How Microsoft Protects Your Data

This content was all produced by our friends at Microsoft. We have chosen to display some of the most important aspects of their security features. If you wish to learn more about their security features, Click Here.

Auditing and Logging

Auditing and logging of security-related events, and related alerts, are important components in an effective data protection strategy. Security logs and reports provide you with an electronic record of suspicious activities and help you detect patterns that may indicate attempted or successful external penetration of the network, as well as internal attacks. You can use auditing to monitor user activity, document regulatory compliance, perform forensic analysis, and more. Alerts provide immediate notification when security events occur.

Microsoft business services and products provide you with configurable security auditing and logging options to help you identify gaps in your security policies and mechanisms, and address those gaps to help prevent breaches. Microsoft services offer some (and in some cases, all) of the following options: centralized monitoring, logging, and analysis systems to provide continuous visibility; timely alerts; and reports to help you manage the large amount of information generated by devices and services.

Microsoft Azure log data can be exported to Security Incident and Event Management (SIEM) systems for analysis. And Windows Server 2016 provides basic and advanced security auditing and integrates with third-party auditing solutions.

To learn more about Microsoft Azure and Auditing and Logging, Click Here

Cybercrime

Cybercrime is a constantly evolving and ever-increasing challenge for all organizations. The combination of expanded access to the Internet, the explosive increase in connected devices, and the rapid expansion of innovative cloud-based services is creating tremendous economic and social opportunity for consumers, governments, and businesses. Unfortunately, it has also opened new avenues of attack for cybercriminals and other malicious actors.

Like all technical advances, the storage of data and applications in the cloud has attracted an entire criminal ecosystem, from individual hackers to highly organized groups that aim to take down entire networks. Cybercriminals, motivated by everything from profit to political gain, use the Internet to disrupt business activities and access sensitive personal and financial data. Because most companies rely on a third party to administer their cloud services, it's critical that companies that provide cloud services, like Microsoft, are committed to, and capable of, fighting cybercrime.

Unfortunately, cybercrime is not purely a technical problem—nor will it ever “go away.” Cloud service providers must continuously fight cybercrime at multiple levels using teams of specialists, from IT security experts to policy advocates. It takes a concerted effort as well as deep financial and operational investment to truly understand cybercrime and effectively fight it.

Microsoft knows that security and privacy are intrinsically connected—the data you entrust to Microsoft cloud services must be kept private. We work diligently to help protect your data from unauthorized access—both internally and externally. Microsoft has made significant investments in the security of its platform, which, when combined with high levels of security-intelligence and strategic partnerships, helps keep our cloud-based products and services more secure.

To learn more about Microsoft Azure and Cybercrime, Click Here

Design and Operational Security

Microsoft cloud services and software are built on the same trustworthy technology foundation that applies to all products and services. Microsoft designs its services and software with security in mind to help ensure that its cloud infrastructure is resilient and defended from attacks.

The guiding principle of the Microsoft security strategy is to “assume breach.” So, our global incident response team works continuously to mitigate the effects of any attacks against Microsoft cloud services. These practices are backed by security “centers of excellence” that fight digital crime, combat malware, and respond to security incidents and vulnerabilities in our software.

To learn more about Microsoft Azure and Design and Operational Security, Click Here

Encryption

Data is an organization’s most valuable and irreplaceable asset, and encryption serves as the last and strongest line of defense in a multilayered data security strategy. Microsoft business cloud services and products use encryption to safeguard customer data and help you maintain control over it. Encrypting your information renders it unreadable to unauthorized persons, even if they break through your firewalls, infiltrate your network, get physical access to your devices, or bypass the permissions on your local machine. Encryption transforms data so that only someone with the decryption key can access it.

Our products also use industry-standard secure transport protocols for data as it moves through a network—whether between user devices and Microsoft datacenters or within datacenters themselves. To help protect data at rest, Microsoft offers a range of built-in encryption capabilities.

To learn more about Microsoft Azure and Encryption, Click Here

Identity and Access Management

Securing systems, applications, and data begins with identity-based access controls. The identity and access management features that are built into Microsoft business products and services help protect your organizational and personal information from unauthorized access while making it available to legitimate users whenever and wherever they need it.

These features enable you to manage user identities, credentials, and access rights from creation through retirement, and help automate and centralize the identity lifecycle processes. Microsoft goes beyond the username and password model to provide stronger authentication, while making security more convenient for users with simplified processes and single sign-on (SSO). Robust tools make it easier for administrators to manage identity, and developers to build policy-based identity management into their apps.

To learn more about Microsoft Azure and Indentity and Access Management, Click Here

Network Security

Protecting the security and confidentiality of network traffic, whether in the cloud or on-premises, is a critical part of any data protection strategy. Securing the network infrastructure helps prevent attacks, block malware, and protect your data from unauthorized access, interrupted access, or loss.

In the public cloud, the isolation of customer infrastructure is fundamental to maintaining security. Microsoft Azure, on which most Microsoft business cloud services are built, accomplishes this primarily through a distributed virtual firewall, partitioned local area networks (LANs), and physical separation of back-end servers from public-facing interfaces. Customers can deploy multiple logically isolated private networks, and each virtual network is isolated from the other virtual networks. For on-premises customers, Windows Server 2016 includes firewall, threat analytics, and numerous network security features.

To learn more about Microsoft Azure and Network Security, Click Here

Threat Management

Threat management includes protection from both malicious software and attacks against systems and networks. Microsoft products and services have built-in protection features to help defend your data against malware and other types of threats.

Microsoft cloud services help you protect against malware threats in multiple ways. Microsoft Antimalware is built for the cloud, and additional antimalware protections are provided in specific services. Denial-of-service (DoS) attacks can deny access to important resources and result in lost productivity, so Microsoft builds its services to defend against such attacks. Windows server and client operating systems include multiple technologies for protecting against these threats at the local level.

To learn more about Microsoft Azure and Threat Management, Click Here

This content was all produced by our friends at Microsoft. We have chosen to display some of the most important aspects of their security features. If you wish to learn more about their security features, Click Here.