Information about SharePoint, Microsoft 365, Azure, Mobility and Productivity from the Computer Information Agency
I get asked quite regularly about best practices for the Microsoft Cloud so what I have done is start a new file in my GitHub repository here:
https://github.com/directorcia/Office365/blob/master/best-practices.txt
where you’ll find links to articles from Microsoft and others (i.e. NIST, CIS, etc) around best practices for the Microsoft Cloud.
Let me know if you have any more and I’ll add them.
For November I’m asking people:
Are you using a third party product/service to ‘backup’ Office 365 outside of what Microsoft provides?
which I greatly appreciate you thoughts here:
You can view the results during the month here:
http://bit.ly/ciaresults202011
and I’ll post a summary at the end of the month here on the blog.
Please feel free to share this survey with as many people as you can so we can get better idea on this question.
I’ve previously spoken about why it is important to:
Disable basic auth to improve Office 365 security
PowerShell is generally the easiest manner in which that can be done. However it is possible via the Microsoft admin portal.
Navigate to:
and select Settings from the options on the left. Then select Org settings and then Modern authentication on the right as shown above.
You should then see a dialog box appear like that shown above. At the bottom you will find the capability to enable or disable basic authentication.
If you want to disable basic authentication for the protocols listed simply unselect that option as shown above where it has been done for IMAP4 and POP3.
Before you go and disable things it is a good idea to have and see what maybe using basic authentication. You can do that by following the steps I outlined in this article:
Determining legacy authentication usage
Disabling basic authentication is a major way to improve the security of your tenant and is strongly recommended for all environments.
If you have a look in your Threat Management policies in Security and Compliance you’ll see a new tile called Configuration Analyzer as shown above. The direct URL is:
https://protection.office.com/configurationAnalyzer
When you select this tile you’ll see a screen like that shown above which compares your current policy settings to Microsoft best practices.
If you expand any of the headings you’ll the settings in question and what the recommendation is on the right. You’ll also see a link that allows you to easily Adopt this setting.
If you do select the Adopt link, you’ll be presented with the above warning asking you whether you wish to proceed and Confirm or Cancel the change.
You will also see a Configuration drift analysis and history option as shown above. This allows you to compare changes in configuration over time and their effect. Basically, whether changes made improve email security or not.
If you want to learn more about Microsoft’s best practice configurations I suggest you take a look at my previous article:
I see this as a further step towards what I spoke about here:
The changing security environment wit Microsoft 365
and how Ai will soon do all this automatically.
If you navigate to the Teams admin portal and expand the Teams apps option from the menu on the left, you should see a Managed apps option. You can locate the Praise app by using search on the right.
If you select the Praise app you’ll then see a screen like that shown above. If you then select the Settings option just under the information banner you get the badges options.
Generally, default badges are enabled but why not also enable the Social and emotional learning badges for education as well? They are free after all!
When you do so, you’ll see the additional badges shown above in your Teams Praise app.
Even better, further down, you can also add you own custom Praise apps.
Just update a suitable badge graphic and add the details about the badge.
So now, when you Praise someone in Teams, you have many more options, including your own custom ones as shown above.
When selecting an image, keep badge dimensions in mind. For the best quality, we recommend uploading an image file that is 216 x 216 pixels (which are the maximum dimensions). Avoid stretching or distorting the image to fit these dimensions.
The above is from a great Microsoft article:
Manage the Praise app in the Microsoft Teams admin center
that provide lots of information about the Praise app and badges. So I recommend you take a look to learn more.
A while ago I wrote an article:
Do you need to backup Office 365?
Recently, Tony Redmond wrote this article on a similar topic:
Questioning Six Reasons Why Backing up Office 365 is Critical
That then lead to the following debate:
The Great Debate: The Need For Office 365 Backup [VIDEO]
I’ve also seen people quote the following from Microsoft:
which contains the following clause:
which reads:
“We recommend that you regularly backup Your Content and Data that you store on the Services or store using Third-Party Apps and Services.”
However, it is important to note at the top of that document:
which reads:
“These terms (“Terms“) cover the use of those Microsoft consumer products, websites, and services listed at the end of these Terms here (#serviceslist) (the “Services“).”
Note hyperlink to “services” that agreement actually covers. That leads to the following URL:
https://www.microsoft.com/en/servicesagreement/#serviceslist
and when you look through that list there are no M365/O365 commercial services listed:
Thus, that Microsoft Services Agreement doesn’t apply when talking about data retention in Microsoft 365 commercial products.
In fact, the following slide was taken from a recent Microsoft Ignite 2020 presentation:
Here’s the time stamped video it came from – https://youtu.be/zBHXVGrxBqM?t=1971 (Protecting Exchange Online Mailboxes As A Secure Vault)
I will also highlight the following article:
Set the OneDrive retention for deleted users
which says:
“The minimum value is 30 days and the maximum value is 3650 days (ten years).”
As my original article states and Tony Redmond reinforces, the importance is to understand what M365 does out of the box with data retention and how that can and ‘should’ be configured to reduce risk. After which, third party products can be added to supplement what Microsoft 365 does. As I say, more backups are good but at some point they fail to significantly reduce risk for the investment made in them. That point is up to the individual business to determine.
It is important to have the correct information when it comes to data retention and recovery in Microsoft 365, and if you don’t appreciate what can be done with Microsoft 365 out of box then I’d encourage you to go and take a closer look, because it does a pretty good job in my opinion.
We’ve crossed the 8 bit barrier and now into 16 bit episode numbers! I’ll give you a quick round up of what I thought was the most important announcements from Microsoft and where you can go to get all the information Microsoft recently provides about its products. Then I’ll speak with Microsoft MVP Lars Klint about his project with llamas. Yup, that’s the animal, not some secret code word. So listen in for some fun as well as interesting take away Lars has to share in this episode.
This episode was recorded using Microsoft Teams and produced with Camtasia 2020
Take a listen and let us know what you think – feedback@needtoknow.cloud
You can listen directly to this episode at:
https://ciaops.podbean.com/e/episode-256-lars-klint-and-llamas/
Subscribe via iTunes at:
https://itunes.apple.com/au/podcast/ciaops-need-to-know-podcasts/id406891445?mt=2
The podcast is also available on Stitcher at:
http://www.stitcher.com/podcast/ciaops/need-to-know-podcast?refid=stpr
Don’t forget to give the show a rating as well as send us any feedback or suggestions you may have for the show.
Resources
New management capabilities for Microsoft Defender Antivirus in Microsoft 365 Business Premium
Announcing Microsoft 365 Lighthouse for Managed Service Providers serving small & medium customers
Seven ways we’re empowering every person and every organization to thrive in a new world of work
Discover the new Teams feature that supports social-emotional learning
Microsoft Defender for Endpoint adds depth and breadth to threat defense across platforms
Celebrating the top OneDrive moments from Microsoft Ignite 2020
SharePoint admin and migration announcements at Ignite 2020
Collaboration, communication and knowledge sharing with Microsoft Teams, SharePoint, Project Cortex
For October I’m asking people:
Do you feel things are changing too quickly with Microsoft 365?
which I greatly appreciate you thoughts here:
You can view the results during the month here:
http://bit.ly/ciaresults202010
and I’ll post a summary at the end of the month here on the blog.
Please feel free to share this survey with as many people as you can so we can get better idea of there is too much change with Microsoft 365?
CIAOPS 