Microsoft is widely regarded as the major driver of the global cloud migration. With Microsoft 365, it has brought the world's most widely used office suite to the cloud, with approximately 240 million corporate customers now using M365. These business customers regularly exchange, download, and upload critical and sensitive files, making them a prime target for hackers.
Why is Microsoft 365 an easy target?
For starters, attackers can easily identify a M365 user. This is due to M365 users' MX records being freely available to the public online, which has resulted in the current increase in M365 spoofing, phishing, and data breaches.
Another issue is that company information is created and shared within the M365 infrastructure in the form of emails, Teams chats, and files, and this data can be lost or damaged for a variety of reasons including:
• Malicious users
• System failures
• Human error
• Malware
M365 is a communication system rather than a data backup and restoration system, so MSPs must be able to provide additional security services to their end clients.
How can MSPs use the Microsoft 365 suite to boost recurring revenue streams?
Although M365 does provide built-in email security features, they are fairly basic, making the platform an attractive target for cybercriminals. Microsoft recently reported a 250% increase in targeted attacks on M365 accounts, and while some security features have been integrated into M365, these features aren't enough.
MSPs should add additional layers of security to provide users with comprehensive protection against all types of email threats as well as data loss.
What services does Hornetsecurity offer?
Total Protection Business - providing essential security services including spam and malware protection, content controls, compliance filters, live email tracking, email encryption, and signature and disclaimer tools.
Total Protection Enterprise - enables all Hornetsecurity security and compliance features. Hornetsecurity offers legally compliant real-time archiving, fast e-discovery services, a 10-year maximum retention period, and unlimited archive space for each user, whereas M365 does not. To combat these advanced and sophisticated threats, advanced threat protection is also included.
Total Protection Enterprise Backup – includes everything mentioned above, as well as Total Backup that backs up and restores SharePoint, Teams, mailboxes, roaming and on-prem Windows endpoints, and OneDrive accounts.
*Hornetsecurity's 365 Total Protection bundles also hide Microsoft DNS and MX records, helping to deflect would-be attackers.
Setup
Setup is simple, with a 'plug and play' on-boarding process. The customer only needs to change their domain's MX records, enter their Microsoft admin credentials, and let the automated setup routine create the necessary connectors to route inbound and outbound mail through the Hornetsecurity servers. It will connect to the customer's Active Directory and create mailboxes, groups, and so on.
Licensing
The 365 Total Protection bundles are charged based on the number of synchronised M365 / Exchange Online licences, regardless of the number of mailboxes created. This is advantageous for businesses that may have multiple mailboxes for a single M365 licence.