Office 365 Data Protection Best Practices
While Microsoft 365 offers foundational protections, organizations should take a layered approach to strengthen data security and reduce exposure to modern threats.
Apply strong identity security controls.
Use multi factor authentication and conditional access policies to limit access based on user identity, device health, and location.
Classify and protect sensitive data early.
Implement data classification and information protection policies so sensitive data is identified and protected before it is shared or stored broadly.
Configure and tune DLP policies.
Regularly review data loss prevention rules to ensure they align with how employees actually work and to minimize false positives that disrupt productivity. Monitor security posture continuously.
Use Microsoft Secure Score to track configuration gaps and prioritize security improvements based on risk.
Limit access to cloud apps and mobile devices.
Apply access controls and device management policies through Microsoft Intune to reduce exposure from unmanaged or compromised devices.
Prepare for insider and external threats.
Incorporate insider risk management tools and threat monitoring to detect unusual behavior that could indicate data misuse or compromise.
Limitations of Microsoft 365’s Built-in Data Protection
While Microsoft Office 365 offers great benefits for corporate productivity and collaboration, Office 365 data security features may leave organizations at risk. With approximately 500 million daily users, Microsoft 365 is the world’s most targeted cloud platform. According to Microsoft’s Digital Defense Report 2024, there are around 600 million identity attacks each day, and the same features that simplify collaboration also create opportunities for attackers to exploit trust and access sensitive data.
Office 365 is prone to a variety of security gaps, and many are not insubstantial. Its very popularity makes Office 365 a central target for cyber criminals, yet the platform possesses only a single layer of security defenses, potentially exposing users and their organizations to significant threats. Microsoft Defender for Office 365 relies on static analysis and basic sandboxing, which sophisticated attackers actively test, reverse-engineer, and bypass. Attackers can purchase Microsoft 365 licenses, study Defender’s detection patterns, and design evasive threats around those controls.
Additionally, Office 365 data security can be affected by the same kinds of human error and technical failure that compromise other cloud and on-premise technologies. Mimecast adds a complementary layer of protection with AI-powered URL inspection, full-emulation sandboxing, Natural Language Processing, Social Graphing, and shared threat intelligence. This layered approach helps detect threats that Microsoft 365 alone may miss, including malware, phishing, business email compromise, impersonation, and emails from untrustworthy sources.
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Enhance Office 365 data security with Mimecast
To truly provide Office 365 protection , organizations must augment the platform with best-of-breed solutions to defend against spear-phishing, ransomware, impersonation and other attacks that can cripple an organization. Yet managing multiple point solutions only adds to the cost and complexity of business email management. That's why so many organizations today choose to improve Office 365 data security with help from Mimecast.
Organizations using Mimecast alongside Microsoft 365 are 56.6% less likely to make cyber insurance claims than those relying on Microsoft alone. According to Forrester, adding Mimecast to Microsoft 365 delivers 255% ROI within three years, with $2.13M in total financial benefits for a 2,500-user organization.
Beyond technical controls, Mimecast addresses the human dimension of data security. By measuring at-risk users, delivering targeted security awareness training, and generating human risk scores from behavioral data across email and collaboration tools, Mimecast helps organizations reduce the human vulnerabilities that Microsoft’s native framework can leave exposed.
Reduce human risk with targeted training
Mimecast services for Office 365 data security
Mimecast offers SaaS-based solutions that help organizations strengthen Microsoft 365 security, data protection, continuity, archiving, and compliance. Rather than replacing Microsoft 365, Mimecast adds a complementary security layer built to detect advanced, evasive threats, reduce human risk, and improve visibility across email and collaboration environments.
To heighten Office 365 data security, Mimecast provides a suite of solutions that include:
- Advanced Email Security. Mimecast enhances Office 365 data security with AI-powered detection, URL rewriting, full-emulation sandboxing, Natural Language Processing, Social Graphing, and threat intelligence to help stop phishing, ransomware, malware, impersonation, and business email compromise attacks.
- Secure Messaging. Mimecast augments Office 365 data security with a solution that enables sensitive information to be shared safely and securely without requiring knowledge of encryption methods or keys .
- Insider Risk Management and Data Leak Prevention. Mimecast supports Office 365 DLP by helping organizations monitor sensitive data movement, identify risky user behavior, and address potential leaks, whether inadvertent or malicious.
- Aware and Archiving Capabilities. Mimecast supports compliance, retention, supervision, and archiving needs by helping organizations preserve, search, and manage communications outside Microsoft 365’s native controls.
- Human Risk Management. Mimecast helps organizations identify at-risk users, understand behavioral risk across email and collaboration tools, and deliver targeted awareness interventions that reduce risky actions before they lead to data loss or compromise.
- Security Ecosystem Integrations. Mimecast enhances detection and response across the security ecosystem by sharing threat intelligence through deep integrations with 350+ security technologies, including Microsoft Sentinel. This helps centralize email security events and support faster, more coordinated incident response.
Benefits of managing Office 365 data security with Mimecast
When you choose Mimecast to support Office 365 security policy management and compliance , you can:
- Quickly and easily add additional layers of Office 365 data security by employing a cloud-based service that can be implemented immediately with no capital expense.
- Effectively protect against advanced threats like spear-phishing and ransomware , as well as internal email threats and data leaks.
- Improve operational efficiency for security teams. Forrester found that Mimecast customers achieved 24% time savings on email-based attack remediation and 50% time savings on platform management, freeing teams to focus on higher-value security priorities.
- Benefit from support from the Mimecast Security Operations Center, which is responsible for day-to-day operation of email security services, continuous monitoring and rapid application of updates.
- Strengthen human risk management by connecting user behavior, targeted training, email security signals, and collaboration activity into a more complete view of risk across Microsoft 365 environments.
- Gain third-party validation from analyst recognition. Gartner named Mimecast a Leader in the Magic Quadrant for Email Security Platforms, recognizing its combined email security and human risk management offering.
In addition to security services, Mimecast offers email archiving services that can augment Office 365 backup software , enabling organizations to automatically backup Office 365 mailboxes to an independent cloud archive and to retain access to live and historic email at all times, even during outages and attacks.
