4 ways Microsoft 365 E5 can help you secure your business

Article updated 30/8/2022

Cyber-attacks are becoming increasingly common and can potentially compromise business operations and sensitive data. Protecting your business while ensuring its productivity is essential for your success, and you need to invest in the proper solutions to enable this. 

Microsoft 365 (Microsoft Office 365 or M365) offers users Microsoft 365 E5 – an advanced enterprise-grade solution that combines workplace productivity with cyber security programs. With this solution, businesses can bolster their security measures while streamlining work operations. 

To be clearer, there are 4 ways Microsoft 365 E5 can enhance your company’s security measures:

1. Powerful encryption capabilities

Supporting your company’s communications and protecting your business data are essential to your organisation’s success. From your employees’ mobile devices to the intrinsic processes that keep your staff connected, your communication and data-sharing channels must leverage the most advanced security solutions for greater reliability and less risk of compromise. 

Microsoft’s E5 subscription utilises encryption levels indicative of Azure Rights Management (Azure RMS) and Azure Information Protection (AIP) to secure documents and emails. The subscription also supports additional security solutions such as double key encryption (DKE). E5 helps prevent individuals with unauthorised access from viewing information in transit.  

2. Secures systems with Microsoft Defender

Microsoft Defender is a powerful, cloud-based suite for improving your company’s cyber security defences. Microsoft Defender protects organisations against threats posed by external and internal sources, such as malware and human error.  

Defender safeguards companies with:   

• Threat protection policies: allows you to customise your organisation’s threat protection policies to ensure your security measures are relevant. 
• Real-time reports: gives you the ability to see how the program is performing in regards to defending your business.
• Automated threat investigation and response capabilities: uses automated tools to analyse and prevent threats.
• Analytics: examines user behaviour for suspicious activity.

Regardless if your business uses Microsoft’s E3 or E5 solutions, or you choose to move over to another subscription, you can feel confident knowing that state-of-the-art security solutions are protecting your organisation’s networks, applications, and documents. 

While E5’s security measures fall under the umbrella of Microsoft Defender, the subscription uses specific programs to protect its users. 

They are:

• Microsoft Defender for Endpoint
• Microsoft Defender for Identity
• Microsoft Defender Vulnerability Management
• Microsoft Defender for Office 365
• Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps   

By giving you unique insight into the state of your apps via analytics and monitoring, Microsoft 365’s E5 subscription plan leverages security solutions that help you identify and combat cyber threats as they appear.

3. Implements Azure Information Protection 

Included in Microsoft Purview Information Protection, Azure Information Protection is a data encryption solution that allows users to customise their organisation’s policies surrounding data and sensitive documents. It can be used alongside Microsoft’s Data Loss Prevention (DLP) functions to enhance your company’s data security further. 

It has several capabilities that help business owners secure their operations, including (but not limited to): 

• Being able to define who can access data and what they can do with it on an individual user level. 
• Having the ability to track the activity of shared data and revoke access quickly if the need arises. 
• Adding classification and protection policies that follow data, ensuring ongoing protection and access control measures.

Azure Information Protection integrates with Microsoft’s world-class productivity apps. The cyber world’s increasingly advanced threats can target businesses at any moment, but with E5’s AIP-bolstered security framework, organisations can better protect their reputations and operations.

4. Assists in security awareness training 

Cybercrime’s cost is expected to hit $10.5 trillion by 2025. Organisations must avoid this by implementing cyber security best practices into their procedures. However, training your staff on digital safety takes time, and you should look into tools and solutions that allow you to streamline your teaching efforts. 

Since Microsoft 365’s E5 package allows you to easily and quickly monitor who is accessing your data, what it is being used for, and where it is being sent, it also provides a jumping-off point for keeping your staff up-to-date with security best practices. 

With the Microsoft 365 E5 package, you can easily see if a team member is engaging in behaviour that might expose your company to a cyber-attack. You can quickly implement a solution to solve this problem before it leads to lasting damage. 

Take advantage of Microsoft Office 365’s E5 solution for your business

Adopting Microsoft 365 is one of the most popular and effective ways to protect your business against cyber-attacks, while ensuring that operations can continue and your employees are leveraging the best productivity tools. M365’s cyber security solutions help protect you, your organisation, and your data.

The Microsoft consultants at Essential Tech are experts on all Microsoft products, from Microsoft Office 365’s E3 subscription to Power BI and Teams. Speak to the team today to transform your business into a modern office with Microsoft Office 365 plans and security solutions that prepare you for future growth.