A few years ago Microsoft emerged as the leader in protecting businesses from threats.
For people who have been keeping an eye on it, they would be well aware of the fact that Office 365 had some capabilities that cover small business to large organisations and it has the ability to shift businesses infrastructure and services to the cloud.
In the year 2015, Microsoft introduced the “Advanced Threat Protection (ATP for short)” functionality as a way to protect against advanced attacks.
Leading into this date and since this time, Microsoft is starting to put greater emphasis on security in various areas.
In the Microsoft’s ecosystem, the Advanced Threat Protection ATP, Advanced Threat Analytics ATA and many other products now make up the security base for detection and prevention for your business.
But what is Advanced Threat Protection ATP?
Let us answer this for you now.
ATP makes use of machine learning and an advanced cleansing service to create a layer of protection against viruses for you and your business.
This functionality is in-charge of providing better zero-day protection for emails and much more.
The advanced threat protection solution and services offers the three functions and components listed as below.
- Data Awareness must exist. It’s not possible to determine a threat without the knowledge of enterprise data, value and sensitivity levels for the formulation of the right response against any data malware activity.
- Real-Time Visibility is a main component too as there has to be continuous monitoring. Failing this, the threat will get detected late. The absence of visibility can cause damage to the resources as well as your business reputation.
- Context Gaining is one of the main features of ATP, it allows the security team to analyse the malware and decide the response swiftly and accordingly to give you the best possible outcome.
If you carry on reading below we list for you the capabilities of Microsoft Office 365 Advanced Threat Protection.
It is Microsoft’s cloud-based service which scans and filters emails for the protection of subscribers from malware in hyperlinks and attachments.
All the reports and data coming through currently lets us know that the biggest risk to a data breach in a business comes from human error, this means you and your employees have to be aware and alert 24/7 to protect the business against threats and scams.
Why businesses need Advanced Threat Protection ATP?
Because it functions in a unique and brilliant way.
It’s a cloud security service and does not require additional hardware or software tools to run it.
ATP by Microsoft attempts the reduction of zero-day threats arriving with malicious attachment and URLs and more.
It assesses the email content even before the recipient opens it.
The ATP also scans attachments and hyperlinks in different ways with the application of separate and independent policies for users, groups or domains.
So you and IT solution provider (Greendata) have control over the policies that can be set in place throughout your businesses documents.
For someone who already uses tools to combat security, Advanced Threat Protection ATP will assist in the email messaging environment even more by adding more effective protection against attacks by unsafe attachments and links.
Here are some of the major features of Microsoft 365 Advanced Threat Protection ATP for you.
Safe Attachment Review Files
The functionality of “Safe Attachment” in ATP analyses all attachments. In the first place, ATP isolates the attachment in the detonation chamber for preventing the malicious attack. It then assesses the suspicious behavior of the content with its machine learned techniques. Advanced Threat Protection works perfectly by not opening the attachment till the scanning completes and this is all done in real time.
Safe Links Scans URLs
This feature of ATP helps in scanning the content from the hyperlinks mentioned in the email and documents and uses it to reduce website-based attacks. Scan link feature’s absolute functionality, if it determines that any hyperlink leads to an unsafe site, it sends the user to the warning page immediately.
Quarantine
When Office 365 reports the messages as spam, bulk mail or mail containing malware, it is directly sent into quarantine. It’s the default setting that sends phishing messages to quarantine and only those in your business who are authorised can manage the settings of emails sent to quarantine.
Spoof Intelligence
The feature of Spoof Intelligence works for the detection of a sender for sending mails on behalf of one or more accounts. It shows all the senders who are using your domain and allows the user to enable entry or completely block the sender.
Capabilities of Advanced Anti-Phishing
Advanced Threat Protection makes use of some of the best in business machine learning models to detect suspicious emails and also to help thwart malware attacks.
Assists with Training
It works exceptionally well when you receive unusual and malicious email. This functionality of Office 365 generates detailed reports based on the suspicious or malicious content as an alert for your IT administrators. This information then can be used to continually improve and the knowledge can also be passed onto you and your staff.
How long does this take, we haven’t got all day!
Do you think that the scanning process takes many hours to scan every time?
Well, no it doesn’t and here at Greendata we value our customers time too.
The time taken to scan depends only on the attachment and the content, so basically it is size dependant.
It does not cause much delay at all and instead uses a feature known as “Dynamic Delivery” allowing recipients to at least read and respond to very urgent emails.
It also uses the placeholder in the place of attachment to indicate that it is undergoing the process of scanning if needed.
And, if ATP finds that file is not safe, it merely removes the attachment.
If it determines that the file is not a danger, the attachment is simply returned to the email.
Simple and safe.
Advanced Threat Protection brings no noticeable delay in delivering a non-malicious email and for any malicious email activity, it stops entering the attachment or any content and so mitigates the risk.
Do you need to worry about ATP and do you need ATP?
Deciding on the right Advanced Threat Protection ATP solution should depend on the needs, environment, objective and risk profile of the business.
In saying this, whether you’re a one-man band, a small business, medium business or a large corporation the risk is there.
This risk is real and one breach can cost you time and money.
At Greendata we try to understand your needs and challenges before trying to find the optimal tools for your business to use that help with productivity and growth.
Most of our assesments (this includes cybersecurity assesments) result in a simplyfying of the IT structure and this can lead to lower monthly operating costs for you long term while increasing productivity too.
So you could end up with a more secure system protecting your data, more time in your day and save money.
If you want or think you may need an assessment on your current technology setup, you only have to give us a call on 07 5526 0278
Here is the list of the possible benefits for you and your company, when you choose to call to us today to book an appointment.
- Security
- Saving time
- Maximise money saving
If you don’t feel the need to make your business more secure, save your precious time or maximise your money saving you can move on and read a few more pages in our “Learn” section as it has many different pages covering the benefits of Office 365 and more.
But if you do you feel the time is right, you can contact us through our “Lets Connect” page or as we have said above, pick up the phone, give us a call 07 5526 0278 and book an appointment.
Talk to you soon!
