Ways to Make Office 365 More Secure

  

Published By Karen Chard 

Approved By Rollins Duke

Published On June 24th, 2025

Reading Time 5 Min Read

Many organizations use Microsoft 365, an advanced cloud based system to improve their productivity. Nowadays, crimes like stealing sensitive data, hacking the system are rampant these days. You cannot only depend on Office 365 security features. Therefore, in this article, we will explore common Microsoft 365 security weaknesses and how you can improve Office 365 security them so that you can protect your account and data.

Know About Office 365 Security

First, we are going to understand the basic Microsoft 365 security functions. Microsoft develops multiple security features such as Multi-Factor Authentication, Advanced Threat Protection, Data Loss Prevention and Secure Score. They are used to protect your account from several levels of issues.

However, they are only beneficial if you manually setup, fine-tuning or you have a premium plan. Such as ATP is not included in all the plans, and Security Score is just a guidance. Hence, despite using them, your account is not properly secure and you may need a third-party software tool that can help you in security.

Shared Responsibility Model in O365

Additionally, Office 365 security is based on a shared responsibility model. It means that Microsoft secures the infrastructure, such as physical data centers, network and foundational services. But, it is the client’s responsibility to secure their data, user identities and endpoints.

So, tasks like managing access controls, configuring permissions, detecting phishing attacks and backup data is all done by the organization or users, not Microsoft. Therefore, many businesses are having problems with the security of their account.

Common Attacks in Microsoft 365 Environment

When your account is not secured, anyone can attack you and harm you. There are many different attacks by the criminals. Most common are.

• Phishing attacks: In this, attackers send you fake emails that contain links to a fraud site to steal your office 365 credentials.
• Business Email Compromise: Cybercriminals gain access to legitimate business email accounts and trick the employees, vendors, or customers to transfer money or sensitive data.
• Malicious Apps and Add-ins: The unauthorized user creates third-party apps to request permissions during the sign in process. When granted the permission as they have the access of their emails, contacts and important data.
• Token Theft and Session Hijacking: In this, the attackers steal your authentication tokens from your devices and browsers. This way they can bypass the login process and steal your data.

So, you can see that there are multiple ways to steal your Office 365 data. So, it is important to boost Microsoft 365 secure score. For this, below are the proven practices that can help you improve Office 365 security.

Identity and Access Management

Identity and Access Management is very crucial for your Office 365 account. Most data breaches and account hacking start with weak user credentials. To strengthen your account use Multi-Factor Authentication.

MFA is a security tool against authorized access. It verifies the identity of the users using two or more factors like password, mobile devices and fingerprints or facial recognition. To use this, follow the steps below.

1. Sign in to Microsoft Entra admin center and go to Azure Active Directory.
2. Click on the Identity option and Overview.
3. Select the Properties button and enable security defaults.
4. After that save the changes.

Now, you can use your phone or other devices to access your Microsoft 365 account.

Boost Microsoft 365 Security with Email Security Enhancement

In Microsoft 365, email is the most common way for attackers to leak or steal your data. If you improve your email security then you can reduce risks and protect your crucial messages. For this, you can use Microsoft Defender and Data Loss Prevention.

Formerly known as Advanced Threat Protection, Microsoft Defender provides you a powerful layer of real time protection against complex email based threats. To enable it follow the steps below.

1. Log in to the Microsoft 365 admin center.
2. Go to the Settings and Click on Services & Add-ins.
3. Select the Microsoft Defender option and turn on Real-time protection.
4. After that, press the Save button.

Using Data Loss Prevention with Microsoft Defender you can prevent sharing your sensitive data via email.

1. Log in to your Office 365 admin center. Go to the Admin from the Apps section.
2. Click on the Security & Compliance. Then, select the Policy.
3. Create a policy to generate new DLP. When creating a new policy, select information you need to protect.
4. Provide a suitable name and location. Click on the Next button to go to the next method.
5. Choose simple or advanced settings and then hit the Save button.

Compliance and Goverance to Improve Office 365 Security

Other than securing your Office 365, you also need compliance and governance to make sure organizations meet regulatory requirements, maintain accountability and recover your data from unexpected incidents. This is done through various strategies like auditing and retention.

Microsoft 365 provides you audit logging to help you track the various activities like file access, login attempts, mailbox changes, etc. to turn on the auditing.

1. Sign in to Microsoft Purview portal.
2. Go to the View all solutions and select the Audit option from the Core Section.
3. Click on the Start recording user and admin activity.’

Conclusion

In this article, we talk about how to improve Office 365 security. With the rise of the cybercrimes many organizations are struggling to secure their accounts. Therefore, we have provided several techniques to help you make your Microsoft 365 improve security.