Achieve Secure Collaboration with Microsoft Azure AD and Govern 365

Introduction
What is Microsoft Azure AD?
There are several benefits of using Microsoft Azure Active Directory (Azure AD) for secure collaboration
Steps to Securely Configure Azure AD for Collaboration
How does Govern 365 help with secure collaboration?
Conclusion

STAY CONNECTED

EXPLORE MORE

Introduction

In today’s digital age, organizations are increasingly adopting cloud-based services for collaboration and productivity. However, as the number of cloud applications and users grow, it becomes more challenging to manage identities, secure access, and ensure compliance. Microsoft Azure Active Directory (Azure AD) is a cloud-based directory and identity management service that enables organizations to securely collaborate with partners, suppliers, and customers, ensuring that only the right people and resources have access to the right resources. While monthly active usage has grown 100% year over year, Microsoft’s March 2020 data shows a 65% increase in the number of overall active B2B collaboration users in just one month (Tech Community). In this blog, we will explore what Azure AD is, its benefits, how to configure it securely for collaboration, and how Govern 365 helps with secure collaboration.

What is Microsoft Azure AD?

Azure AD is a cloud-based directory and identity management service that enables organizations to manage users, groups, applications, and devices. It provides a single sign-on (SSO) experience to access various cloud-based applications and services, including Microsoft 365, Azure, and thousands of other SaaS applications. Azure AD supports various identity models, including on-premises Active Directory, cloud-only, and hybrid. It also provides several security features, such as multi-factor authentication (MFA), conditional access policies, and Azure Information Protection, to protect against identity-based attacks and data breaches.

There are several benefits of using Microsoft Azure Active Directory (Azure AD) for secure collaboration, including:

Increased data security: Azure AD provides robust security features such as multi-factor authentication, risk-based conditional access policies, and identity protection. These features help to reduce the risk of unauthorized access to sensitive information and resources and protect against identity-related security threats.
Compliance and regulatory requirements: Azure AD helps organizations to meet their regulatory and compliance requirements, such as GDPR, HIPAA, and others.
Simplified collaboration with partners and suppliers: Azure AD enables secure collaboration with external users such as partners, suppliers, and customers. It provides external identities, which allow external users to use their preferred identity to sign into your applications and other enterprise applications. This simplifies the collaboration process and improves productivity.

Steps to Securely Configure Azure AD for Collaboration

To securely configure Azure AD for collaboration, organizations should follow the following steps:

Create a separate Azure AD tenant for external collaboration.
Configure conditional access policies to ensure that only authorized users have access to resources.
Use Azure AD B2B collaboration to enable external users to access resources.
Use Azure Information Protection to protect sensitive data from unauthorized access.
Monitor user and administrator activities using Azure AD Sign-in logs and Azure AD Audit logs.

How does Govern 365 help with secure collaboration?

Govern 365 is a governance, risk, and compliance solution that helps organizations using Microsoft 365 and Azure AD to achieve secure collaboration. Here are some of the ways in which Govern 365 helps with secure collaboration:

Governing external access: Govern 365 allows administrators to control access to external users and partners, ensuring that they only have access to the resources they need to collaborate effectively. This helps to reduce the risk of data breaches and other security incidents.
Enforcing compliance policies: Govern 365 enables administrators to enforce compliance policies for external users and partners, ensuring that they are meeting the organization’s regulatory and legal requirements. This helps to mitigate the risk of non-compliance and associated penalties.
Secure collaboration: Govern 365 enables secure collaboration with external users and partners by providing access control policies such as conditional access policies and identity protection. This ensures that only authorized users can access sensitive information and resources and reduces the risk of data leakage.
Auditing and reporting: Govern 365 provides comprehensive auditing and reporting capabilities that allow administrators to monitor external user and partner activity in real-time. This helps to detect any suspicious activity and mitigate the risk of security incidents.
Trade Restricted Individuals: A new feature with Govern 365 allows administrators to enable TRI (trade restricted individuals) from embargoed countries such as China, Iran, North Korea, Syria.

By using Govern 365, organizations can achieve secure collaboration while ensuring compliance with regulatory and legal requirements. This helps to reduce the risk of security incidents, data breaches, and associated penalties, while also increasing productivity and collaboration with external users and partners.

Conclusion

In conclusion, Microsoft Azure AD is a cloud-based directory and identity management service that enables organizations to securely collaborate with partners, suppliers, and customers, ensuring that only the right people and resources have access to the right resources. To ensure secure collaboration, organizations should follow the best practices and configure Azure AD with security features such as conditional access policies, MFA, and Azure Information Protection.