The internationally popular Office 365 from Microsoft is soon to benefit from recommended security profiles.
The development team at the Redmond-based tech giant is currently tackling the task of adding the new recommended security profiles for both Advanced Threat Protection (ATP) in Office 365 and Exchange Online Protection (EOP).
New profiles for recommended safety settings
Microsoft is providing admins with two recommended security settings, a spokesperson for Microsoft released a document on the latest roadmap entry for Office 365:
"Although we empower security administrators to customize their security settings, there are two security levels in Exchange Online Protection and Office 365 Advanced Threat Protection that we recommend: Standard and Strict."
The standard and strict profile will enable EOP administrators to quickly reconfigure users’ accounts. By setting them to the recommended profiles from Microsoft designed to ward off attacks from spam emails, they can ensure such malicious threats never reach their targets.
Security measures that Office 365 administrators will be able to easily establish include recommended anti-malware and anti-spam. They will also be able to set up mail filter configurations providing protection from phishing for certain groups of users making it possible to defend against spam email attacks, effectively blocking them from reaching inboxes in the majority of cases.
Automatic Recommended security profiles for customers
Microsoft also states that recommended profiles can be automatically switched on for customers that have opted for their security setting to be managed automatically. Microsoft added:
"We will be automatically updating profiles for our smaller customers who want us to manage these settings for them, but for others, we want to enable the admins to easily configure these for their users."
The tech firm also delivers detailed data on both Office 365 ATP and EOP Strict and standard security levels, available for administrators to set up for defined groups of users at the website for security documentation in Microsoft 365.
Administrators will also be able to utilise Windows PowerShell when applying EOP settings for multiple tenants via cmdlets or script while waiting for these latest recommended profiles reach general availability status.
Additional security measures in Office 365
Along with the new profiles Microsoft has also made Authenticated Received Chain (ARC) available for all in mailboxes hosted by Office 365 in order to improve detection for anti-spoofing.
Users and administrators alike utilising Office 365 are being urged by Microsoft to not bypass the in-built spam filters in support documents that include guidelines for instances when it can be sidestepped.
Back in November, Microsoft announced the launch of a brand-new feature in Office 365 ATP entitled “enhanced compromise detection and response” developed to assist in discovering breaches. The new capability also equips Security Operations teams to automatically investigate and detect suspicious users as well as remediate compromised accounts.
If your company currently makes use of the latest products from Microsoft, we can supply both support and advice. At WM Reply, our speciality lies in creating bespoke solutions using Microsoft technology to help businesses achieve their goals. With extensive experience in collaborative platforms like SharePoint and software like Office 365, we’re well equipped to assist.