Information Barriers in Microsoft 365 are designed to enable compliance with regulations that require organizations to prevent certain types of communication or collaboration. These regulations often apply to industries such as financial services or healthcare. For example, a financial institution may need to prevent communication between certain traders and their investment bankers.
Understanding Information Barriers
Information barriers are policies that an admin can configure to prevent individuals or groups from communicating with each other. This is to avoid conflicts of interest within an organization. They can be applied for communication and collaboration in Microsoft Teams, SharePoint Online, and OneDrive.
Information barriers rely on several services to work effectively. For instance, Microsoft 365 E5/A5 compliance add-on is needed, together with the use of Microsoft Teams, SharePoint Online, and OneDrive for Business.
Defining Information Barriers
When defining an information barrier policy, an administrator specifies which user or group of users should not communicate or collaborate with another user or group of users. The policy restrictions and conditions can be applied at a granular level.
For instance, within a financial organization, an admin might define an information barrier policy to avoid conflicts of interest between an investment banking group and the trading group. When configured correctly, this policy will restrict these users from calling, chatting, having meetings or sharing files with each other in Microsoft Teams or from sharing files in SharePoint or OneDrive.
How to implement Information Barriers
- Define policies: The first step is to define policies that identify which users should not communicate with each other. This can be done in the Microsoft 365 compliance center.
- Implement segments: To create or edit segments that segregate users who should not communicate, you need to use the Microsoft Graph REST APIs.
- Barrier policies enforcement: Once the information barrier policies have been configured, it will be enforced automatically by Microsoft 365, and the users would not be able to communicate or collaborate with each other as per the policy.
Example:
Imagine a healthcare organization that needs to separate researchers working on competing pharmaceutical products. An information barrier policy would be implemented to prevent these groups of researchers from communicating or collaborating to ensure there is no influence or crossover between the competing products.
In conclusion, keep in mind that Information barriers in Microsoft 365 are designed to comply with regulations to avoid potential conflict of interests that could arise in an organization. As an SC-900 candidate, understanding this technology assists in appreciating how Microsoft enables organizations to adhere to these regulations.
Practice Test
True or False: Information barriers are policies that an admin can configure to prevent certain users from communicating with each other.
Answer: True
Explanation: Information barriers are policies that can be set by the organization’s admin to prevent or allow specific types of communication or collaboration between users.
What is the main purpose of information barriers in an organization?
- a) To ensure communication between all employees
- b) To prevent communication and collaboration between specific groups
- c) To encourage social interaction among employees
- d) None of the above
Answer: b) To prevent communication and collaboration between specific groups
Explanation: Information barriers are designed to prevent certain groups within an organization from communicating directly or exchanging documents, to maintain privacy and compliance.
True or False: Information barriers are only relevant in the context of communication within Teams and SharePoint in Microsoft
Answer: False
Explanation: While information barriers are commonly used in Teams and SharePoint, they are also applicable and useful in other features like OneDrive and standard email communication.
Who all can manage and modify the information barriers?
- a) Any Microsoft 365 user
- b) Only the owner of the organization
- c) Only compliance admins or those with equivalent permissions
- d) Everyone in an organization
Answer: c) Only compliance admins or those with equivalent permissions
Explanation: Not everyone has the permissions to manage and modify the information barriers. It returns to compliance admins or users who possess equivalent permissions.
Select the correct statement:
- a) Information barriers can reduce the potential for conflicts of interest within an organization.
- b) Communication and file sharing cannot be controlled using information barriers.
- c) Information barriers prevent users from communicating outside the organization.
Answer: a) Information barriers can reduce the potential for conflicts of interest within an organization.
Explanation: Information barriers play an essential role in preventing conflicts of interest by controlling and limiting communication and collaboration within an organization.
True or False: Information barriers can be used to prevent a user to initiate communication with another user.
Answer: True
Explanation: One common use case of information barriers is to prevent a user from initiating a new communication with another user.
Is it possible to set up information barriers in Microsoft 365 to limit information flow between members of the same department?
- a) Yes
- b) No
Answer: a) Yes
Explanation: Information barriers in Microsoft 365 can be configured to control communication flow not just between different departments but also within the same department.
True or False: Information barriers are recommended for every organization, regardless of size or necessity.
Answer: False
Explanation: While information barriers can be beneficial, its usage should depend on the specific needs and compliance regulations of the organization.
Which Microsoft service supports information barriers?
- a) Microsoft Outlook
- b) Microsoft PowerPoint
- c) Microsoft SharePoint Online
- d) Microsoft Excel
Answer: c) Microsoft SharePoint Online
Explanation: Microsoft SharePoint Online supports information barriers and allows for the controlling of communication and collaboration between users.
True or False: Information barriers and privacy settings are the same thing in Microsoft
Answer: False
Explanation: While both are tools to control certain behaviors within the network, information barriers are specific policies to prevent communication or collaboration between specified users or groups in Microsoft 365, going beyond general privacy settings.
Interview Questions
What is an information barrier in the context of Microsoft 365 compliance?
Information barriers are policies that an admin can configure to prevent certain groups of users from communicating with each other. This is used to restrict collaborations and sharing of data to avoid conflicts of interest within an organization.
What are the key components required to set up Information Barriers?
The key components required include Microsoft 365 compliance center to configure policies, User attributes which can be defined in Azure Active Directory or synced from on-premises Active Directory, and segments, which comprises one or more users categorized based upon their user attribute.
How can information barriers help in the context of compliance?
Information barriers can help organizations meet regulatory requirements by preventing potential conflict of interest activities. They restrict certain forms of communication and collaboration between specific groups of users.
Can Information barriers restrict communication between individual users?
No, Information barriers are designed to restrict communication between groups of users, not between individual users.
What are the two kinds of policies under Information Barriers?
The two kinds are Allow policies which specify the groups that can communicate with each other and Block policies which specify the groups that are not allowed to communicate with each other.
Is it necessary to have Office 365 E5 compliance for implementing information barriers?
Yes, Office 365 E5 Compliance or Office 365 E5/A5 or Microsoft 365 E5/A5 Information Protection and Compliance add-on subscription for eligible subscription is required.
What are the services supported by Information Barriers?
Currently, Information Barriers are supported by Microsoft Teams, SharePoint Online and OneDrive.
What happens if there is a conflict between two information barrier policies?
In the event of a conflict between two policies, the block policy always takes precedence.
Can you remove an information barrier policy?
Yes, an information barrier policy can be removed. After the policy is removed, all previous restrictions will be lifted.
How to verify if an information barrier policy is successfully implemented?
To verify the implementation, you can use the Test-InformationBarrierPolicy cmdlet in PowerShell. It allows you to test the configuration between two individuals.
Can an information barrier policy be changed after it is created?
Yes, an information barrier policy can be edited or deleted after it is created.
Can an individual belong to multiple segments in an information barrier?
No, an individual can belong to only one segment in an information barrier policy.
How much time does it take to enforce Information barrier policies?
It will take about 24 hours or potentially more for the policies to be enforced effectively.
What is the limitation of the Information Barriers?
Information Barriers only supports one-on-one chat in Teams. Group chats and teams are not supported.
Can Information Barriers be set up across tenants?
No. Information barriers policies are only applicable within a tenant; they cannot be set up across different tenants.
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