What is the Cyber Essential Certification?
This certification is a Government-backed and industry-supported scheme that allows businesses to protect themselves against the growing threat of cyber attacks such as malware and phishing, and provides a clear statement of the basic controls organisations should have in place to protect themselves.
The UK Government provided this certification to create a safer internet space for organisations of all sizes, across all sectors. Developed by the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC), Cyber Essentials is considered the best first step to a secure network, protecting users from 80% of the most basic cyber security breaches.
With a Cyber Essentials certification, organisations can showcase their credentials as trustworthy and secure when it comes to cyber security.
Cyber Essentials Certificate PDF
We hope that our Cyber Essentials certification gives you more trust and security when deciding to work with us for your tech projects in the future. If you have any more questions regarding our certification, please get in touch.
To Find out more about the Cyber Essentials Certification, click here.
In the months since remote work became the new normal for many of us, we've all had our fair share of "virtual everything", from customer meetings to online events and virtual team gatherings. Businesses of all sizes are using Microsoft Teams to stay connected, whether as part of their Microsoft 365 plan, or the free version of Microsoft Teams, which enables you to meet, chat, and collaborate securely, all in one place, at no cost.
Here are five things about the free version of Teams that make remote work easier, including new features now available.
Earlier this year Microsoft delivered scheduled meetings in the free version of Teams, answering one of the most frequent feature requests. When scheduling a meeting, organisers can either copy the meeting link to send it directly to other participants or send an invite via Outlook of Google calendar. Anyone, including external participants, can join meetings in one click - no setup or account required.
Microsoft are also adding the ability to view past and upcoming meetings in Teams. Soon you'll be able to view and edit all the meetings you scheduled in Teams, including their security options, right from the Meetings app on the left rail.
Together mode is a new meeting experience in Teams that digitally places meeting participants in a shared background. It's great for meetings in which multiple people speak, such as brainstorms or roundtable discussion, because it makes it easier to pick up body language and non-verbal cues. Together mode is now available in the free version of Teams with a variety of scenes including auditoriums, conference rooms, and even a coffee shop.
Often you need to collaborate with people outside your organisation, such as clients, suppliers, and partners. You can do so directly in Teams by adding them as a guest. Guest access allows you to provide access to certain teams and chats to people outside the organisation, while maintaining control over your company data.
Note: Guest access is not required to join a meeting.
The free version of Teams comes with 10 GB of team cloud storage and 2 GB or personal cloud storage per user. This allows organisations to securely store, access, and share important documents in Teams. You can even co-author Word, Excel, and Power Point files with colleagues in real time within the Teams app.
Want to keep using your existing cloud storage service? No problem. You can easily integrate third party storage providers such as Google Drive, Dropbox, and Box, enabling you to view, manage, and share those files in Teams as well.
Whiteboard in Teams makes it easy to run brainstorming and creative thinking sessions in a remote or hybrid work environment. Each Teams meetings has a dedicated whiteboard where participants can draw, sketch, and write on a shared digital canvas. You can also quickly add sticky notes to a whiteboard, making it easy to contribute if you're not using a digital pen.
Adepteq use Teams ourselves and have successfully planned, deployed, trained on and are supporting Microsoft Teams with many of our clients.
If you would like to know more visit our Microsoft Teams page or to discuss how Microsoft Teams can improve your communication and collaboration, then please contact us or call 0800 6444 365.
Office holiday parties and team celebrations look a bit different this year. Users are looking for new ways to connect as a team and celebrate in the holidays, even if they can't be together in-person. To make virtual office holiday parties and meetings more festive, Microsoft have announced new experiences in Microsoft Teams including new holiday-themed Together mode scenes and custom backgrounds. Microsoft have also announced the availability of breakout rooms, which makes it easy to mix and mingle during a virtual holiday party, and sharing tips for making virtual holiday gatherings more fun.
Together mode in Microsoft Teams re-imagines meeting experiences to bring people closer together even when you're apart. Back and forth conversation feels more natural, and research shows Together mode reduces meeting fatigue. The new winter wonderland Together mode scenes add a dash of holiday spirit that's perfect for hosting a virtual holiday party with your team.
