Microsoft Expands Security and Compliance Features for 365 Customers

Microsoft this week announced more control and options designed to provide Microsoft 365 customers with the ability to strengthen their data privacy and compliance practices.

Following the update, customers get new capabilities as part of Microsoft 365 E5 and E5 Compliance (previously known as Information Protection & Compliance). 

Newly introduced features include controls to automatically expire or revoke access to encrypted emails, data investigation capabilities, and new compliance features in Microsoft Teams. 

With Office 365 Advanced Message Encryption, admins can now expire or revoke access to encrypted emails, which essentially provides improved control of encrypted emails that are shared outside the organization. 

New data investigation capabilities in Microsoft 365 allow admins to search and take action on at-risk sensitive data, and to easily investigate security and privacy incidents such as data leakage or phishing attacks. 

Microsoft Teams now also provides the option to block sensitive information in chat messages and channel conversations, so as to prevent sensitive information unintentionally being shared or leaked when using Teams. 

The Advanced eDiscovery experience that was initially introduced in January is now generally available, allowing organizations to perform in-place eDiscovery with Microsoft 365. It provides a built-in custodian management workflow and working sets, and helps customers review and redact features to reduce costs and risks associated with data discovery and investigation. 

Microsoft also announced new Compliance Manager features, to enable customers create assessments against any regulation or standard, allowing them to manage data protection controls, collaborate between teams, and prepare for audits. 

Compliance Manager can also detect tenant settings and automatically update the status of controls by integrating with the Secure Score API. 

There are also additional options for Multi-Geo Capabilities, an add-on to Microsoft 365 and Office 365 subscriptions, which has been designed to tackle the challenges of meeting certain compliance requirements while moving to the cloud. 

Microsoft also expanded Multi-Geo Capabilities beyond Exchange Online and OneDrive to include SharePoint Online and Groups, providing increased control over where content from these shared resources is stored at rest. 

Related: Microsoft Removes Password-Expiration Policy in Windows 10

Related: Microsoft Introduces Security Configuration Framework