Text"]Microsoft 365 is arguably the most common cloud application popular among businesses of all sizes. The service spans the spectrum of entity sizes, offering packages for young startups to corporate enterprises.

Interestingly, the service is the same for the various business sizes and runs on the same infrastructure. Consequently, small businesses can leverage a secure and available service trusted by established organizations.

The application's scalability and flexibility mean that most of the initial setup, including some key security configurations, are left to the customer, and some additional protections have additional expenses. These considerations are essential to organizations that have just migrated from an on-premise installation.

Microsoft 365 is an excellent and safe service, but it comes with several new risks. Since you can access the platform from anywhere via a web browser, there's a greater risk of phishing attacks and potential jeopardy of your company data using weak passwords.

It's Time to Beef Up Security for Microsoft 365

The following stats give insights into the current state of Microsoft 365 security and why you must secure your Microsoft 365 tenant:

• Microsoft 365 is currently the most targeted platform, with up to 70 percent of cyber incidents aiming at Microsoft Office products.
• Threat actors hit when you're fast asleep. According to a FireEye survey, 76% of ransomware attacks hit after regular working hours and 27 percent on weekends.
• Small and medium-sized entities face the most significant risk. About 43% of cyberattacks target organizations at this level.

From the above stats, it's clear that every business should now focus on enhancing their Microsoft 365 tenant security, and this is one of Coleman Technologies' mandates.

A Broad Scope of Security for Microsoft 365 services

Every critical cloud application must be monitored, including SaaS solutions maintained by third parties. Microsoft 365, in particular, has several aspects that you need to dedicate your attention to. Let's explore.

Security Monitoring
Nearly every worker communicates via email; hence Microsoft 365 is perhaps your organization's most commonly used software. The widespread usage and the frequent dependency on email as a malware vector means that security monitoring requires more attention than ever. Login tracking helps, but comprehensive monitoring goes beyond keeping your eyes on administrator and user access.

Other areas to be monitored are changes to policies and user identities, and the use of OneDrive and SharePoint, with particular attention to uploads and sharing documents with malicious extensions. Notably, Microsoft offers several security monitoring tools like the Security and Compliance Center.

Connectivity Monitoring
Microsoft 365 is a cloud service, so it's dependent on internet connectivity. Furthermore, an internal network is necessary to link various sites. As a result, the overall network status is crucial.

The connections require constant monitoring to keep them up and running with normal latency and bandwidth levels. If you use Active Directory Federation Services, the connection's health also requires continuous monitoring.

Usage monitoring
Managing your performance and security concerns requires you to monitor end-user activities. Usage monitoring also helps you ensure you get the most from your Microsoft 365 installation.

Fortunately, you can track several usage-related metrics within Microsoft 365 applications like SharePoint and Exchange. Relevant metrics in Exchange include inactive mailboxes and mailbox growth. On the other hand, SharePoint monitoring may consist of page views, allocated storage, and site status.

The application also offers core functionality that enables smooth business operations. While the provider is responsible for service availability, businesses must monitor connectivity, usage, and security. This way, you'll ensure the service is securely used and delivers the expected performance.

In-Depth Reporting Capabilities
Coleman Technologies' advanced reporting is a great inclusion to help you centralize and report everything within your Microsoft 365 landscape. The capability lets you develop custom reports in the best formats for enhanced visibility into your infrastructure. Furthermore, it simplifies your security reporting, which aids your compliance goals. As a result, you'll quickly get a vivid picture through clear graphics and reports.

Benefits of trusting Coleman Technologies' Security for Microsoft 365

Infrastructure security and compliance are now a priority. Therefore, you must ensure your company takes advantage of the available security and monitoring features provided by all licenses.

Working with Coleman Technologies as your reliable security implementation partner lets you leverage the expertise of professionals who are familiar with the application's security capabilities, tech trends, and any compliance requirements.

Organizations in Langley and throughout the BC Lower Mainland enjoy the following advantages of trusting Coleman Technologies' Microsoft 365 security and monitoring services:

Complete Utilization of Office 365 Competencies
Even the standard Microsoft 365 licenses comprise features that can reduce or minimize cyber threats. For instance, have you set up your password requirements? Have you disabled email forwarding and enabled email logging?

You should already be taking advantage of these security measures, but not all are as obvious. A reliable security and monitoring consultant will review the security features and suggest the correct implementation.

Correct License Use
When planning to acquire Microsoft 365, you'll have different licensing options to consider, which can be confusing. A trusted Microsoft 365 security partner will guide you in determining your company's unique licensing needs. What's more, as your needs evolve, the experts will recommend the correct licenses to help you scale and manage them on your behalf.

Here are some security features in the various licenses:

• Azure Information Protection
• Advanced Threat Protection
• Information Protection and Compliance
• Identity and Threat Protection
• Enterprise Mobility and Security (EMS)

Your choice of add-ons depends on your specific industry compliance needs.

Top-Shelf Security Capabilities
When you rely on an internal IT team to migrate your company and operations to the cloud, you'll likely need additional knowledge to implement most Microsoft 365 security capabilities and features. A seasoned IT security provider with vast experience working across industries will guide you appropriately on the best IT services implementation. They'll also offer apt IT security protections for compliance.

Threat Monitoring and Support Around the Clock
There's still a lot more that you must do after implementing the security features. First, you must have someone to monitor for security alerts and threats and review reports. The required oversight level directly correlates to the installed security features and what they do.

Second, someone must ensure that the security services are up to date. All these tasks will be better handled by a reliable cloud security partner like Coleman Technologies.

Do you want to ensure the ultimate Security for Microsoft 365? Talk to us today.