In addition to new holiday scenes, Microsoft have announced the availability of a new set of Together mode scenes, rolling out now, that you can use any time of the year that transport your team to a variety of settings including a coffee shop, conference room, classroom, and more. Halo fans can even gather for their next important meeting in the United Nations Space Command. With these new scenes, it will feel easier than ever for your team to do everything from tackling a tough problem to hosting a holiday party.
To get started, once you are in your Microsoft Teams meeting, select Together mode from the drop-down menu, then click the small pencil in the left-hand corner of the screen to choose a scene (Together mode requires at least five people in your meeting).
Microsoft have created a set of new holiday-themed custom backgrounds for standard meetings and video calls. To add a new custom background, simply download the background you like. Then, while you're setting up your video and audio before joining a meeting, select Background effects, click Add new, and then select a background to upload from your computer. More detailed guidance can be found here.
We are excited to share that breakout rooms are generally available in Microsoft Teams today. Breakout rooms make it easy to divide your meetings into sub-groups to facilitate smaller discussions, brainstorming sessions, learning groups, and even holiday mixers.
Organisers can jump in between meetings on their own, deliver announcements to all breakout rooms at once, and bring everyone back to the main meeting at any time. And unique to Microsoft Teams, breakout rooms can be initiated both in Microsoft Teams channels and in Microsofts Teams meetings to give you flexibility on how you want to meet. Breakout rooms are especially great this time of year for mixing and mingling and playing games during a virtual holiday party. Learn how to get started with breakout rooms here.
1. Festive attire: Part of the fun of a holiday party is dressing up. This doesn't have to be forgone just because the party is virtual. In your invite, suggest a dress code. Maybe your office vibe is to go all out with a more formal look, or if going more causal, ask the team to wear their favourite ugly holiday jumper.
2. Food and drinks: Ahead of your party, send your team the recipe, and the ingredients if you're feeling extra festive - for a food, cocktail, or mocktail you can enjoy together during the party. You can also turn this into an activity by making a special drink or meal together over Microsoft Teams, led by one of your talented chef or mixologist teammates.
3. Photobooth: To recreate the classic holiday party photobooth in Microsoft Teams, ask the team to go on a scavenger hunt at their home or office for a few fun items to use as props - a hat, sunglasses, feather boa, their daughter's princess tiara - the crazier the better. Ask the team to pose, then take a few screenshots to share in your Microsoft Teams team to commemorate the moment. For a cohesive look, you can ask team members to choose the same custom background, or better yet, use the new winter wonderland Together mode scene in Microsoft Teams.
You can also consider using Snap Camera and its festive lenses for digital photobooth props.
4. Games: There are a variety of great online party games that are easy to play with your team using screensharing in Microsoft Teams. Kahoot offers engaging quizzes and challenges. Jackbox Games are the makers of several party games that are great to play together virtually. From speech games like Talking Point to drawing games like Drawful - there are a wide variety of games to suit every taste. Learn more about using Kahoot and Jackbox Games in Microsoft Teams.
5. Breakout into small groups: Holiday parties offer a chance to mix and mingle with people outside of your immediate team. To do so virtually, use the new Breakout rooms in Microsoft Teams to split up into smaller groups and get to know each other. To help break the ice, we recommend jumping on a popular trend, the PowerPoint Party. Have the team break out into groups of three of four and ask them to create the funniest, more insightful, or interesting presentation they can think of in just 15 minutes. Then present to the team in just three minutes and the best presentation gets a prize. Learn more about hosting a virtual PowerPoint party.
6. White elephant gift exchange: Take your white elephant gift exchange virtual using White Elephant Online. It's a simple way to reimagine the age-old tradition in a Microsoft Teams meeting. It brings the fun of buying a wild and wacky gift and stealing gifts from your teammates, all from the comfort of your home.
We hope these new experiences and tips bring joy to your workplace and make meetings and office parties more festive.
If you haven't tried Microsoft Teams, check our the free version. You can host unlimited meetings and holiday gathers for up to 24 hours (*valid until July 2021) - so there's no need to cut your holiday fun short.
Adepteq use Teams ourselves and have successfully planned, deployed, trained on and are supporting Microsoft Teams with many of our clients.
If you would like to know more visit our Microsoft Teams page or to discuss how Microsoft Teams can improve your communication and collaboration, then please contact us or call 0800 6444 365.
