Five Top Tips To Keep Your Cloud Secure

Security has never been more important, especially as the explosion of homeworking has created more areas for potential vulnerability. This week two of our experts, Paul and Dan share their 5 top tips on securing your cloud, there are links to our recent live hack webinars, where you can watch Penetration Tester, Stuart White carry out a live hack on Microsoft 365 and Azure AD.

1. Connect All Applications and Cloud Resources

People more than ever expect to collaborate from anywhere using any app, and they only want to sign in once. Having a single cloud identity service will not only give your users single sign-on for a better experience but also improve security.

By using Azure Active Directory as the single control platform for all your apps, you get visibility and access controls across your entire digital estate. You also benefit from the 171 terabytes of data that Microsoft processes each day, to learn behavioural patterns for each user and application, flag potential attacks, and quickly remedy them.

2. Empower Developers

Many businesses are dealing with an explosion of applications, which introduce increasingly complex security and privacy requirements, and shadow IT.

Empowering developers to integrate authentication into apps with the Microsoft Identity Platform and building data-driven applications and automation with Microsoft Graph developers can easily set up granular permissions, that specify minimum necessary privileges for each application, so that it can only access the Microsoft Graph data necessary to complete its tasks.

3. Go Passwordless

We're all aware that passwords may not be secure, but password management solutions can be expensive and frustrating for users.

Make security effortless for users with Microsoft Passwordless Authentication through Windows Hello, Microsoft Authenticator, and FIDO2 security keys, businesses can typically see an 87% reduction in hard and soft costs.

4. Tune Threat Management Policies

The Microsoft 365 Security Centre includes capabilities that can protect an entire environment. It also includes reports and dashboards to monitor and act. Some features come with default policy configurations in a Microsoft 365 Subscription.

Ensure you are aware of all the available features you get with your licenses and ensure these are activated for a more secure environment. Also, check you are on the right subscription for your business as you may be able to increase functionality and lower costs at the same time.

5. Start Your Zero Trust Journey

With the increased need for collaboration, an explosion of devices and applications, and boundless networks, existing security parameters can no longer apply. In this new world, Zero Trust is a must-have security strategy. It replaces the assumption that everything behind the corporate firewall is safe with three simple principles: verify explicitly, use least privileged access, and assume breach.

Every Zero Trust journey will be unique based on your business priorities, the technologies you already own, and the assets you want to protect. As you build on your existing investments, you will need to assess your Zero Trust maturity and take practical steps toward an even stronger security posture.

If you need access to a security expert, without the need to employ your own, speak to your account manager, contact our Sales Team or log a query through our Customer Portal as we have a range of options that can help.