When it comes to the cloud, cybersecurity is first on every CEO and IT director’s mind. That’s what makes this National Cybersecurity Awareness Month — and Office 365 Enterprise E5 — so relevant to companies looking to stay competitive through cloud technologies.

The State of Cybersecurity Among Enterprise

Any healthy business grows more complex and connected with time. In turn, your organization inadvertently creates more entry points for potential breaches. So how can you balance the need to give employees access to important company information with IT’s desire to safeguard it?

At Agile IT, we’ve found the built-in security measures within Office 365 Enterprise E5 to be the first step in helping enterprises feel more confident moving data to the cloud.

But before discussing solutions, let’s take a moment to reflect on the state of cybersecurity and fully grasp what’s at stake when putting digital security to chance. Microsoft recently released some eye-opening stats around cybersecurity for enterprise:

• 140 days: The average number of days a hacker sits on your network before being detected
• $1.2 million: Average cost to your business per security breach
• 72%: The percentage of the U.S. workforce that will be mobile by 2020, relying on devices other than their laptop to be productive
• 87%: Proportion of senior managers who admit to regularly uploading work files to a personal email or cloud account

Overcome Common Cybersecurity Threats With Office 365 Enterprise E5

Within the topic of cybersecurity and the cloud, Office 365 Enterprise E5 — Microsoft’s most secure business productivity solution ever — tends to come up during client conversations. Investing in Office 365 Enterprise E5 is one of the simplest things you can do to defend against cyberattacks and has become a primary motivator behind many enterprises entering the cloud. Here are a few ways the platform reinforces your cybersecurity efforts:

1. Secure email: Email weaknesses are a prime target for cybercriminals. Advanced Threat Protection for Exchange Online minimizes email spam, phishing, ransomware and other sophisticated threats. It also protects against new or unknown malware by assessing email attachments for malicious intent outside of your environment.

2. Simplified management: With Office 365 Enterprise E5, you also gain the Security and Compliance Center, a single dashboard where admins can easily manage all security and compliance controls across Office 365.

3. Protect all devices: Your employees use personal phones and tablets to be productive. With Office 365 and the Enterprise Mobility Suite, you can manage access to files and protect devices and information from security threats.

4. Detect anomalies quickly and act promptly: Through behavioral analytics, Advanced Security Management within Office 365 Enterprise E5 equips you to set policies, automatically identify anomalies, investigate them, quantify their risk and suspend users’ accounts if necessary.

5. Gain critical insights into threats: Rich reporting and tracking features provide critical insights into the threats to your company data.

Partner for the Future of Cloud Cybersecurity

Investing in a secure business productivity platform is the first step in beefing up your cybersecurity efforts. But you also need trusted cloud specialists who can expertly set up and manage this environment to keep you safe from new and unknown threats.

When searching for a partner in the cloud, make sure to find someone who has experience doing these types of projects firsthand. You wouldn’t hire an account who doesn’t practice smart money management techniques. So why would you choose a cloud specialist who doesn’t use the cloud? From Office 365 consulting to cloud managed IT services, Agile IT can help you work more confidently and efficiently in the cloud. Have questions? Contact our team of cloud experts today. We’d be happy to answer your questions.

Happy Cyber Security Awareness Month!