Microsoft’s cybersecurity team has provided some top recommendations for implementing security to protect your Office 365 environment. The Office 365 security roadmap provides these recommendations in a staged timeframe so you can easily identify where your priorities should be in the first 30-90 days and beyond.

For instance, in the first 30 days you should first and foremost know how you need to implement identity and access management to best suit your organizational needs. For instance, will you create cloud-only identities, directory synchronized identities, or go with a more robust federated identity scenario? You will want to know how to identify users and events that impose higher risks and how to use key tools such as Azure Active Directory Identity Protection to create various policies to act on these identified vulnerabilities.

You should also know how and when to check your Microsoft 365 Secure Score and use threat management policies, reports, alerts and auditing in the Microsoft 365 Security Center to learn about the health of your environment, as well as take action to create a more secure environment. Tools such as Microsoft Cloud App Security will allow you to monitor your environment for unusual behaviors and activities and take necessary actions when appropriate. The security team also reminds you to focus on the fact that information protection doesn’t start and end just with Office 365 administration, but requires coordination across all of the services in your entire organization, such as SharePoint Online, Exchange Online, OneDrive, etc.

Let’s not forget about the increased usage of mobile devices in today’s infrastructure. Do you know how to control the configuration of your mobile devices and safely deploy them? How about controlling which users/devices can access certain applications based on conditions you define - how their device is configured, or where they are connecting from, for instance? Knowing how to use tools such as Office 365 Mobile Device Management, Microsoft Intune, System Center Configuration Manager, or in most cases, some combination of all of those services, is undoubtedly critical to a successful mobile management experience.

These are just some of the highlighted areas of initial concern during your first 30 days of deploying/managing Office 365, with security priorities in mind. For more details, additional links and the next steps in the Office 365 security roadmap, you can check out this link: Office 365 security roadmap – Top priorities for the first 30 days, 90 days, and beyond.

If you’d like to learn more about these features and additional security, identity and mobile device related topics, and/or get some valuable hands-on experience in deploying and managing many of these features, take a look at the course outlines listed below:

MS-100: Microsoft 365 Identity and Services Track

MS-101: Microsoft 365 Mobility and Security Track

These are just a couple of Microsoft’s recently released role-based training courses to provide administrators the necessary information and skills required to fit their specific job needs. These courses may also serve as a starting point for you to earn one or more technical certifications that shows you are keeping pace with today’s technical roles and requirements.

For more information on these Office 365 courses and others, check out our upcoming schedule at www.LrsEducationServices.com.

We’d love to have you attend in person or virtually using our Virtual Training platform to help you save travel costs. And in case you didn’t know, however you choose to attend these courses, you will also receive a FREE Pearson Vue Certification exam voucher to get you moving down the road to certification!

If you have any questions or would like more information regarding courses scheduled at LRS Education Services, please call 877 832.0688 extension 1493 or email us at getsmart@LRS.com 

Penny Morgan
MCT, MCSA, MCITP, MCTS, MCSE, MCP
Microsoft 365 Certified: Enterprise Administrator Expert
Microsoft 365 Certified: Security Administrator Associate
Microsoft Certified: Azure Administrator Associate

LRS Education Services