The Holistic Microsoft 365 Security Review that lets your business win against cyber threats

Microsoft works hard at keeping its Cloud products and solutions secure and compliant with some of the world’s most rigid security and privacy control frameworks, principles and documented standards, but keeping your Microsoft 365 cloud environment protected is a shared responsibility between Microsoft and you. With so much of your organisation’s sensitive and confidential information stored in Microsoft 365, it's imperative that you do your share in adequately planning, reviewing and applying the right security control configurations to keep it safe against user account compromises and corporate data breaches.

But how do you know where your cyber risks are and how to identify and prioritise the areas that need improvementand transformative modernisation? This is where doing a Microsoft 365 Security Review can help you make some informed changes using a systematic data-driven approach.

A typical Microsoft 365 Security Review entails a holistic assessment of your Microsoft 365 cloud security performance so you can create an actionable plan to strengthen your organisation’s cybersecurity defences. It is usually carried out by one of our certified and experienced security consulting specialists with a deep understanding of Microsoft 365 current security capabilities and various industry security frameworks, principles, and standards. The assessment will prove beyond just a one-off activity but an integral element of your ongoing process for continuous improvement to stay ahead of evolving cyber threats.

What does a holistic Microsoft 365 Security Review involve?

Each organisation’s security needs and expectations are unique based on their industry, organisational profile, size and ability to have internal specialist staff overseeing their cybersecurity defences. Depending on the specific security posture goals you need to achieve and the compliance regulations you need to comply with (internally or externally for your industry), a typical Microsoft 365 Security Review would often be a combination of any of the services listed below:

1. Microsoft Secure Score Analysis to assess your security strengths and weaknesses and focus your efforts based on actionable recommendations.
2. Microsoft Licensing and subscription review to ensure your organisation has the appropriate licensing to own and activate the security features required to reach your desired security posture.
3. Information risk review to assess information protection and compliance approaches that are minimum mandatory for you and can be activated via your Microsoft 365 platform.
4. Microsoft 365 security configuration assessment to evaluate against recommended best practices and provide guidance and recommendations for ongoing management and maintenance of Microsoft 365 cloud environment across datasets, endpoint devices, Identity & Access, and applications.
5. Center for Internet Security (CIS) or Essential Eight control assessment to evaluate the current security and privacy configuration of Microsoft 365 cloud services against these security frameworks and principles.
6. Endpoint security evaluation of Microsoft Defender for Endpoint and Microsoft Defender Antivirus to ensure devices comply with security policies you plan to or have enforced.
7. Microsoft Entra ID (formerly Azure Active Directory) security review of conditional access policies, privileged identity management (PIM) configurations, and risky sign-ins or unusual activities.
8. Data Loss Prevention (DLP) to review and configure DLP policies to prevent sensitive data leakage from your organisational externally (be it accidentally or via malicious intent from insiders or identity theft of staff from the outside).
9. Security Compliance Center to check compliance posture with industry compliance benchmarks.
10. Threat Protection to review and configure Microsoft Defender for Identity Protection and mitigate risk of theft, impersonation etc.
11. Cloud App Security to review policies for controlling and monitoring access to cloud applications and mitigate the risk and presence of “Shadow IT” within the organisation.
12. Updates and patch management to confirm that all M365 cloud system elements are up-to-date with the latest security patches from Microsoft.

Why is it important?

With a Microsoft 365 Security Review, your organisation will be able to:

1. Identify potential vulnerabilities, threats, and security gaps in your Microsoft 365 environment.
2. Improve identity and access management (IAM) configurations, processes and procedures aligned with Microsoft and industry best practices.
3. Enhance your organisation’s incident response preparedness and capability to respond and recover.
4. Ensure your organisation’s security practices align with local and international security control frameworks compliance standards such as the Australian Government’s Essential Eight, Centre for Internet Services (CIS), National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), etc.
5. Optimise security control configurations within Microsoft 365 to leverage its broad security capabilities cost-effectively.
6. Build trust with clients, business partners, and other external stakeholders by demonstrating your commitment to robust security practices and implementations of security technologies.

Carrying out a holistic Microsoft 365 Security Review can be a complex process to undertake, especially without in-depth internal Microsoft 365 security skills, knowledge, or experience.

That is where a highly accredited Microsoft Solution Partner for Security, like Professional Advantage, can help. You can leave it to our subject matter experts to conduct a comprehensive review of your Microsoft 365 security configuration and compare it against best practices based on the CIS or Essential Eight frameworks. Our team has been advising and assisting Australian organisations, large or small, continually reviewing and modernising their cybersecurity defences and processes  for over 3 decades now, so you are assured of working with specialists who have a proven track record and staying current with modern threats. At the end of the assessment, we will provide you with a detailed executive report of our findings and remediation recommendations, along with the succeeding steps on what to prioritise and fund.