This month Microsoft have announced that many top requested features - like background noise suppression in meetings - are coming to Teams and other Microsoft 365 services. Read on for details on those, plus the highly anticipated Microsoft Endpoint Data Loss Prevention and other new features across Microsoft 365 to help make it easier to pick up where you left off, keep track of your notes and tasks more easily, sketch out Amazon Web Services (AWS) application architectures in Visio for the web, and more.
This month, Microsoft are announcing the general availability of Teams apps for meetings, expanded Forms integration, and new capabilities that make it easier to build apps and bots right within Teams.
Enrich your meeting experience with Teams app - Typically, collaborating with an app during a meeting required someone sharing their screen while they updated tasks, set reminders, managed requests, an more. This month, Microsoft have announced that you can now bring the capabilities of many of these apps directly into the meetings experience for everyone to interact with, making the time your team spends together more effective and collaborative before, during, and after your meetings. Checkout the new Teams apps for meetings now available in the Teams app store, including Asana, HireVue, Monday.com, Slido, and Teamflect (with more on the way), as well as familiar apps built by Microsoft such as Forms. If you're a partner or developer, learn more about creating Teams app for meetings here.
Quickly gather feedback in Teams meetings with polls - Polls are a great way to turn passive listeners into active participants. Forms' integration with Microsoft Teams now brings the power of polls to meetings, helping you conduct more engaging, informative, and productive meetings. Meeting presenters can prepare polls in advance and launch the polls during meetings that attendees can easily view and answer. The new Forms polls for meetings is currently rolling out and will reach you soon. You can get started by updating your Teams app and adding the Forms app to your meeting tabs.
Remove unwelcome background noise in Teams meetings - Earlier this year, Microsoft released the ability to minimise distracting background noise in videos on Microsoft Stream. They are now bringing this technology to Teams meetings. This real-time noise suppression will help remove unwelcome background noise during your meetings, making easier to hear speakers in loud and distracting environments. Noise suppression is rolling out to all users now.
Automate routine tasks without leaving Teams - Also new this month is the Power Automate app for Teams. The app provides a lightweight designer experience and a number of templates to help you quickly get started building workflows right within Teams. This new app makes it even quicker and easier to automate routine tasks within Teams. To get started, make sure you're running the latest version of Teams.
Easily build and deploy apps and intelligent chat bots in Teams - In September, Microsoft announced a new Power Apps and a new Power Virtual Agents app for Teams, running on a built-in low code data platform, now called Microsoft Dataverse for Teams - making it easy for creators to quickly build and deploy apps and bots for Teams - now those apps are generally available. Teams users can easily build applications and bots directly within Teams without needing to deal with connecting to storage, managing integration, or switching applications. Dataverse for Teams makes the back-end tech logistics of creating and deploying business process solutions in Teams easier than ever. Built-in security and governance features provide seamless control of access to apps, bots, and flows, as well as their underlying data.
New capabilities help make it easier to find notes while working across Microsoft 365, capture and share content, and pick up where you left off.
Easily reference your notes when working on a OneNote page - Last month, Microsoft announced the OneNote feed for Outlook on the web, which conveniently combines your notes across Sticky Notes, recent OneNote pages, and even Samsung Notes so you can easily reference them while composing you mail. This makes it easy to reference your notes when working on a OneNote page and capture any new thoughts you have by creating a Sticky Note in your feed without having to leave OneNote. The OneNote feed is available in OneNote, OneNote on the web, OneNote for Windows 10, Outlook on the web, and Outlook.com. To get started in OneNote, click the Open feed icon in the top right corner of the OneNote app window to display the feed pane.
Capture and share web content and more in Microsoft Edge - This month, Microsoft released two new features to help make you more productive and find information more easily. First, Web capture in Microsoft Edge lets you easily capture and mark up web content, and then save or share it - simply drag a box to select what you want to capture even if you need to scroll. Second, Microsoft have added news and information from your favourite content providers in a new "My Feed" section within the enterprise new tab page. This customisable feed sits alongside your Office 365 content and is deigned to keep you connected to information most relevant to your industry or your company.
Quickly pick up where you left off on recent files and more in OneDrive for iOS - A new home experience on the iOS mobile app for OneDrive will help you quickly pick up where you left off on recent files and easily re-discover memories from the past. Plus, you can now add a OneDrive widget to your iPhone home screen that displays your photo memories on this day across previous years. See your recent files and One This Day photos as soon as you open the OneDrive app. To get started, updated your OneDrive iOS app.
