Microsoft Cloud App Security to improve Office 365 security management and transparency

In an Office blog post by Bret Arsenault, chief information security officer for Microsoft, a new security app for Office 365 called Microsoft Cloud App Security was announced. This new app adds additional security management features to Office 365 and is a result of Microsoft’s acquisition of cloud security developer, Adallom. Take a look at the latest security updates for Office 365:

• Advanced Security Alerts: This new feature alerts you of any suspicious activity, allowing you to take action. If a user makes changes from a PC they haven’t logged on to, the system will notify you of this action.

• Cloud App Discovery: Cloud App Discovery allows you to see the different cloud services your users are storing files on, collaborating on and the amount of data being uploaded to services outside of Office 365.

• Office 365 App Permissions: Allows you to revoke or give permission to users for applications accessing Office 365.

Along with these latest security updates to Office 365, Microsoft is updating their SharePoint Online and OneDrive Business applications to utilize a feature called Customer Lockbox. In the event a Microsoft engineer needs access to a customers Office 365 account, they must receive approval from different levels in Microsoft. This new addition allows the customer to be involved in this approval process to allow access, speeding up the approval for the engineer.

With these newest updates coming to Office 365, how do you see organizations benefiting from these security features? Let us know in the comments.