{"id":3635,"date":"2021-01-26T13:49:58","date_gmt":"2021-01-26T12:49:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/xopero.com\/blog\/?p=3635"},"modified":"2025-10-31T15:58:21","modified_gmt":"2025-10-31T14:58:21","slug":"how-to-protect-your-remote-microsoft-office-365-data","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/xopero.com\/blog\/en\/how-to-protect-your-remote-microsoft-office-365-data\/","title":{"rendered":"How to protect your remote Microsoft Office 365 data"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The main lesson from pandemic for businesses is to keep agile. One of the solutions was to change the work model, to protect their employees, allowing (or forcing) them to work from home, not from the office. It was possible mainly thanks to available cloud services like Office 365. But this change sprouted a lot of problems with the protection of business-sensitive data. It is proved that when it comes to business security, the biggest threat is human errors. So you might be surprised but not well enough educated employees may put your company’s data in danger – especially while working from home. How to protect then your remote Microsoft Office 365 data best?<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

<\/div>\n\n\n

Why there is a need to protect remote Microsoft Office 365 data<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n

While your team is working from the office, you have control over how your employees use the company’s network, it\u2019s resources, and many more. When they transfer from working in the office to working from home, you lose almost all of that control. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

While working from home, your employees are probably connected to the home router, which in most cases is not protected well enough. You also can\u2019t stop them from connecting to cloud services through public wi-fi. This can lead to security breaches, as this type of connection is known to be the target of many malware attacks. To add to your misery, your employees’ devices probably don\u2019t have crucial security features you require in your work network.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If it\u2019s not enough problems yet. Think about a very banal situation where by accident some important data gets deleted because one of the workers’ kids wanted to play something on the PC. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are many risk factors in the home office scenario. Now the security of your organization\u2019s data lies not only in your hands but also in your employees’ hands. So it\u2019s important to educate them about risks they might encounter, and also how to prevent them. But what can you do to protect your company data?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/div>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n
<\/div>\n\n\n

What Microsoft Office 365 data do you need to protect?<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n

First I will answer the question, what data you need to protect. The answer is simple: all of the critical ones! In this article we will focus on protecting Office 365 data.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As you might know Office 365 provides you with many services that can help you run your business remotely. Every one of them can, and should be protected. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

One of the services provided by Office 365 that is used on a daily basis by most companies to communicate is Microsoft Exchange Online. Exchange Online allows you to send and receive emails not only through Outlook on your computer, but at any device with a browser. The second, similarly important one is OneDrive for business which is a cloud storage. It allows you to access your data from the web, and share documents and files across your organization, or if needed outside your organization. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another Office 365 service you need to protect is Microsoft Teams. It allows your users to collaborate with each other. They can create groups, channels, private chats, meetings, and send files on the fly. Almost all of those activities can be done with people inside and outside your organization. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another component of Office 365 is SharePoint Online which is document management software used to share documents not only inside your organization, but also outside of it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now you know what data you need to protect in Office 365, let\u2019s see what Microsoft provides to keep them safe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/div>\n\n\n

How Microsoft protect your data in Office 365<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at the table, showing what exactly Microsoft is responsible for, and what are your responsibilities, as an end user. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Common misunderstanding is that Microsoft is responsible for protecting your data. But from where comes this misunderstanding? Well, technically Microsoft protects your data, but only when problems happen on their side. This company shares their services in the so-called Shared Responsibility Model. Let\u2019s dig a little deeper, how does the Shared Responsibility Model work, and what responsibilities lay on which side. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Office 365 is a cloud service, so it falls into Software as a Service (SaaS) category. As we can see from this graph, no matter what happens you are responsible for protecting your:<\/p>\n\n\n\n