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9 Ways to Harden Microsoft 365 Environments


If you use Microsoft 365 within your organization you should consider taking some time to look into your security settings and have your administrator help take steps to harden and better secure the platform for your organization's needs.

Here are some ways to harden Microsoft 365:

  1. Enable Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) and conditional access policies requiring MFA for all users.

  2. Enforce secure password requirements that include complexity requirements

  3. Use warning banners to notify users of when mail is coming from outside the organization to warn recipients that the email could be unsafe and to double check the source and the information before clicking links or downloading files.

  4. Synchronize active directory to make sure only the necessary users are synchronized to Microsoft 365. This ensures that there are not inactive or outdated accounts sitting in Active Directory that could be accessed by cyber criminals in an effort to steal company data or information.

  5. Enforce modern authentication by conditional access policies. If clients have Outlook 2010 or earlier or old versions of Android or IOS these legacy devices will not be able to connect to Office 365. Microsoft is deprecating legacy authentication in October 2020 when extended support for Outlook 2010 ends.

  6. Configure exchange online protection to block email if the SPF record fails from the sender. Spam / Junk mail will be delivered to the users Junk mail folder.

  7. Set up and configure Advanced Threat Protection. More about Advanced Threat Protection here.

  8. Use Microsoft's (Secure Score) to make additional hardening changes base off Microsoft Recommendations.

  9. Review DNS and setup / modify SPF Records, DKIM, and DMARC. Review DMARC reports and once all legitimate email is identified change DMARC record from observing to blocking. This keeps unauthorized parties from spoofing your companies domain to send emails impersonating a member of your organization.

If you have any questions about hardening Microsoft 365 for your organization, our experts at Mapletronics are here to help. Contact us today for a free consultation to get started.

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