Last week we shared part one of our blog ‘12 Security & Compliance Reasons for Switching to Microsoft Teams and Why You Should Do It Now’ including the first 6 of 12 reasons and today’s blog looks at the next 6.

As we’ve mentioned, we have written various articles about the number of benefits for using Microsoft Teams, but this time we’re focusing on why you should switch to Teams for security and compliance reasons.

2020 has been a challenging year and we are almost reaching the end but if you haven’t employed Teams in your organisation yet, don’t worry there is still time to do so or to start 2021 with plans to implement it.

In part one of our blog we went through some of things Teams could bring to your business this festive season, including tight integration with Azure Active Directory and flexible permissions. Here are the final 6 of 12, and continuing with the Christmas theme…

“On the 7th day of Christmas Microsoft Teams gave to me…”

#7. Monitoring options

Microsoft offers tools for monitoring and oversight of Teams use in your organisation in the form of activity reports(1) accessed in the Microsoft 365 admin centre. These reports enable you to see how users in your organisation are using Microsoft Teams, helping you to maintain security and visibility over sensitive data at all times. You can keep track of things like: how many people engage in a chat in a channel; how many communicate via private chat message; who is participating in calls or meetings. You can see this information for your whole organisation, as well as for each individual user.

#8. Advanced threat protection

Microsoft 365 also offers advanced threat detection tools which cover your Teams deployment and much more besides through Microsoft Defender(2) for Office 365 (this is the new name for Office 365 Advanced Threat Protection). It delivers unified SIEM and XDR to modernise your security operations. There are advantages to using this integrated solution as there are fewer opportunities for gaps in coverage. We also think it is more accessible than some other SIEM solutions, but if you aren’t confident in setting up or using advanced threat tools the Grant McGregor team can assist and support you in embedding the practices and developing the necessary skills within your organisation.

#9. Data retention policies and e-Discovery

You can specify data retention policies for your organisation so that data can be deleted or preserved according to the organisational policies and industry regulations specific to your organisation. Retention policies(3) for Teams can be created and managed in the Microsoft 365 compliance centre or by using PowerShell cmdlets. These policies can then be applied to your entire organisation or to specific users and teams.

Microsoft’s eDiscovery tools in Microsoft 365(4) can be used to search for content in Microsoft Teams as well as Exchange Online mailboxes, Microsoft 365 Groups, SharePoint Online and OneDrive for Business sites, Skype for Business conversations, and Yammer teams. eDiscovery comes with audit log, legal hold, and content search functionalities.

#10. Data residency

Data in Teams resides in the geographical region associated with your Microsoft 365 organisation, as specified in your settings in the Microsoft 365 admin centre. Amongst the list of global locations(5), you can choose to use Microsoft’s secure datacentres in the United Kingdom or EMEA regions, making it easy for you to fulfil your data residency obligations under GDPR.

#11. Encryption

Teams encrypts data in transit and at rest and uses secure real-time transport protocol (SRTP) for video, audio, files and desktop sharing.

#12. Flexibility in setting policies for Teams

You can create and manage retention policies for Teams and other workloads in the Microsoft 365 compliance centre or by using the Security & Compliance Centre PowerShell cmdlets.

Simply put, Microsoft Teams is the most secure enterprise video conferencing and collaboration tool, especially if you are already using other Microsoft products such as Microsoft 365.

The pandemic has forced many companies to rush through ways to support remote workers and keep operations running when offices are closed. Sometimes this has resulted in compromises in terms of the security posture of an organisation.

However, with the integrated security and compliance tools in the Microsoft stack, this needn’t be the case.

We recommend:

• If you aren’t already using Microsoft Teams for your virtual meetings and video conferencing, make the switch. It has been designed for the enterprise and includes many tools and features that help you protect your data, staff and organisation.

• Moving to Microsoft’s cloud native solutions, such as Microsoft 365, is the best way to provide secure cloud-based access control and monitoring tools and is the ideal way to deploy Microsoft Teams.

• If you are new to these cloud tools, work with an experienced Microsoft partner that can help you create and maintain the right security policies for your organisation as you deploy them.

Still not sure? Talk to our team today and we can answer your questions about Microsoft Teams.

If securing your data and workplace with Microsoft Teams, or security in general is of concern to you, take a look at our 12-step checklist to assess your cyber security arrangements, below:

Sources:

1. https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoftteams/teams-activity-reports

2. https://docs.microsoft.com/en-gb/microsoft-365/security/office-365-security/office-365-atp?view=o365-worldwide

3. https://docs.microsoft.com/en-gb/microsoftteams/retention-policies

4. https://docs.microsoft.com/en-gb/microsoft-365/compliance/ediscovery?view=o365-worldwide

5. https://docs.microsoft.com/en-gb/MicrosoftTeams/location-of-data-in-teams