OneDrive family and group sharing now available - OneDrive has always made it easy to share docs, photos, videos, albums, and folders. But until now, sharing to a group of people meant typing in the names of all the people you wanted to share with. Last month, Microsoft simplified the process with one-click sharing to family and groups. Once you predefine your family or friend group, you'll be able to share a photo, album or important document to your group with one click. Family and group sharing are available in OneDrive for the web and included in all free and paid OneDrive consumer plans, as well in Microsoft 365 Personal and Family plans.
Hear Office documents read aloud to you on Android phones - As you move through your busy day, sometimes it's easier to hear your document read aloud to you. Now you can use Read Aloud to do exactly that in Word for Android phone and in Word on the Office app for Android. New voices offer a more natural and pleasant listening experience. You can easily pause and resume Read Aloud as well as adjust the voice speed. To get started, open the Word or Office app on your Android phone, go to the Review tab, then tap Read Aloud.
Get Yammer notifications in your Teams activity feed and more - This month, Microsoft are announcing several new and upcoming features in Yammer. Coming soon, notifications from your Yammer announcements and mentions will show up in your Microsoft Teams activity feed if you have the Communities app installed. Microsoft are also now rolling out an updated experience in the Yammer Tab for Teams that brings modern capabilities like pinning, cover photos, live events, and more. Finally, also released this month is support for Yammer Q&A insights in Microsoft Productivity Score, and interactive guide to get the most out of Yammer, and an updated experience for topics and hashtags in Yammer.
New capabilities make it easier to prevent data loss on endpoints and sketch out IT solutions build on ASW.
Protect sensitive information on your endpoints - In July, Microsoft announced the public preview of Microsoft Endpoint Data Loss Prevention (DLP) which extends your data protection capabilities to devices. Now generally available, Endpoint DLP enables organisations to enforce policies that identify and prevent risky or inappropriate sharing, transfer, or use of sensitive information consistently across cloud, on-premises, and endpoints. Microsoft are also adding new capabilities to a public preview based on feedback from customers - such as adding enforcement actions and locations-based sensitivity, a new dashboard in Microsoft 365 compliance center to manage DLP alerts, and more.
Watch this mechanics video or visit Microsoft's documentation page to learn more.
Sketch your Amazon Web Services (AWS) architecture in Visio for the web - Diagrams are a great way for cloud architects to visualise the degisn, deployment, and topology of IT solutions built on AWS. Microsoft have announced that they have added support to build AWS diagrams for various topologies and service interactions in Visio for the web. More than 400 shapes are available to help architects redesign existing infrastructure diagrams, conceptualise application architecture, or visualise the current state of your cloud environment and plan for the future. To help you get started easily, Microsoft have provided a few starter diagrams using various AWS services. Go the the Visio web app homepage and select your preferred diagram template to quickly start visualising your AWS infrastructure.
As you continue your navigation to a more sustainable, hybrid workplace, Microsoft are developing technologies that help your people and teams thrive. From building low code apps right within Teams to new AI capabilities to help you manage tasks more easily, all of these updates are aimed at enabling your people to collaborate productively, securely, and safely from anywhere.
Adepteq will help you with any questions or concerns you have about Microsoft 365 and any related applications. Call us on 0800 6444 365, or contact us via our website and let our team of experts help you with what you need.
This month we are pleased to share with you lots of new features that are now generally available to improve your experience with meetings and calling, chat and collaboration, as well as a number of new updates to Microsoft Teams devices. Microsoft have updates on Teams platforms capabilities and are introducing a new section called "App spotlight" that showcases 3rd part apps available in Teams.
Live Captions with speaker attribution
Microsoft Teams added speaker attribution to live captions so that you can see who is speaking along with what's being said, making meetings more inclusive and easier to follow along.
Spotlight an individual video participant for all attendees in a Teams meeting
Presenters can now pin an individual video feed for all attendees to see during a Teams meeting. Once pinned, the individual identified as the spotlight will be the main video shown to all participants. This applies to PC, Mac, mobile (view only) and Microsoft Teams Rooms on Windows.
Prevent attendees from unmuting in Teams Meetings
Meeting organisers and presenters can now prevent attendees from unmuting during the meeting and enable specific attendees to unmute when they raise their hands. This can be helpful for press conferences and classroom scenarios where you want to be in control of who's speaking. Learn more.
