This is a brief article. I will cover it in more detail later. But this is just to inform all the readers that such a sophisticated facility exists within Office 365 and they should take advantage of it.
I have observed that although Office 365 is a popular product, all customers do not really notice, appreciate and utilize this powerful platform to the fullest extent.
One such feature is called Data Loss Prevention. It helps you control, monitor and prevent leakage of confidential data, customer privacy related information, financial data, etc. by any employee through Email. This feature is also being extended to SharePoint.
Exactly how to activate the feature and configure it is beyond the scope of this article. It is not even the intention of writing the article. Just understand what it does and if you find it useful and relevant to your business – make sure your IT team implements it.
What does DLP in Office 365 do?
In simple terms, it monitors every outgoing mail message and checks if any pre-defined restricted information is being sent outside your organization.
If it does find such a mail, it can either warn the user, capture the reason for sending it, prevent the user from sending it, forward it to a compliance officer, delete the mail, follow an approval process and so on.
You choose what is objectionable, sensitive, confidential or privacy related data. You create the rules and DLP follows it faithfully.
To make your life simpler, many ready-made rules are available. These rules are created as per stringent government and banking guidelines. You can start with a ready-to-use template and then refine it as needed.
In short, Try it, Assess it and Use it.
