Microsoft Teams Information Protection

I have been getting lots of questions over past few months about protecting an organization’s data within Microsoft Teams.  These two posts were just made by Microsoft Teams and are a good introduction with additional references….

Protect your data across Microsoft Teams: https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/microsoft-teams-community-blog/protect-your-data-across-microsoft-teams/ba-p/2945757 

Use sensitivity labels in your Microsoft Teams: https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/microsoft-teams-community-blog/use-sensitivity-labels-in-your-microsoft-teams/ba-p/2945736

Microsoft Teams and Apple CarPlay

 I noticed the past few Teams conference calls I have attended while driving, I was seeing some new Teams integration with Apple CarPlay. 

Pretty cool.  I recommend folks give it a try.

"In addition to calling, your Microsoft Teams meetings are now available on Apple CarPlay. You can find a Teams icon on your Apple CarPlay screen. Simply use voice command through Siri to join your next meeting hands-free. You can also look up call history, make a call or send messages to one or more Teams contacts. Please note that this feature only supports audio mode to avoid distractions while driving."

https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/microsoft-teams-blog/what-s-new-in-microsoft-teams-september-2021/ba-p/2793627 

Co-Authoring Support for AIP Files

I was extremely happy to see we are now publicly releasing co-authoring for documents that have AIP policies applied to them.  This had been a highly desirable feature I have wanted for years.  Collaborating on sensitive internal documents was very cumbersome until this feature came along.  Please review link for more information.

https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/security-compliance-and-identity/co-authoring-on-microsoft-information-protection-encrypted/ba-p/2693718

Microsoft 365 Lighthouse Public Preview

I am very excited to see the new Public Preview of Microsoft 365 Lighthouse.  Organizations and managed service providers have numerous tenants they manage with the goal of driving consistent cyber security posture across those tenants.  Azure Lighthouse has been in market for awhile now, and organizations can use Microsoft 365 Lighthouse to achieve similar outcomes.  Right now this solution is only available for the Small and Medium Business (SMB) Market.

https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/small-and-medium-business-blog/microsoft-365-lighthouse-is-now-in-public-preview/ba-p/2540515

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/blog/2021/07/14/from-collaborative-apps-in-microsoft-teams-to-cloud-pc-heres-whats-new-in-microsoft-365-at-inspire/?ocid=usoc_LINKEDIN_M365_spl100002353594927

Microsoft 365 Privacy Management (Preview)

There is a new solution called Microsoft 365 Privacy Management that has been released in preview which enables tenant administrators to safeguard personal data. You have the ability to identify privacy risk and mitigate it through automated policies. Policies can monitor data transfers, data overexposure and data minimization (identified unused data). Plus M365 Privacy Management also provides you capabilities to support subject rights requests which helps you to search for and produce reports about data stored in Exchange Online, SharePoint Online, OnDrive and Teams.

Reference: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/compliance/privacy-management?view=o365-worldwide

New Microsoft Information Protection features being released

There are many organizations that put a high emphasis on control of their critical business data.  These organizations should be considering how to leverage Microsoft Information Protection to its fullest potential.  There are several new features that are now Generally Available (GA) or being released in Public Preview.

• Mandatory Labeling is now GA.  This is a pretty big deal.  It requires labels to always be applied to all data in Office 365.  The labels can be used to enforce policy on files.
• New improvements for Exchange Online Auto-Labeling.
• Public Preview for Co-Authoring files with Information Protection encryption on it.  I am extremely happy to see this because I always have felt this was a limitation for collaboration.
• Public Preview of new AIP audit log explorer.  
• DLP Alert Dashboard is now GA.  Exchange Online, SharePoint Online, OneDrive, Teams, etc. all have different DLP configurations and this single dashboard shows you a consolidated view of all DLP alerts.
• Track and Revoke is now GA.  I really like see this.  This allows you to revoke access to sensitive documents.  There are tons of scenarios (good and bad reasons), why you may need to revoke access to a file immediately.

Reference: https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/security-compliance-and-identity/what-s-new-in-information-protection/ba-p/2483154 

Microsoft 365 Defender GA

 Microsoft over the past year has been consolidating all their Defender brands.  For instance Office 365 ATP was rebranded as Microsoft Defender for Office 365 (MDO).  Azure ATP was rebranded as Microsoft Defender for Identity (MDI).  Microsoft Defender for Endpoint (MDE) did not change.

Now the both MDE and MDO are delivered a converged user experience under what will be called Microsoft 365 Defender.  Now administrators will be able to do endpoint, mail and collaboration protection activities from a single dashboard.

https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/microsoft-defender-for-endpoint/welcome-to-microsoft-365-defender/ba-p/2436618