Advanced Production for Teams Meetings
Transform your Teams Meeting into a virtual stage with a new advanced production option for broadcasts. Network Device Interface (NDI) support for Teams allows event producers to convert each participant's video into a discrete video source that can be used in the video streaming production tool of your choice. This functionality enables you to use Teams meetings in new ways, including bringing speakers into Together Mode or customised views, to deliver professional broadcasts to the end point of your choice and reach audiences wherever they are.
Microsoft Whiteboard read-only mode
Microsoft Whiteboard read-only mode is available in Teams allowing for more flexibility for you to either present the digital whiteboard in read-only mode, or to allow other to edit and collaborate when given access.
Meeting & Calling recordings stored in OneDrive and SharePoint
Teams meeting and call recordings can now be stored in your OneDrive for Business or in SharePoint, providing the ability to share recordings with guests or external users, access meeting recordings faster, and manage recordings with security and compliance controls available to other file types in Microsoft 365. Teams Admins can select their recording storage location by updating policies using PowerShell. Learn more.
Updated functionality for downloading participant reports in Teams meetings
Meeting organisers, especially teachers and event organisers, often need to know who joined and how many people joined their Teams meetings. Now you can easily download a participant report after the meeting within the meeting chat. Microsoft have also added new data into the report that allows you to better manage your attendance. Learn more.
Changes in Incoming IP Video policy (New Audio and Video Policies)
Microsoft are updating their meeting policies to allow IT administrators more control over how video is managed in Teams meetings. Current policy can only be set to prevent outgoing video. Microsoft have extended the Allow IP Video policy to prevent both outgoing and incoming video as needed. Tenant administrators can use this policy to manage bandwidth. Learn more.
ARM64 Native Teams App
Unleash the full power of Microsoft Teams on your favourite ARM devices with the new native ARM64 Teams client now generally available. Stay connected and organised while enjoying improved performance, reliability, and battery life in devices such as the Surface Pro X.
New capabilities coming to Microsoft Teams Rooms
Features beginning to roll out to Microsoft Teams Rooms on Windows include:
Dell Meeting Space Solution for seamless onsite and remote collaboration
Dell's newest Meeting Space Solution for Microsoft Teams Rooms offers a complete group collaboration ecosystem that includes the OptiPlex 7080 Micro running the Teams Rooms experience on Windows, Dell Large Format Monitors, plus Logitech Tap and ConferenceCams. With proximity detection and one-touch join, you can start meeting while instantly projecting content in the room and to virtual participants.
EPOS announces two new headsets certified for Microsoft Teams
The IMPACT MB Pro 1 UC ML and 2 UC ML have now passed the rigorous reliability testing required to be certified for Microsoft Teams. You can now experience high end audio tools that provide optimal comfort, easy call handling and rich, natural sound - all while reliable, intelligent technologies filter out unwanted noise, enhance audio and boost efficiency.
See the latest in Teams Devices here
New offline presence status
Let other know when you are not available in Microsoft Teams. You can now change your presence to "Offline". This allows you to have full access to Teams while signaling to colleagues that you are unavailable.
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Language-aware proofing
Communicate using multiple languages in Microsoft Teams. If you write different messages in different languages, you now see spellchecking relevant to the language you use when typing a message in the Teams desktop app.
Templates for creation of a new Team
When creating a new team, you can now choose from a variety of customisable templates including event management , crisis response, as well as industry-specific templates like hospital ward and bank branch. Microsoft publishes a set of first-party templates and as an IT professional you can also create new custom templates for your organisation, allows you to standardise team structures, surface relevant apps, and scale best practices.
New file sharing experience
Team members share and work together on content from a single source of truth seamlessly with Microsoft Teams. You can now create a shareable link for any file stored in Teams and directly set the appropriate permissions. Additionally, you can set permissions for files stored in SharePoint or OneDrive while composing a private chat or starting a channel conversation. Learn more
Updated SharePoint pages app
Using SharePoint pages is a great way to consolidate and share content in the right context using images, Excel, Word and PowerPoint documents, video, links, links, Twitter feeds and more - all on the same page. And now yo can more easily add your pages as tabs in Microsoft Teams. Learn more
New and simplified global notification settings
As a user you can now configure and customise your notification settings through a newly designed notification setting section. This new experience makes it easier to find the exact notifications you want so you can keep track of the activity you care about. To access, go to your profile picture > Setting > Notification. Microsoft also added a new setting that allows you to turn off message previews in chat notifications if you desire more privacy.
