If You’re Going to Use the Cloud

... for Pete's sake, please use its strengths.

You know I have mixed opinions on the "cloud" depending on the size and capability of your organization.

An example of leveraging the cloud's strengths is in a recent article I saw from KnowBe4 entitled "Can the Microsoft 365 Platform Be Trusted to Stop Security Breaches?"

KnowBe4 referenced an article from Hornetsecurity entitled "1 of every 4 companies suffered at least one email security breach, Hornetsecurity survey finds." (Don't click on that just yet.)

Realizing that everybody has an agenda, let's look at these articles.

KnowBe4 calls out the following findings:

• 33% of organizations are not using Microsoft’s multi-factor authentication (MFA)
• Of those using MFA, 55% of organizations are not using Conditional Access which scrutinizes connection requests beyond just providing credentials and additional authentication factors
• Only 43% leverage Microsoft’s data loss prevention policies to keep data from leaving the organization
• 68% of organizations expect Microsoft to keep email safe from threats

This is my point. If you're going to use a cloud solution such as Microsoft 365, leverage its capabilities. Even if they are premium services, they're probably NOT services you could deliver yourself.

KnowBe4's recommendation: Have your "Users ... undergo continual Security Awareness Training."

By the way, that's KnowBe4's business model - training users. And that's a good thing.

Now, before you click on Hornetsecurity's link, get ready for a pretty aggressive privacy policy.

That almost scared me off. But just click on "Cookie-Details" and slide everything to "Off".

In addition to the points that KnowBe4 raised from Hornetsecurity's study, Hornetsecurity has one more finding: "An impressive 82% of all our respondents who use third-party email security solutions reported no breaches."

I'll bet you can guess what Hornetsecurity sells.

Regardless of the various agendas, the Hornetsecurity study is solid and the findings valuable. Take them into consideration for your Microsoft 365 implementation.

And consider the value-add capabilities of any cloud solution you implement.