3 Ways Microsoft Azure Helps SMBs Secure Critical Business Data

When working in Azure, even the smallest businesses have access to enterprise-level security and threat protection tools, for cloud-based and on-premise data and applications. This is important when you consider that last year, 43% of breaches occurred at small and medium-sized businesses. Over half of those affected did not have adequate in-house staff to remediate the breach - which explains why the average cost reached $120,000. As more SMBs adopt fully, or partially remote models, they must take extra precautions to secure a growing number of attack surfaces, and protect their employees from rising social engineering and ransomware attacks. 

Here Are 3 Ways Microsoft Azure Helps SMBs Protect Their Customers, Employees, and Business-Critical Data:

Device Security

Azure makes it easier to manage company and personal devices, with programs such as Microsoft InTune and Enterprise Mobility and Security. Your IT administrator can set conditional access policies, device and application encryption, and multi-factor authentication. If your employees work from personal devices, you can control which devices and users can access business information, and set copy, save-as, and paste restrictions to ensure compliance. If a device is lost or compromised, remote device and application-level wipes ensure your critical information remains secure. These security policies can be applied to iOS and Android phones and help foster cyber-awareness among employees. 

Identity Protection Tools

Azure's security tools integrate with the applications and operating systems your employees use every day. AI-powered insights from Microsoft 365 and Windows 10 provide valuable user behavior metrics which can alert your IT administrator in the event of serious changes. You can identify high-risk usage of cloud applications, suspicious user behavior, and abnormal downloads. Advanced monitoring and security reporting makes it easy to take corrective action and keep your data secure.

Content Access Controls

Protect your cloud applications with access controls at the content level. Your IT administrator can create policies to classify and tag your cloud content. This makes it easy to segregate data at the device and application-level and set up document encryption, tracking, and revocation. Your employees can benefit from email encryption, and your IT can block the sharing of sensitive information like credit cards or social security numbers. Ongoing monitoring of shared files helps you respond to potential leaks, and machine learning detects signs of email impersonation in real-time. These security strategies can be enforced across your Windows 10 devices, with the option for additional security via multi-factor authentication.

Identifying, assessing, and mitigating cyber risk is a full-time job. If you are looking for assistance implementing Microsoft Azure's robust suite of security services, our consultants can help. From industry best practices to employee education, our team can help ensure you're optimizing your security investments. To learn more, reach out to iCorps for a free consultation.