Anonymous grading and marking in Assignments
Tackle unconscious bias and even the playing field in class with Anonymous Grading. When enabled in the assignment detail view, student's names are anonymised and avatars are temporarily removed, presenting a random list of students. This allows you as an educator to review work with identities hidden, no shuffling of paper involved.
View assignments across all classes
Being able to see what's upcoming, whether you're an educator or student, is critical to getting a handle on your week, month, or year. Now both educators and students can once again view upcoming and turned in assignments by class or view them across all classes. Just visit Assignments in your app bar on the left-hand side of Teams to view assignments across all classes. Students can also filter by category, see the due date, and assigned value of the assignment and more.
Off-shift access controls
With off-shift access controls, IT administrators can now configure Teams to alert you when you are accessing the app on your personal device outside of working hours. The feature prompts you to accept that you will not be getting paid for time spent on Teams to help ensure that you are not involuntarily working while not on shift and helps your employer to comply with labor regulation. The feature does not require active usage of the Shifts app, but it does require Shifts being configured and schedule data being the app; either added natively with Excel import or including workforce management API connectors like Kronos, BlueYonder and more. Learn more
Microsoft Cloud for Healthcare
Microsoft announced the general availability of our first industry-specific cloud offering, Microsoft Cloud for Healthcare, including the new Microsoft Teams EHR connector for Epic EHR. This allows clinicians to launch a virtual visit in Teams from within their electronic health record system. Learn more about how and about the many new features now available as part of the Microsoft Cloud for Healthcare.
Microsoft Teams and Power Automate - Simpler automation for everyone
A new Power Automate app for Teams makes automating workflows easier than ever with new templates and a simplified editor experience.
Organisational branding for line-of-business Teams app catalog
IT Admins can now customise their Teams line-of-business app catalog using their organisation's branding. This enhances the user experience for end users and increase organic discovery and use of an organisation's line-of-business apps. Learn more
Resource-Specific Consent now generally available on the Microsoft Graph v1.0 endpoint
Microsoft have announced that Resource-Specific Consent (RSC) is now generally available on the Microsoft Graph v1.0 endpoint. Your Teams app can now call Teams Graph APIs from the BETA endpoint without needing admin consent. This capability empowers Team owners to install an app for their specific team and restrict the app's scope and access to data to only that one team, without needing the global IT admin to provision access. Learn more
App certification
Publishers building Microsoft Teams add-ins can now work with Microsoft to certify that their app - and its supporting infrastructure - protect the security and privacy of sensitive customer data. Certified apps receive a badge that is visible in AppSource and from within the Microsoft 365 tenant administrator's console. Microsoft strongly encourage app publishers to take advantage of this program, and over time, expect to make it a requirement. Learn more
Publisher verification
It's critical that IT Admins and end-users know that partner apps come from verified sources. Using a process that relies on a verified Microsoft Partner Network account, Microsoft now offers application developers a publisher verification service. Verified apps receive a bade that is visible in AppSource and in the consent dialog when a user or admin installs an application. Learn more
Clio is a cloud-based legal software that law firms trust to manage their practices and clients from intake to invoice. As the needs of legal professionals have changed over the last year, Clio has been focused on building solutions law firms need in this new digital-first reality. To make remote collaboration even easier, Clio customers can now check the status of their matter, scan recent communications, and plan for upcoming events all within Microsoft Teams. Learn more
Adepteq use Teams ourselves and have successfully planned, deployed, trained on and are supporting Microsoft Teams with many of our clients.
If you would like to know more visit our Microsoft Teams page or to discuss how Microsoft Teams can improve your communication and collaboration, then please contact us or call 0800 6444 365.
With today's reality of remote work and online learning, people need the ability to share content - documents, presentations, photos, videos, lesson plans, you name it - to get work done. And because of this, security around internal and external sharing is more important than ever before. While the ability to share content with colleagues both inside and outside the organisation helps people stay productive and connected, you must protect against risks. Accidental sharing of sensitive information or sharing with unintended recipients can pose a threat to the integrity and privacy of your data, people, and devices. OneDrive helps you define secure, virtual perimeters for sharing content, educate people about your policies for secure collaboration, and monitor how people share to discover and address gaps. In this practical guide, you'll learn about how you can easily manage secure external sharing.
