Double key encryption strengthens Microsoft 365 security
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Key notes
- If you’re a Microsoft 365 E5 or Office 365 E5 user, you can sign up for the new Double Key Encryption service.
- Double Key Encryption elevates security for your mission-critical data on the Microsoft 365 platform.
- The feature is rolling out in July to all users.
The importance of encryption is self-explanatory, especially for IT professionals in organizations that handle sensitive customer data. The data encoding technique is even more critical today as more and more enterprises utilize Microsoft 365-based remote workforce collaboration tools.
For example, 80% of Microsoft 365 accounts were hacked in 2022, and 60% of Microsoft 365 tenants have been successfully hacked in 2022.
It, therefore, comes as no surprise that Microsoft is beefing up security for its Microsoft 365 platform with double-key encryption.
Microsoft 365 Double Key Encryption rolls out to public preview
If you’re a Microsoft 365 E5 or Office 365 E5 user, you will be able to use the Double Key Encryption feature to protect your most sensitive files and emails in Microsoft 365 Apps on Windows, including Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Outlook.
The feature, which is rolling out next month, in July, comes in handy when you need to protect mission-critical business data. Apart from that, the service covers the kind of information whose loss or theft would get you into legal or financial trouble.
With the new encryption solution, Microsoft keeps one of the keys while you retain the other. Nobody can extract your data without access to both keys in this case.
Microsoft explains:
Double Key Encryption enables you to protect your highly sensitive data while keeping full control of your encryption key. It uses two keys to protect your data—one key in your control, and a second key is stored securely in Microsoft Azure. Viewing data protected with Double Key Encryption requires access to both keys.
Plus, it becomes much more difficult for brute force decryption to work with that level of protection.
According to Microsoft, Double Key Encryption for Microsoft 365 has three main benefits, namely:
- You retain full control of your key, and you can keep it in the cloud or on-premises.
- You take advantage of the Azure Information Protection unified labeling client.
- Microsoft provides you with the code to quickly get started with Double Key Encryption for your Microsoft 365 enterprise data.
Do you think double-key encryption makes a significant difference when it comes to enforcing cloud data security? You can always drop us a message in the comments section below.
