easier than it sounds - when you log in, multi-factor authentication means you'll type a code from your phone to get access to Microsoft 365. This can prevent hackers from taking over if they know your password. Multi-factor authentication is also called 2-step verification.
To set up multi-factor authentication, you turn on Security defaults. You enable or disable security defaults from the Properties pane for Azure Active Directory (Azure AD) in the Azure portal.
Sign in to the Microsoft 365 admin center with your global admin credentials.
In the left navigation pane, click Show All.
Under Admin centers, click Azure Active Directory.
In the Azure Active Directory admin center, click Azure Active Directory.
At the bottom of the page, click Manage Security defaults.
Click Yes to enable security defaults or No to disable security defaults.
After you set up multi-factor authentication for your organization, your users will be required to set up two-step verification on their devices.
Note: You can set up multi-factor authentication in both Microsoft 365 Business Standard and Microsoft 365 Business Premium.
Microsoft recommends that you train your users on how to take the following actions:
Enabling security features on Windows 10 and Mac PCs
10. Use dedicated admin accounts.
The administrative accounts are valuable targets for hackers and cyber criminals and these accounts include elevated privileges.
Admins should have a separate user account for regular, non-administrative use and only use their administrative account when necessary to complete a task associated with their job function.
They must commit to the following recommendations:
Be sure admin accounts are also set up for multi-factor authentication.
Before using admin accounts, close out all unrelated browser sessions and apps, including personal email accounts.
After completing admin tasks, be sure to log out of the browser session.
Expert advice: To start with, you can check your Microsoft 365 Secure Score in the Microsoft 365 security center. From a centralized dashboard, you can monitor and improve the security for your Microsoft 365 identities, data, apps, devices, and infrastructure. You are given points for configuring recommended security features, performing security-related tasks (such as viewing reports), or addressing recommendations with a third-party application or software.
