DLP involves creating strategies and implementing measures to protect business data from loss or theft, as well as protecting it from unauthorized access and corruption during its lifecycle. For managing workloads in an organization, it’s crucial to understand the intricacies of planning and implementing DLP.
DLP and Microsoft 365 Mobility and Security
Microsoft 365 offers built-in DLP policies based on regulatory standards such as PII and PCI. These can help in identifying, monitoring, and automatically protecting sensitive information present within your workloads. However, to utilize DLP fully, proper planning and implementation are required.
Planning DLP for workloads
When planning for DLP, there are few factors that you must consider:
- Classification of Data: Understand and classify your sensitive information. It could be credit card numbers, health records, or specific keywords relevant to your business.
- Location of Data: Identify where your sensitive information resides. It could be in SharePoint Online, Microsoft Teams, Exchange Online, OneDrive for Business, or third-party cloud apps.
- User Access: Understand who has access to this sensitive information and for what purpose.
- Regulatory Compliance: Consider the regulatory compliance standards that apply to your data, such as GDPR, HIPAA, and others.
Implementing Microsoft 365 DLP
After planning, the next step is to implement DLP for your workloads in the Microsoft 365 Compliance Center.
- Create a DLP policy: To create a DLP policy, go to Office 365 Security & Compliance Center > Data Loss Prevention > Policy. You have an option to choose from the preset templates or create a custom policy based on your requirements.
- Set up rules: Each DLP policy consists of rules that define its conditions and actions. In line with the data you’re protecting, you’ll set up the relevant rules. For example, a rule might block access when more than five credit card numbers are shared outside your organization.
- Policy tips: You can configure policy tips that alert your employees about potential breaches of your DLP policies while they’re working with the data.
- Test the policy: It’s crucial to test your DLP policies in a restricted mode to validate their effectiveness before you deploy them organization-wide.
- Deploy the policy: Finally, turn on the DLP policy. Once activated, the DLP policy continuously monitors your workloads for any violation and takes appropriate action, like sending notifications or blocking the content from being shared.
Real-time and historical DLP reports
After your DLP policies are up and running, you can monitor their performance with real-time and historical reports. These reports provide insights on DLP policy matches, false positives/negatives, and override justifications, helping you fine-tune your policies if required.
In conclusion, planning and implementing Microsoft 365 DLP for workloads form an essential part of your security posture, ensuring that your sensitive data stays protected at all times. Practice these steps as you prepare for your MS-101 Microsoft 365 Mobility and Security exam, keeping in mind how your understanding of DLP can aid your overall data protection strategy.
Practice Test
True or False: In Microsoft 365, Data loss prevention (DLP) policies do not apply to Exchange Online, SharePoint Online, and OneDrive for Business.
Answer: False.
Explanation: DLP policies in Microsoft 365 can be used with Exchange Online, SharePoint Online, and OneDrive for Business to monitor and protect sensitive information.
Which of the following is not a step in implementing DLP policy?
- a. Defining policy conditions
- b. Choosing actions for policy rules
- c. Assigning the policy to users
- d. Exporting the policy data to a CSV file
Answer: d. Exporting the policy data to a CSV file.
Explanation: While exporting the policy data may be useful for auditing or review, it’s not a necessary step in implementing a DLP policy itself.
What does the ‘low count’ incident report threshold in DLP policy settings refer to?
- a. The number of unsuccessful attempts at data breach
- b. The minimum number of detections needed to trigger an alert
- c. The number of detected data loss events over a low time period
- d. The number of data items that must be lost before a report is generated
Answer: b. The minimum number of detections needed to trigger an alert.
Explanation: Low count specifies the number of detections needed to exceed threshold and cause an incident report.
True or False: Implementing DLP for workloads involves identifying sensitive data across all locations, including SharePoint Online, Exchange Online, and Microsoft Teams, among others.
Answer: True.
Explanation: The first step in creating a DLP policy is to identify the locations of the sensitive data that you want the policy to protect.