The first things to consider when it comes to external sharing are the hard sharing restrictions for your organisation. Depending on your business or industry, you may have different requirements that you must meet for protecting sensitive information. You should also consider what behaviors you want to prevent entirely when people in your organisation share information. For example, are you worried about users enabling anonymous access to files containing sensitive information, such as financial data, or personally identifiable information, such as credit card numbers, Social Security numbers, or health records? Or are you more concerned about leaking company IP? The best first step is to talk with your Security, Legal, or Compliance teams to understand their requirements.
In addition, OneDrive, together with Microsoft 365, includes a robust toolset of combating ransomware, retaining critical data, and meeting litigation requirements - all of which grow more critical as more organisations shift to remote work. If you're in a highly regulated industry like Finance, Energy, or Government, tools such as Information Barriers can help you control risks like insider trading and demonstrate that control for regulators.
Another example of how OneDrive helps you establish these specific boundaries is by enabling you to limit external sharing to specific groups of users. For example, Sales and Marketing may need permission to use Anyone links to share information with a broad number of vendors and customers. One the other hand, you may want to give HR and Finance permission to share information only with external users who authenticate their identities before accessing files. Now, you can add and manage security groups to determine who can share content externally - and who they can share it with. Bottom line, setting up security groups helps reduce the chance that someone who's busy or distracted will accidentally share the wrong information with someone outside your organisation.
Collaboration is absolutely critical for both remote work and online learning. But when people are working, security usually isn't foremost in their minds. The power of OneDrive is that it provides rich capabilities that enable them to share content and collaborate securely by default. In OneDrive, you can set up your organisation's policies so that people who tend to click Share and go about their business have less permissive sharing options - and you can also let people choose more permissive options as needed. You do this by specifying the type of link that's selected by default when people share files in OneDrive: anyone, people only inside the organisation, or specific people. You can also set the permission to either view or edit. This way, employees, teachers, or students can't accidentally share information with anyone outside the organisation or externally share content that is meant for internal use only.
Another great example of helping people be successful is setting up expiration policies. This ensures that external users won't retain access to your content indefinitely, and helps prompt people in your organisations to periodically review who they've given access to their files. You can also easily revoke access that was previously granted.
With long daily to-do lists, people are often trying to get through tasks as quickly as possible and mark them complete. The last thing you want to do is slow them down by preventing them from sharing files. That's why Microsoft built quick reminders and help into the OneDrive UI to remove some of the burden from your IT help desk. So if you've set up your environment for internal sharing only, when someone tries to share a file externally, they immediately see an error message that lets them know external sharing isn't permitted. You can also set up custom help links, so employees can quickly and easily get in-context assistance and direction, such as instructions for singing up for a training course on protecting company information.
Unfortunately, shadow IT can still pose a problem. If some people need to share information or get feedback on a document quickly, they may choose more familiar apps - or an app suggested by a client, to share files. That's why you need to help people see why using unapproved commercial apps can pose a security risk - and what tools you've provided instead to help make their jobs easier. You can also offer training courses for staff or students to complete for them to be added to a group with external sharing permissions. Creating a portal that people can access for further education around the right apps to use and secure sharing policies to follow can also help to reduce risk from information leakage, especially for new hires or students.
Establishing sharing boundaries for your organisation and educating people about your external sharing policies helps you spend less time managing requests and troubleshooting issues, so you can focus on other priorities. Instead, you can monitor OneDrive activity across your organisation or school to see what people are doing. Using the information on the Productivity Score page of the Microsoft 365 Admin Portal, you can spot patterns that alert you to abnormal or suspect usage and adjust sharing and security policies to adapt or address issues. Understanding usage patterns can also help you develop and revise education materials to improve information security, which can help lessen the burden on your security team. You can also review audit logs to detect anomalies, such as people who are sharing or downloading more files than usual, and external sharing reports to help you gauge sharing behaviour and provide insights that you can use to improve best practices and education across the board.
For more information on OneDrive or anything Microsoft 365 related, call us today on 0800 6444 365 or contact us via our website!
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