In an era where data accessibility and knowledge sharing are quintessential, IT administrators are turning to incredible collaboration tools like SharePoint. But administrators basking in the glow of SharePoint’s Cloud potential must understand that with great collaboration comes the necessity for even greater protection. Overlooking SharePoint security might introduce threats like unrestrained site sharing, external sharing to unreliable domains, data loss, and others.
That’s why setting up a strong security strategy, with complete control over sharing and permissions is essential. SharePoint security is a significant aspect because it keeps business data and resources safe. It assures that only the right collaborators can access and work with vital documents and information. This protection helps eliminate data leaks, improve business reputation, and keep workflows running efficiently.
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Assets to be Protected in SharePoint
It’s essential for administrators to secure various assets within the SharePoint platform for a seamless collaboration journey. These assets include:
- Groups – Granting permissions to SharePoint groups rather than AD groups and users is an effective approach. This way, admins can ensure giving the right access to the right individuals.
- Document Libraries – Secure them to keep important business files, lists, and folders safe. Granting complete control of essential files to a lot of teams and stakeholders is usually a mistake. Keeping those connections small will help administrators avoid the data getting misdirected or falling into malicious hands.
- Permissions – Remember the difference between document contribution access vs. edit access. It will help, particularly when workers need to share their organization’s documents with external stakeholders. Hence, the right people can see or edit business documents and data.
- Site Lockdown – This feature helps in avoiding unwanted changes to SharePoint Online’s main site settings, like navigation, site theme, title, narrative, logo, etc. MS SharePoint development experts also ensure sites remain consistent and compliant across the ecosystem.
- Permission Levels – Avoid providing explicit permissions to specific users. Always choose group-based permissions, permission inheritance, or even default permission setup instead.
5 Fail-safe Practices and Steps to Strengthen SharePoint Security
Prioritize Tenant-level Sharing Settings
At first, IT managers must focus on SharePoint sharing configurations. Don’t leave them at default, as it helps in eliminating severe data breaches. Managers should turn off anonymous sharing in SharePoint Online, or at least fix an expiration date for greater control. In most situations, it’s probably better to only allow validated external guests or to fix an expiration date in advance.
To avert unauthorized access to business content, IT experts can set expiration dates on secure links, company links, and anonymous links as required. This will ensure that accessibility to the content is repealed after a specific period. Moreover, restricting domains in SharePoint Online is an effective technique. This will inhibit access to domains that rely on the SharePoint Cloud server.
Reduce Overreliance on Item-level Permissions
Delegating and managing SharePoint authorizations to individual files or items is a risky step. Instead, prefer allocating permissions at higher-level containers like SharePoint sites, folders, or even libraries. This provides a cleaner and more controllable permission structure. IT leaders can also utilize permission inheritance to keep the security ecosystem consistent and easily reviewed. Overall, applying inherited permissions can minimize the risk of unauthorized accessibility and simplify control management.
Take the case study of Capital One, a US-based leading banking enterprise. Due to multiple branches, it became more difficult to organize effective communication within the teams. To overcome this, they decided to implement a SharePoint environment. During the development process, offshore developers used both out-of-the-box functionalities and personalized web parts.
The customized banking intranet portal effectively monitors 90% of user activities and flags suspicious exchanges within minutes, says, Bennet, Vice President.
Track Account Compromises and Unauthorized User Activities
To strengthen conditional access policies and user logon security, IT leaders should implement Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA). Phishing activities often target workers to trick them into unveiling their online credentials. Experts from an Offshore SharePoint development firm can enforce MFA and alleviate these attacks, as malicious actors would need the additional factor along with the password, making it more challenging for them to succeed.
SharePoint administrators can also track user activity on content categories like libraries and lists within their site using Multi-Factor Authentication. By utilizing these capabilities, organizations can meet 93% of GDPR compliance standards and obtain insights into how their information is being utilized. This makes it easier to identify uncommon or concerning activities.
Regulate Content Sharing
SharePoint administrators should determine how the workforce can share content. Setting this function in advance helps admins control how sharing works on their SharePoint site. It also makes it easier for workforces to request access to SharePoint resources. There are three practical options for managing content sharing.
- Option 1 – Workers and site administrators can share folders, files, and the entire site. Third-party stakeholders with permissions can edit folders and files.
- Option 2 – Members and stakeholders can edit, and share files/folders, but only site administrators can share the whole site
- Option 3 – SharePoint handlers alone can edit and share files, folders, and the whole site
All these options determine who can have control over SharePoint assets. In addition to these, administrators can also use the enable access requests on the settings page. With this option, users can send requests to open an item or portal in SharePoint. The authorized members can choose to accept or deny the request, thereby improving SharePoint security.
Implement Data Retention and Version Control
By setting up version control and retention, SharePoint administrators can overcome accidental data loss or deletion mishaps. Version control enables administrators to restore previous versions of documents when errors are made or information is compromised. This approach acts as a protection net in case of unplanned or malicious data modifications. During a security breach or data corruption scenario, administrators can quickly reinstate the content to its original state.
Similarly, IT managers can apply retention labels to the files recorded in SharePoint if they need to retain them for a longer duration for compliance reasons. Within SharePoint’s preservation library, the retained content gets stored. That is when the label is applied to a document in SharePoint, and when a worker deletes or modifies the information in the retained file, the actual version gets stored in the hold library.
Pro-level Tricks for Improving SharePoint Governance
- Automate Security Reviewing – Use robust reviewing tools within SharePoint security options to monitor site activities, unauthorized user attempts, and breaches. By actively tracking logs and events, IT administrators can quickly address security concerns.
- Set up Role-Based Accessibility – Assigning role-based controls enables leaders to provide appropriate SharePoint access rights. It is vital to constantly review and upgrade access rights based on the team or workforce requirements.
- Secure Communication – Enabling encryption for both data states (rest and transit) is important. IT managers can use SSL/TLS licenses to facilitate secure interaction between SharePoint clients and servers. For the advanced safety of data stored on SharePoint servers, managers should consider implementing disk-level encryption. By hiring professionals from a custom SharePoint development company, admins can empower advanced encryptions.
- Robust Authentication and Credential Policies – Impose strong authentication policies to prevent unsafe user access. Along with authentication mechanisms, set up additional verification factors, such as requesting code verification or designation details.
Closing Thoughts
By addressing each risk and providing effective tips and practices, this guide has armed you with the knowledge required to safeguard valuable assets in SharePoint. As an IT manager, start implementing these practices today to ensure a greater level of security within the SharePoint ecosystem. SharePoint’s digital assets require nothing less than the utmost protection.
