Just-enough access strategy

Oversharing is a common challenge in Microsoft 365, as it can expose sensitive data and resources to unauthorized or malicious users

A “just enough access” strategy is an essential part of a modern and secure cloud environment. By adopting this strategy, organizations can protect their data and resources, optimize their operations, empower their workforce, and comply with their obligations in Microsoft 365.

When we look into a “Just-enough access” strategy we think of this as the strategy of managing the access rights of users and administrators in Microsoft 365. It means that users and administrators only have the minimum level of access they need to perform their tasks, and no more. This reduces the risk of unauthorized or malicious actions, data breaches, and compliance violations within your organization.

By adopting a “just enough access” strategy, it can help your organization achieve the following benefits:

• Enhance security: By limiting the exposure of sensitive data and resources, a “just enough access” strategy can prevent attackers from exploiting excessive permissions or compromised accounts.
• Improve efficiency: By simplifying the access management process, a good “just enough access” strategy can reduce the administrative overhead and complexity of granting and revoking permissions.
• Increase productivity: By providing users and administrators with the right level of access, and a “just enough access” strategy can enable them to perform their tasks faster and easier, without unnecessary delays or interruptions.
• Ensure compliance: By aligning the access rights with the business needs and regulatory requirements, a “just enough access” strategy can help organizations meet their legal and ethical obligations.

Microsoft Purview is a powerful solution that can help you go beyond compliance with your data governance, risk management, and information protection needs.

Microsoft Purview can help you safeguard your sensitive data across clouds, apps, and devices by applying consistent policies and controls. You can also use Microsoft Purview to monitor and audit the activities of your users and administrators, identify data risks, and manage regulatory compliance requirements. This way, you can prevent unauthorized or malicious actions, data breaches, and compliance violations.

Some of the controls you can leverage from Microsoft Purview is “Data loss protection” and “Sensitivity labeling”.

Data loss prevention is a security solution that identifies and helps prevent unsafe or inappropriate sharing, transfer, or use of sensitive data. DLP can help organizations monitor and protect their data across different locations and devices, and comply with regulations such as HIPAA and GDPR. DLP works by comparing the content of data to a set of rules or policies that define how the data should be handled and protected. DLP can also educate users on how to avoid accidental oversharing of sensitive information.

A sensitivity label is a way to classify and protect your data based on its level of sensitivity. It works by applying a set of rules or policies to your files or emails that can affect how they are accessed, shared, or encrypted. For example, you can apply a label that marks your document as “Confidential” and restricts who can open it or edit it. You can also apply a label that encrypts your email and prevents it from being forwarded or printed.

So with that said, please start looking into your data governance before adopting into Microsoft Copilot as this is a critical step for not havving the Copilot and the Generative AI serving data that the user where not to see.