Protect your data

After you identify and classify your sensitive data, the next step is ensuring that this data remains secure across all environments. Protecting data isn’t just about meeting compliance requirements. It’s essential for reducing the risk of breaches and keeping sensitive information safe throughout its lifecycle. Several tools within the Microsoft ecosystem help you apply protections like encryption, access controls, and monitoring, ensuring that the right security is applied to each data type and location. Here’s a framework for protecting sensitive data effectively:

1. Define your sensitivity labels: Start by defining sensitivity labels that suit your organization’s specific needs. These labels can be customized to reflect various data classifications, such as confidential, internal, or public, based on the type of content and the level of protection required. Sensitivity labels ensure that all content, from highly confidential data to general information, is handled according to the organization’s security policies.
2. Apply labels using Microsoft 365 apps and services: Once sensitivity labels are created, they can be automatically or manually applied across Microsoft 365 applications, such as Word, Excel, and SharePoint, ensuring that the proper protections are in place. Users can work confidently within their day-to-day tools, knowing that the necessary safeguards, such as encryption or access restrictions, are being enforced. This consistency helps maintain security across all shared or stored content.
3. Use Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps to apply labels in the cloud: Sensitive data often resides beyond Microsoft 365, stored in non-Microsoft cloud services or SaaS applications. With Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps, you can extend your sensitivity labels to these environments, protecting data across cloud platforms like Dropbox or Salesforce. This capability ensures that sensitive information remains secure, even when it moves outside the immediate Microsoft ecosystem.
4. Use the scanner to apply labels on-premises: For organizations managing data stored on-premises, the Microsoft Purview Information Protection scanner helps you discover, classify, and label sensitive data across file servers and repositories. By scanning on-premises environments and applying labels consistently, you ensure that sensitive information is as protected as data stored in the cloud or within Microsoft 365.
5. Use Microsoft Purview Data Map to apply labels to schematized data assets in Azure: When dealing with structured data in cloud environments, Microsoft Purview Data Map allows you to apply sensitivity labels to schematized data assets in Azure. This approach helps organizations maintain a clear view of their data landscape and ensure that sensitive data in cloud databases or other structured formats is adequately protected.