As a business owner, you realize the value of having reliable email and access to the tools you use daily, like Microsoft Word and Excel. Perhaps you’re ready to switch to Office 365 to access these communication and productivity tools on the go, but you’re hesitant because you have security concerns. You’re not sure if Office 365’s security protocols are enough to keep your confidential business data safe and protected from hackers.
We don’t blame you for being concerned! After all, cybercrime is rampant, and even the most cautious business owner may find themselves a victim of a cybercriminal. But after more than 15 years in the IT industry, we believe in the value of Office 365 (also known as Microsoft 365) and its security features.
Our data protection and cybersecurity services, combined with Microsoft’s security protocols, provide a winning combination of security and flexibility for small businesses like yours in Lancaster, Harrisburg, and York.
Does Microsoft 365 Have Security Features?
Yes, Microsoft 365’s security features effectively protect your data and email by using state-of-the-art security infrastructure and processes. Their enterprise-level dedicated servers with geo-redundancy come with a 99.9% uptime guarantee.
What this means for you as a business owner is that your data resides in multiple data centers in different geographic locations, not just at your local Lancaster, Harrisburg or York office. While that sounds like a security risk, geo-redundancy acts as a safety net if your primary data center fails or an entire region experiences an outage. With geo-redundancy, you’ll still have access to your data, and it remains protected, even during natural or fabricated disasters.
Microsoft also provides data security through:
- Identity and access management
- Threat protection
- Information protection
- Risk management
- Over 1,000 security and privacy controls that protect data
- Giving you total control over who has access to your business information
The best part is that when you partner with us to get Microsoft 365 for your business, we can provide frontline support because we are a certified Microsoft Partner.
What Is the Best Way to Secure Your Office 365 Accounts?
You can secure your Office 365 accounts in the same way you protect any other business account. By using tools like multi-factor authentication and creating a strong culture of security awareness, you can ensure that your business remains protected from cybercriminals who want to steal your precious data. Other ways you can protect yourself and your business include:
- Training employees to recognize phishing attempts, malware, and other cyberthreats
- Using a dedicated administrative account on your cloud-based Microsoft programs for things like adding users and setting up two-factor authentication
- Blocking certain attachment types to protect against malware
Office 365’s security options also allow you to protect against ransomware and encrypt emails for added safety.
What is Microsoft Defender for Office 365?
Microsoft Defender for Office 365 is a baseline antivirus protection software available with all Office 365 plans. You can, however, upgrade to a business premium plan with Microsoft that offers advanced protection against threats, data loss prevention, and device management features. It also features automated investigation and response (AIR) capabilities to save your team time by automatically quarantining detected threats.
How Does Microsoft 365 Protect My Data?
When you use Microsoft Defender for Office 365 security protection, you’ll gain access to tools like safe links, safe attachments, anti-phishing tools, and spoof intelligence. Safe links provide email security by protecting you and your employees from malicious hyperlinks. Similarly, safe attachments scan email attachments to search for malware and viruses.
Microsoft’s anti-phishing software allows you to create custom policies to prevent dangerous emails from reaching your employees. Finally, spoofing intelligence finds malicious emails that look like they come from an internal source.
In addition, Office 365 Advanced Threat Protection (ATP) is a cloud-based filtering service that protects your company from viruses and malware, including zero-day attacks. It offers Exchange Online protection and other Microsoft 365 security defense mechanisms against the latest viruses that have not yet been studied or recognized by other antivirus programs.
What Is the Microsoft Security & Compliance Center?
The Microsoft Office 365 Security and Compliance Center is a centralized hub for monitoring and managing security across your Microsoft accounts. It allows businesses to manage their data, apps, infrastructure, and identity protection from one spot. The compliance manager helps you stay on top of your data privacy and information security, so you don’t have to worry about your business’s confidential information being stolen by hackers.
With Office 365 Security Measures, Do I Need Data Protection from You?
Office 365’s security protocols do a fantastic job protecting your business data on the Microsoft servers. However, you are still vulnerable to information compromise and data loss due to human error, programming errors, malicious insider activity, phishing, malware, and ransomware attacks. Microsoft’s uptime guarantee doesn’t cover these vulnerabilities.
Your security team is also responsible for application data, administration, user management, and security configuration. So yes, you still need data backup and cybersecurity services from an IT support company in Lancaster, York, or Harrisburg like us. We supplement Microsoft 365’s security features, and you can rest easy knowing that your information is always protected.