Microsoft 365 Data Protection: Why Native Security Isn't Enough

Microsoft 365 has become the productivity backbone for businesses worldwide. Exchange, SharePoint, OneDrive, and Teams power daily operations for countless organisations. But as reliance on M365 grows, so does the risk to your critical data.

At Workflo Solutions, we're seeing a concerning trend: 94% of IT and security leaders report their organisation experienced a significant cyberattack last year. Even more alarming? SaaS environments like Microsoft 365 are now the most targeted attack vector, with 64% of attacks coming through these platforms.

The Dangerous Assumption

Many IT leaders assume Microsoft fully protects their M365 data. The reality is far more complex. Under Microsoft's Shared Responsibility Model, securing and backing up your data remains your responsibility. While Microsoft's native tools help with short-term retention and eDiscovery, they often fall short of what enterprises truly need for robust, long-term data resilience.

This gap leaves business-critical information vulnerable, with severe potential impacts on business continuity, productivity, and compliance.

Understanding the Real Threats

Your M365 data faces threats from multiple angles:

Accidental Deletion 
A well-meaning team member "cleans up" files they didn't realise were important. Version control issues overwrite the document your team actually needs. These common occurrences quickly become painful data loss incidents. While the Recycle Bin offers short-term protection, if deletion goes unnoticed or data ages out before recovery, that information may be permanently lost.

Malicious Insiders 
Disgruntled employees or contractors can exploit their access to destroy or steal sensitive information. They already have legitimate credentials, making them difficult to stop.

Cybercriminals 
Financially motivated attackers break into M365 environments to steal data and hold it for ransom. With phishing and compromised credentials accounting for 31% of all breaches, these threats are more real than ever.

The average cost of a data breach now stands at $4.88 million. No organisation can afford to leave M365 data protection to chance.

Where Microsoft's Native Tools Fall Short

Microsoft provides some data protection capabilities, but they're insufficient for enterprise needs:

No True Air-Gapped Backups: Data remains within the production environment, vulnerable to corruption, deletion, or ransomware encryption. There's no separate, isolated copy to fall back on.

Inadequate Retention Periods: Exchange Online holds deleted items for just 14 days by default. SharePoint Online retains data for 93 days after user deletion. These gaps can violate compliance requirements and result in permanent data loss.

Complex Recovery Processes: The eDiscovery process is notoriously complex, requiring specialised skills and often causing extended downtime that frustrates users and customers.

Limited Automation: With no easy way to automate protection or apply consistent policies, the IT burden grows as data scales.

What Robust M365 Protection Looks Like

An enterprise-grade solution should provide:

• Secure, immutable storage completely separate from production
• The 3-2-1 backup rule: 3 copies of data, on 2 different media, with 1 copy offsite
• Automated policy management across the entire M365 suite
• Global visibility from a single console
• Granular recovery options for individual files, folders, or mailboxes
• Scalability that grows with your business

Best Practices for M365 Data Protection

Protect your M365 environment by following these essential practices:

• Align backup frequency to business needs: Back up business-critical data every 12 hours or continuously. Less critical data can be protected daily or weekly.
• Define retention periods that meet long-term business and compliance needs beyond Microsoft's defaults.
• Automate policy assignment to ensure consistent protection and eliminate human error.
• Test recovery processes regularly to validate your RTOs and RPOs and identify gaps.
• Educate your users on proper data handling, threat identification, and response procedures.

Take Control Today

In the era of remote work and digital collaboration, Microsoft 365 is critical to business productivity, but it's also a prime target for sophisticated cyber threats. Native Microsoft tools simply aren't enough to fully safeguard your organisation's most valuable data assets.

The impact of an M365 data breach or loss can be devastating, from ransom payments to downtime, lost productivity, and damaged reputation. You need a comprehensive cyber resilience solution that provides immutable storage, granular recovery, policy automation, and global visibility while integrating seamlessly with your M365 environment.

At Workflo Solutions, we help businesses implement enterprise-grade data protection strategies that ensure your M365 data is always protected and rapidly recoverable. Don't wait until a breach occurs to discover the gaps in your data protection. Ready to bulletproof your Microsoft 365 data? Contact us today to learn how we can help you build a robust M365 data resilience strategy that keeps your business running, no matter what threats come your way.