Cybercrime continues to spread as a new category and form of offense committed against people and societies. It is defined as a crime in which the computer becomes the object of the crime or it becomes major platform used to carry out the crime. (Source: Techopedia). While public policies are becoming more comprehensive and in-depth in covering the rights of individuals online, much of the protection continue to be carried out at the private / individual level. Helping individuals and companies are law enforcers, IT consultants, and service providers who can set-up the infrastructure and hardware to ensure protection form hackers and other threats that put individual lives at risk.
Zooming into Office 365, in order to protect its users from cybercrimes, Microsoft recently announced the release of advanced protection features for Office 365 Home and Office 365 platforms. These security features include protection from malicious attacks like ransomware, keeping user information more secure and private, and high grade protection from viruses and cybercrime. Specific to these functions, below are some updates from Microsoft:
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- File Restore – Microsoft allows user to restore from OneDrive for Business to their personal OneDrive accounts. At any point within the last 30 days, users can now restore the whole drive.
- Password protected sharing links – Sharing links from OneDrive files may now be further protected by setting passwords. Now, users can share links with people with an added security level. This helps when the same link is accessed by an unauthorized user, at any given point or circumstance. For example, a user sharing a file with another user pasted the link in an email. That same email somehow got forwarded to some people down the thread who were not supposed to receive the file. By adding another layer of security such as a password for the share link, the two initial users, more specifically the main owner of the file is assured that the document is exclusive only to those who have the password to access the file online.
- Prevent Forwarding – Related to the feature above is the prevention of forwarding emails to other recipients, unless authorized by the original sender. A new “prevent forwarding” option is now available for microsoft users which includes encryption of the files included in those emails.
Other features are being rolled out by Microsoft to ensure that Office365 users have more ways to secure information and details online. But like any technology upgrade, these features will be useless unless users actively incorporate them into their daily processes. It is ideal to get the right IT partner to help tailor fit technology to your requirements. CMS Information Technology is a tech consulting business that can help you maximize these new security features from Microsoft.