When enforcing a DLP plan, the three main steps do not include:
- a. Identification of sensitive information across a broad array of locations
- b. Setting up policies and implementing them uniformly across these locations
- c. Frequent ad hoc changes to the plan post-implementation
- d. Post-implementation monitoring and improvement
Answer: c. Frequent ad hoc changes to the plan post-implementation
Explanation: While plan modifications might occasionally be necessary, frequent ad hoc changes can lead to inefficiencies, inconsistencies, and compromises in data security.
True or False: With Microsoft 365 DLP, you can create up to 10,000 DLP policies.
Answer: True.
Explanation: Microsoft 365 DLP supports up to 10,000 DLP policies.
A predefined DLP policy template in Microsoft 365 DLP can be used to:
- a. Avoid human errors during the policy setup
- b. Quickly configure a commonly used set of protection controls
- c. Completely automate the DLP policy implementation process
- d. Both a and b
Answer: d. Both a and b
Explanation: Predefined templates help to reduce human errors during the setup and rapidly configure commonly used protection controls.
True or False: DLP policy tips cannot be customized.
Answer: False.
Explanation: Policy tips in Microsoft 365 can be customized to match the specific requirements of your DLP policy.
Which of the following cannot be done with DLP policy settings in Microsoft 365?
- a. Show policy tips to users when they’re about to share sensitive info
- b. Report false positives to Microsoft
- c. Restrict content sharing
- d. Notify users and admins when content violates a DLP policy
Answer: b. Report false positives to Microsoft.
Explanation: While user and admin notifications, content sharing restrictions, and policy tips are all part of DLP policy settings, reporting false positives to Microsoft is not a built-in function.
When does the DLP policy become effective?
- a. Immediately after creation
- b. 24 hours after creation
- c. After it is turned on
- d. After it is assigned to users
Answer: c. After it is turned on.
Explanation: The policy must first be activated or turned on before becoming effective. Creating or assigning a policy to user does not automatically activate it.
Interview Questions
1. What is Data Loss Prevention (DLP) and why is it important for securing workloads in Microsoft 365?
DLP is a strategy for preventing sensitive information from being accessed by unauthorized users or leaked outside an organization.
2. How can organizations plan for DLP implementation in Microsoft 365 workloads?
Organizations can start by identifying the types of sensitive data they need to protect, setting up policies and rules to classify and protect that data, and educating users on DLP best practices.
3. What tools and features does Microsoft 365 offer for DLP implementation?
Microsoft 365 offers DLP policies, sensitive information types, DLP reports, and DLP alerts to help organizations protect sensitive data in their workloads.
4. How can organizations create and customize DLP policies in Microsoft 365?
Organizations can create and customize DLP policies by defining rules, actions, and exceptions based on their specific data protection needs.
5. What are sensitive information types in Microsoft 365 DLP?
Sensitive information types are predefined or custom-defined data patterns that help identify and protect sensitive data within an organization.
6. How can organizations monitor and report on DLP incidents in Microsoft 365 workloads?
Organizations can use the DLP reports and alerts in Microsoft 365 to monitor and report on DLP incidents, such as policy violations and data leaks.
7. What is the role of DLP templates in Microsoft 365 DLP implementation?
DLP templates are preconfigured policy packages that provide organizations with a starting point for creating their own DLP policies based on common regulatory requirements or industry standards.
8. How can organizations test and validate their DLP policies in Microsoft 365?
Organizations can test and validate their DLP policies by running compliance scans, reviewing policy matches, and monitoring policy effectiveness over time.
9. How can organizations ensure user compliance with DLP policies in Microsoft 365 workloads?
Organizations can educate users on DLP policies, provide training and resources on data protection best practices, and enforce policy compliance through monitoring and enforcement actions.
10. How does Microsoft 365 help organizations automatically protect sensitive data in workloads?
Microsoft 365 offers automatic data classification and protection features, such as Office 365 Sensitivity Labels, to help organizations classify and protect sensitive data across workloads.
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