Having a cloud-based collaboration solution that enables members of the company to share documents will improve productivity and efficiency, but any SME moving information to the cloud must also make sure that the data is being managed securely. Thankfully, Office 365 Business Essentials contains a wealth of security features to make this possible.

Here are the ones that you need to know about.

The Security and Compliance Center

Office 365 contains a built-in Security & Compliance Center, which is where Office 365 Global Administrators can make sure that the right security settings are in place to protect their organisation’s data.

Here, administrators can create complex alert triggers according to policy rules which they can define in the account.

This ensures that administrators can receive immediate notifications as soon as any potentially suspicious user behaviour is detected. The permissions control screen allows users to create granular settings for which actions users, or user groups, are able to take.

Email Threat Management

Office 365’s Threat Management function covers email filtering and protection against malware. 

Mail filtering allows you to create 'allow and block' lists to avoid spam. You can easily determine who is spoofing your account and take necessary measures to block them. Additionally, you can set up a policy so your employees don't send spam if, for example, their machine picks up a virus that sends emails they didn't approve. Sending spam is never good for your reputation.  

Office 365 also protects and viruses and spyware sent your business accounts. Exchange Online Protection protects against all forms of malware (as well as spam). Essentially, the program eliminates threats before they cause your business any harm. It's easy to deploy and maintain so you're always protected.

Multi Factor Authentication (MFA)

To add another level of security, Office 365 offers Multi Factor Authentication (MFA). It's a simple but effective solution to keep your business data and documents protected.

Employees need provide a second form of authentication when logging in. After inputting their password, users are required to acknowledge a phone call, text message or app notification on their mobile device. This extra level of security means even if your passwords are leaked your business documents are still safe.

Search and investigation

Office 365’s search and investigation tool makes it easy for administrators to retrieve key pieces of information that could be useful during an internal audit.

The content search and audit log search allow administrators to easily see when, and by whom, changes affecting organization files were made.

Stronger password policies

Regularly changing passwords reduces the risk of stolen passwords being used to access your documents. Office 365 allows you to set expiration dates on employee passwords. Depending on your policies, you can set the expirations dates for 30 days or three months. Use a free password generator to ensure password strength.

Archiving

In Office 365, Administrators can set controls around user’s Exchange Online Limits so that the data they store in the cloud doesn’t put an undue burden on the organisation’s budget and subscription level. The Business Essentials plan has 50GB limit.

Security is possible

SMEs considering a migration to the cloud with Office 365 needn’t fear security. The built-in Security and Compliance Centre gives administrators everything they need to easily control all aspects of the organisation’s content stored in the cloud.

At just $7.20/user/month, enjoy the security features of Office 365 Business Essentials today. Singtel provides local helpdesk support, 6 days a week. Click here to find out more. 

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