Businesses have a lot of choices when it comes to the vital cybersecurity tools that they need to protect their data. One of the most powerful set of security application is within the Microsoft 365 platform.

Microsoft 365 includes Office 365, Windows 10, Microsoft Intune, plus advanced security features that give you multiple layers of protection against malware, data loss, data breaches, and other security threats.

Businesses in the Thames Valley and the rest of the world are under constant attack from cybercriminals. Between February and March 2020 alone, phishing attacks rose by 667%.

Understanding the protective benefits of the tools you have through Microsoft 365 advanced security and threat management apps can boost your IT security and give you the knowledge you need to safeguard your business from online attacks.

Using Microsoft 365 Advanced Security to Improve Your Company’s IT Security

In any IT infrastructure, there are several points of vulnerability. You have endpoints (computers, mobile devices, IoT devices), wireless networks with routers and modems, and web security to consider.

Attack types can vary widely, making security even more challenging. This is why different security tools within Microsoft 365 are designed to address specific protection needs, while also working together for a full blanket of protection.

In this article, we’ll go through two powerful safeguards:

• Cloud App Security
• Microsoft Defender ATP

Each of these can play an important part in securing your devices, network, and data.

If you’re wondering what happened to Windows Defender ATP (Advanced Threat Protection), it’s the latest application to be rebranded from “Windows” to “Microsoft.” This rebranding to Microsoft Defender ATP reflects a wider scope to cover more of the Microsoft product landscape beyond just the Windows operating system.

Cloud App Security

During the course of a day employees are logging into multiple company cloud apps and may be accessing them remotely from different locations. Ensuring the security of how these applications are used is the function of Microsoft Cloud App Security.

This security tool helps businesses:

• Maintain control over corporate resources
• Improve visibility of cloud activity
• Increase the protection of company data

Once a license for Cloud App Security is purchased, the control panel can be accessed through the Microsoft 365 admin center.

Here are the security benefits of using this tool:

• Cloud Discovery: You can monitor traffic in real time to your business apps and also see if a user is trying to use an unauthorised app.
• Prevent Data Loss or Leakage: Use access policies for data sharing and data loss prevention (DLP) with Cloud App Security. This helps you prevent things like internal company documents from being shared with unauthorised entities.
• Detect Abnormal Behaviour: With the ability to gather and analyse access points throughout your team and business apps, you can identify potential security incidents through detection of abnormal user behaviour.
• Assess Application Risk: When a user is attempting to use an unauthorised application, you can quickly assess risk to determine whether to grant or reject access.
• Integration with Microsoft Defender ATP: You can integrate Cloud App Security with ATP to extend Cloud Discovery capabilities beyond your corporate network.

Microsoft Defender ATP

Microsoft Defender ATP (Advanced Threat Protection) is a post-breach analysis toll to help organisations assess how a breach occurred, when the breach occurred and the behaviour of malware

You can integrate this security platform with several other Microsoft products, including:

• Microsoft Cloud App Security
• Office 365 Threat Intelligence
• Azure ATP
• Windows Server

Microsoft Defender ATP gives you the ability to detect and mitigate threats across the Windows ecosystem. This includes benefits such as:

• Endpoint protection from behavioral sensors that are embedded in Windows 10 and send signals from the operating system to ATP.
• ATP is able to detect threats happening in Office 365 programs and help companies reduce their attack surface.
• The application includes “threat intelligence,” allowing it to identify attacker tools and techniques more easily and generate alerts to the administrator.
• Expert recommendations are made for detected threats, so administrators know exactly which course of action is suggested to mitigate the threat.
• ATP has a new managed threat hunting service called Microsoft Threat Experts. It allows companies to be proactive about threats to help them respond even more quickly and accurately.

One of the benefits of working with Microsoft products is that they are continually improving their solutions. New features that have been added to Microsoft Defender ATP in the last few months include the following:

• When applications reach their end-of-life, they’re tagged to alert the administrator that they’ll be no longer supported with vital security updates.
• The ability to block URLs and domains using your own threat intelligence.
• Gain instantaneous access to a machine using a remote shell connection to address any potential threats in real time.

Learn More About Using Microsoft 365 Advanced Security Solutions

When security solutions are connected and working together, your entire organisation benefits. NMX IT Solutions can assist you with implementing safeguards that protect every part of your technology infrastructure.

Contact us today to schedule a data security consultation! Call 01628 232300 or reach out online.