We’ve seen how increasing connectivity and using more technology in the workplace provides cyber criminals with more opportunities to access and compromise your data or cause serious damage. It might be difficult for your business to maintain its security as new threats emerge. To help you monitor how you’re performing, Microsoft has developed Microsoft Secure Score (previously known as Office 365 Secure Score).
What is Secure Score?
Microsoft realised that its customers were using multiple cloud services in addition to 365, so it worked to enhance security.
There are three tiers of protection in place for your data in Microsoft 365 and they all work the moment you log in. It’s the most effective technique to safeguard private data when you don’t have complete command over its whereabouts or use.
In essence, it’s a method for determining the current state of data security, identifying any potential weak spots, and determining the best course of action to address any issues discovered. Each security feature is given a score, making it easy to understand where improvements may be made (and your protection).
What do the scores mean?
Think of this score as a collection of your entire Microsoft 365 environment. Your score should be at least 75-80% and higher if possible – if not, then there is work to do.
If it ends up being less, and you aren’t the one in control of configuring your Microsoft 365 environment, then you may need to communicate with them about improving that score.
In our experience, a lot of IT providers don’t even look at this but it’s essentially the key to your kingdom – all the business’s emails, data etc. – and a low score means it’s easy to access.
- Anything below a Secure Score of 30% means you’re very vulnerable.
- Anything below a Secure Score of 50% – best practices have not been fully applied and you’re still fairly vulnerable.
- Around 67% is the Secure Score you should expect for a tenant configured to best practices and with all security features enabled.
- Around 80% is the Secure score you should be aiming to get to as soon as possible, but be aware there will be steps needed to get to this point.
A Secure Score of 100% should be your ultimate goal over time. Perhaps a better approach is to always be looking to improve your score above the recommended 80% to make sure you’re not spending too much time on it.
Want help finding out your Secure Score or making a plan to improve it? Contact us today.