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Microsoft 365: Are You Well Protected?

Posted by Edward Smith, CSN Tech Centre Ltd 21-03-2022 10:22 AM

Microsoft 365 is a Cloud product line that a significant number of businesses worldwide leverage daily, such as email and voice communication, inter-company documents, sales, reporting, and many other types of company data.

Microsoft 365 is designed for any size of business and is a great choice for companies looking to enable remote work, improve security, and reliability. Many believe that their Cloud is the future for business data and that Microsoft takes care of everything for a monthly fee, however, they would be alarmed to hear something as simple as backups are not included in the subscription.

Most businesses wrongly believe that Microsoft is fully responsible for their company data since it exists in their Cloud and that is what the product appears to promote, but the reality is that this is considered a “Shared Responsibility” product. In their documentation, under “Division of responsibility,” they state:

“For all cloud deployment types, you own your data and identities. You are responsible for protecting the security of your data and identities, on-premise resources, and the cloud components you control (which varies by service type).” Ultimately, they are advising their customers to protect their own data, which includes cybersecurity and, for the purpose of this article, backups.

Your next question may be: “If Microsoft has my company data, how could it be lost?” The number one and two answers are human error and cyberattacks. Staff may accidentally (or purposefully) delete files or even allow an attacker in who may hold your files for ransom. Microsoft has some simple technology integrated but, for example, their standard 30-day deleted files restore window doesn’t meet any regulatory requirements. The reality is that your company data has value and you need to protect those assets since Microsoft won’t do it for you.

If you use Microsoft 365, I recommend contacting your local IT provider to discuss regular and safe backups. There are many products out there to allow you to meet or exceed your own goals or regulatory requirements.

Edward Smith, CSN Tech Centre Ltd.
https://www.mytechcentre.ca