Skip to main content
Microsoft 365
Subscribe
Image of two firstline workers sitting behind a desk making plans on their laptops.

Safeguard your business with new security features for Microsoft 365 Business

By

Many small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) are concerned about their ability to protect their business from cyberattacks and keep their data safe—but lack basic protection against the most common threats. Recently, we conducted a survey of SMBs and found that 71 percent feel vulnerable to a cyberattack, jumping to 87 percent for businesses that have already experienced a breach.

Despite these concerns, only 41 percent of SMBs say they have the ability to remotely remove data from a lost or stolen device, and only half said they use email encryption—two capabilities considered essential by larger enterprises. SMBs say they lack the expertise to implement sophisticated IT solutions, which many of them see as unaffordable and too complex. You can explore the survey data further in our interactive infographic below.

Microsoft 365 Business—built for SMBs

To further protect SMBs from cyberthreats and safeguard sensitive information, today we’re announcing the addition of advanced security features in Microsoft 365 Business, which gives businesses with up to 300 employees an affordable, comprehensive solution for empowering employees and safeguarding business data. Microsoft 365 Business includes Office 365 for productivity and collaboration, plus device management and security capabilities to protect company information across the devices people use for work. Now we’re adding new ways to protect against phishing and ransomware and prevent unintentional leaks of business data.

SMB security survey—interactive infographic


Protect your employees from phishing and ransomware

Cyber criminals use phishing and ransomware attacks to get people to download viruses and malware or unwittingly give out sensitive information. These attacks can cause significant issues for a business, ranging from loss of customer trust to financial woes.

To help bolster your defenses against phishing, malware, and viruses, Microsoft 365 Business now includes advanced protection from cyberthreats, including:

  • Sophisticated scanning of attachments and AI-powered analysis to detect and discard dangerous messages.
  • Automatic checks of links in email to assess if they are part of a phishing scheme and prevent users from accessing unsafe websites.
  • Device protection to prevent devices from interacting with ransomware and other malicious web locations.

Prevent unintentional leaks of business data

Most SMBs handle sensitive information, with over half collecting and storing social security numbers, and 29 percent handling bank account details. Preventing unintentional leaks of these types of sensitive information can be a challenge, despite the best efforts and good intentions of employees.

To help you protect your sensitive business data, we’re adding the following capabilities to Microsoft 365 Business:

  • Data loss prevention policies to identify, monitor, and protect sensitive information such as social security and credit card numbers.
  • Information protection in Outlook to let you and your employees manage access to sensitive data in emails. For example, you can set encryption rules to prevent an email from being forwarded, copied, or pasted into other programs.
  • Email archiving and preservation policies to help ensure data is properly retained with continuous data backup and compliance.
  • The ability to enforce BitLocker device encryption on all Windows devices to help protect against data theft or exposure if a protected device is lost or stolen.

Microsoft 365 Business also offers industry-leading privacy protections. You remain the sole owner of your data, with controls over who in your business can access which data.

Comprehensive protection in a single subscription

CEO of Solace IT Solutions, Chris Oakman, works with SMBs to help them get up and running with the right technology. He says it doesn’t have to be complicated and expensive to keep your team productive and your business data secure.

“I work with a lot of small businesses that have historically had to pay for individual security services like spam filtering and anti-phishing,” said Oakman. “For these businesses, Microsoft 365 Business could save them up to $3,000 per year while including these and many other data protection capabilities in a more integrated way.”

With the addition of these new capabilities, Microsoft 365 Business offers your business a complete solution for productivity, security, and device management. Watch this video to learn how iSalon Software, a U.K.–based developer of software solutions for hair salons, uses Microsoft 365 Business to be more productive and secure:

Learn more

The threat protection, archiving, and information protection features are available to new Microsoft 365 Business customers and will roll out to existing customers over the next few weeks. Data loss prevention and support for features dependent on the Office desktop applications will roll out in the coming months. Read our support article for Microsoft 365 Business to learn more about how to enable the security enhancements.

Microsoft is committed to helping empower and safeguard SMBs across the globe. To learn more about how Microsoft 365 Business can help your business, take a guided tour. You can also contact your Microsoft Partner, or visit a Microsoft Store to sign up for a Microsoft 365 Business: Safe and Secure or Cybersecurity for Small Business free in-store workshop.