How to Secure Your Office 365 Environment

Most organizations are now using cloud services for conducting their business. According to recent reports, more than 88% of businesses are already using cloud technology. Organizations are using cloud tools like Office 365 for completing their day-to-day operations. However, you should ensure that your cloud environment is protected from attackers. This will help you in avoiding data breaches. Office 365 is currently the most used cloud service. Thus, Office 365 is a prime target for attackers. Most organizations think that their cloud service providers have already taken all the security measures. But, this is not true.

Attackers are constantly looking for new zero-day exploits. They are using new tactics for attacking organizations. Thus, organizations should take a proactive approach if they want to protect their data from attackers. Security researcher’s recently uncovered phishing scam which attackers were using to attack Office 365 users. They were sending non-delivery notification to Office 365 issuers. If you are currently using Office 365, then you should ensure that you are taking the right security measures. In this article, we are going to share some tips that will help you in protecting your cloud environment.

1. Enable multi-factor authentication

The simplest method to protect your Office 365 environment is by enabling multi-factor authentication. If you are using multi-factor authentication, then users need to enter an OTP that will be sent to their mobile phone. They can’t access their account without entering this one time password. It is very easy to set up multi-factor authentication. You can easily enable it from the settings. However, it is a very effective method to protect your users from getting hacked. It will add an extra security layer to your cloud environment.

2. Use dedicated admin accounts

Many organizations are still using one account to manage their entire Office 365 environment. If you are doing this, then hackers only need to hack into one admin account. They will get access to your entire cloud environment if they have access to your admin account. Admins should always use separate accounts for completing their everyday tasks. These accounts don’t require any special privileges. This will help you in reducing the risks associated with high-level accounts. Hackers can’t gain complete access to your environment by hacking your admin accounts.

3. Train your employees

This is the most important tip that you should follow. You need to provide security training to your employees. If you are working with third parties, then make sure that they are receiving security training. Employees don’t know about basic security tips. If they don’t know about phishing scams, then hackers can easily hack their accounts. They can gain access to your entire network by hacking your employees. Thus, you need to raise cyber awareness in your organization. Make sure that you are providing regular training sessions to your staff. Also, you should provide these sessions to your stakeholders as stakeholders have access to main accounts. It is important to teach them about basic security tips like identifying phishing emails and using strong passwords. This will help you in protecting your business from simple attacks like social engineering and phishing.

4. Stop auto-forwarding

If hackers have access to your employee’s mailbox, then they can auto-forward incoming emails to their email address. They can use this feature for stealing your crucial data. All of this will happen without the user’s knowledge. You can prevent this by setting up a different mail transport rule. In the Office 365 admin center, you can block users from creating auto-forwarding rules. This will ensure that your users can’t auto-forward emails to external domains.

5. Create Threat Protection policies

Advanced Threat Protection is the best feature of Office 365. You can use a user-configurable policy for dealing with threats by using email, collaboration tools, and malicious URLs. Your admin can configure these tools from the Office 365 Security Center. Some of the policies that you can configure are:

• ATP Safe Attachments: Office 365 will automatically check files for viruses. However, ATP Safe Attachments will take this one step further. It will redirect all the file attachments to a sandbox environment. Office 365 will use machine learning for finding suspicious behavior in files.
• ATP Safe Links: This tool will first collect all the links from your email. It will send these links to the O365 scanning engine where it will verify the links. This will ensure that you are only visiting safe links. Also, Office 365 will check links in real-time. They will not use old data for checking the links as websites can get compromised anytime.
• ATP Anti-phishing: Most attackers are still using phishing attacks for attacking organizations. The spear-phishing attack is becoming more popular with time. Sometimes your employees can click on these emails and their account can get hacked. ATP Anti-phishing will check every email for a phishing scam. If someone is impersonating as a staffer, then it will block that block.

6. Work with managed monitoring services

You can also work with an MSP like Bleuwire for addressing these challenges. They will help you in increasing your system security. Also, they will regularly monitor your cloud environment for threats. If someone is trying to access your accounts, then they will send an alert to you. They will also help you in differentiating between false positives and real security incidents. Also, they will help you in creating a disaster recovery plan. This will ensure that you can quickly respond to hacking attacks. Thus, every small and medium-sized business should consider working with a Managed IT services provider.

Conclusion

These are some tips that you can use for securing your Office 365 environment. They will help you in protecting your data from attackers. If you don’t have access to an IT team, then you should consider working with an MSP. Experienced MSPs like Bleuwire can help you in both implementing and protecting the cloud environment. They will ensure that you are enjoying the benefits of cloud technology. If you need more information regarding Office 365, then you can contact Bleuwire.

Contact us today to learn about Bleuwire™  services and solutions in how we can help your business.