Microsoft Purview for data compliance and security

In today’s digital world, data has emerged as one of an organization’s greatest assets and an overlooked competitive advantage. As with any valuable asset, the need to protect and secure the asset, as well as having the right governance platform, must be an organizational priority. From
a 2022 report by IBM and Ponemon Institute
shows that the global average cost of a data breach is estimated at $4.35 million. Organizations are facing unprecedented data security challenges due to the rapidly changing technology landscape and increased advanced cyber threats. The organizations of today and the future must embrace a wide variety of approaches, including both people (processes and collaboration) and technologies to achieve optimal data security and compliance.

Building a vision

All organizations have some level of data security and protection, ranging from least optimal to most optimal. To move the needle from the least optimal end to the most optimal end, an organization must come up with a data compliance vision that includes the strategy on how to achieve the vision, followed by a roadmap for the delivery and implementation plan.

A complete data compliance vision considers both governance and security aspects of organizational data. Data governance defines how data is collected, shared and used responsibly within regulatory compliance. Data security focuses on protecting data from both internal and external threats.

Microsoft authorization

With the need to simplify and centralize the data governance system, organizations with a solid Microsoft technology footprint can consider Microsoft Purview as a unified data governance, protection and management solution. As part of the Microsoft ecosystem, Microsoft Purview is fully integrated with Azure and other Microsoft products, including Office 365. In addition, Microsoft is committed to continually improving its product platform in response to customer needs, the changing technology landscape and evolving cyber threats.

Microsoft Purview is a feature-rich platform. As such, choosing which opportunities to enable the organization requires careful consideration and time investment. It is only successful with the cooperation of all stakeholders involved, including the security and governance team, the employee engagement team and the product ownership team.

Microsoft Purview addresses two key organizational issues: risk &compliance and data governance.

Risk & compliance

Microsoft Purview’s risk and compliance features can be accessed in the Compliance section of the Microsoft 365 management center. Some notable opportunities that add immediate value to the organization are:

Classification of data

Data classification is a capability that allows organizations to detect, classify, assess and monitor data content. By applying classification to data, the organization can gain insight into how data is used and accessed throughout the organization and adjust data management policies to protect it.

Check

At any given time, hundreds of actions are being performed by people in various Microsoft 365 products and services. Microsoft Purview provides a unified control capability that can capture, store and archive all user and management activities in a central location. Custom audit logs can be kept for up to 10 years for compliance and legal purposes.

Compliance with communications

A key goal of a data governance policy is to minimize the risks associated with communications messages, including ensuring that all communications messages follow code of conduct policies and comply with legal obligations. To achieve this goal, Microsoft Purview uses the communications compliance capability to enable the organization to monitor, detect and take actions on communications messages that do not comply with communications compliance policies.

Data loss prevention (DLP).

A good data compliance policy focuses on preventive measures to ensure that only authorized data can be shared, transferred or used both inside and outside the organization. Microsoft Purview includes a DLP capability that allows organizations to establish and set data loss prevention policies to prevent unauthorized data from being inadvertently accessed. In cases where a DLP policy is violated, the appropriated staff or team may be notified and follow-up actions taken.

Data lifecycle management

Another simple preventive measure that organizations can use to manage cyber risks is to establish a data lifecycle management policy that includes archiving valuable content and deleting unwanted content. There are also cases where organizations must remove certain content after a certain period of time for compliance and legal requirements. The Microsoft Purview Data lifecycle management capability allows the organization to create retention policies aligned with compliance, regulatory and business needs.

Governance

In addition, Microsoft Purview also provides a feature-rich unified governance portal that delivers great value on data map, data catalog, data sharing and data visibility.

Source: microsoft-business-applications