7 simple security measures to protect yourself from attacks with Microsoft 365

Every year, small and medium-sized enterprises are exposed to intrusion attempts. With the rapid development of technology, cyber threats and data breaches are also increasing rapidly. One million new cyber threats are discovered every day. In this article, we give you 7 tips on how you can easily use the built-in features of Microsoft 365 to improve your security. The tools are already included in your license. All you have to do is use them.

Every day we read about new cyber threats and attacks that cost companies big money. Contrary to popular belief, it's not just big companies that are being targeted. In fact, 43% of all cyber attacks target companies with fewer than 300 employees, which is 95% of the world's businesses.

To defend yourself against these attacks, you need to build the best possible protection, but that doesn't mean you have to spend a lot of money on security solutions. Your Microsoft 365 license gives you access to several tools that can significantly increase your level of security. Since you already have access to all the tools, it won't cost you a penny.

Here are 7 tips on what you can do to improve your security today:

• Check your Secure Score- Secure Score is Microsoft's centralised security tool. Secure Score examines your company's IT environment to identify areas of risk and makes recommendations on how to improve your security. The evaluation is done through a scoring scale and gives you information on how you compare in terms of security with other companies in a similar environment.

• Enable multi-factor authentication - Research shows that 90% of all passwords can be cracked in less than six hours and that two out of three use the same password at work as at home. No wonder 81% of all intrusions can be linked to weak or stolen passwords! Enabling multi-factor authentication is not only one of the most important measures, but also one of the easiest. By adding another authentication method to the password, 99.99% of all attacks can be prevented.

• Use device management for mobile devices - Today's users expect to be able to work anywhere, anytime. In many cases, being able to access company data via your own device is a given. To adapt to the new working world, you need to strike a good balance between productivity and security. By using the mobile device management built into Microsoft 365, you can ensure that phones and tablets are PIN-protected. If a device is lost or stolen, you can remotely wipe it.

• Create a separate administration account - If you are a system administrator, it is likely that the hackers will attack you first. A good tip is therefore to create a separate user account with your own password that you only use when you need your administrator rights.

• Block suspicious file types - Of course, the best thing to do is not to click on those dangerous links and not to download those attachments that turn out to contain malware, but sooner or later someone will do it. Microsoft 365 has a built-in tool that protects the user's email by checking links and attachments and blocking potential threats.

• Save your files to OneDrive - Save your files where they're safest, in the cloud. If you have company files stored on OneDrive, they can be easily restored if they are affected by an attack.

• Block automatic email forwarding - It is not uncommon for hackers accessing a user account to forward the email to an external account, waiting for the right moment to strike. By blocking this feature, you can prevent them.

Built-in security in Microsoft 365

A prerequisite for following our advice is that you use Microsoft 365, and using Microsoft 365 is actually advice in itself. After decades of working to solve the problems that many businesses face, Microsoft has built an industry-leading protection system that works proactively to recognise and stop different types of intrusion attempts. Microsoft's Intelligent Security detects new attacks every second and millions of times a day.

Train your employees

Ultimately, no software can prevent attacks as effectively as a workforce trained to detect and stop threats, so finally, we want to make a case for working on the security culture of your company and educating users. Sometimes things will still go wrong, but with the built-in features of Microsoft 365 as a safety net, hopefully you can sleep well at night anyway.

Would you like to know more about how you can strengthen the security of your company with simple means? Here we have collected a number of videos that will give you even more tips in a fun and educational way. You can also book a free security assessment at WeSafe.se/SecurityCheck.