Office 0365



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  1. Microsoft Office 365 Home 1-year subscription, 5 users, PC/Mac Key Card. Share with your entire family – for up to 6 people. For use on multiple PCs/Macs, tablets, and phones (including Windows, iOS, and Android.).
  2. Microsoft 365 includes everything you love about Office 365 and more, at the same price. We’ve added value to the Office 365 subscription to make it Microsoft 365. With Microsoft 365, you receive additional benefits including Microsoft Editor, Money in Excel, and premium creative content in Office, plus more to come.
  3. Microsoft 365 was originally unveiled several years ago at Inspire 2017.An all-encompassing package that includes Office 365, Windows 10, and Enterprise Mobility + Security, the new offering debuted with two configurations positioned at different segments of the market: Microsoft 365 Business and Microsoft 365 Enterprise.
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Applies to

This article will introduce you to your new security properties in the Cloud. Whether you're part of a Security Operations Center, you're a Security Administrator new to the space, or you want a refresher, let's get started.

Caution

If you're using Outlook.com, Microsoft 365 Family, or Microsoft 365 Personal, and need Safe Links or Safe Attachments info, click this link: Advanced Outlook.com security for Microsoft 365 subscribers.

Office 365 security spelled out

Every Office 365 subscription comes with security capabilities. The goals and actions that you can take depend on the focus of these different subscriptions. In Office 365 security, there are three main security services (or products) tied to your subscription type:

  1. Exchange Online Protection (EOP)
  2. Microsoft Defender for Office 365 Plan 1 (Defender for Office P1)
  3. Microsoft Defender for Office 365 Plan 2 (Defender for Office P2)

Note

If you bought your subscription and need to roll out security features right now, skip to the steps in the Protect Against Threats article. If you're new to your subscription and would like to know your license before you begin, browse Billing > Your Products in the Microsoft 365 admin center.

Office 365 security builds on the core protections offered by EOP. EOP is present in any subscription where Exchange Online mailboxes can be found (remember, all the security products discussed here are Cloud-based).

You may be accustomed to seeing these three components discussed in this way:

EOPMicrosoft Defender for Office 365 P1Microsoft Defender for Office 365 P2
Prevents broad, volume-based, known attacks.Protects email and collaboration from zero-day malware, phish, and business email compromise.Adds post-breach investigation, hunting, and response, as well as automation, and simulation (for training).

But in terms of architecture, let's start by thinking of each piece as cumulative layers of security, each with a security emphasis. More like this:

Though each of these services emphasizes a goal from among Protect, Detect, Investigate, and Respond, all the services can carry out any of the goals of protecting, detecting, investigating, and responding.

The core of Office 365 security is EOP protection. Microsoft Defender for Office 365 P1 contains EOP in it. Defender for Office 365 P2 contains P1 and EOP. The structure is cumulative. That's why, when configuring this product, you should start with EOP and work to Defender for Office 365.

Though email authentication configuration takes place in public DNS, it's important to configure this feature to help defend against spoofing. If you have EOP,you should configure email authentication.

If you have an Office 365 E3, or below, you have EOP, but with the option to buy standalone Defender for Office 365 P1 through upgrade. If you have Office 365 E5, you already have Defender for Office 365 P2.

Tip

If your subscription is neither Office 365 E3 or E5, you can still check to see if you have the option to upgrade to Microsoft Defender for Office 365 P1. If you're interested, this webpage lists subscriptions eligible for the Microsoft Defender for Office 365 P1 upgrade (check the end of the page for the fine-print).

The Office 365 security ladder from EOP to Microsoft Defender for Office 365

Important

Learn the details on these pages: Exchange Online Protection, and Defender for Office 365.

Office 0365 app

What makes adding Microsoft Defender for Office 365 plans an advantage to pure EOP threat management can be difficult to tell at first glance. To help sort out if an upgrade path is right for your organization, let's look at the capabilities of each product when it comes to:

  • preventing and detecting threats
  • investigating
  • responding
Office

starting with Exchange Online Protection:

Prevent/DetectInvestigateRespond
Technologies include:
  • spam
  • phish
  • malware
  • bulk mail
  • spoof intelligence
  • impersonation detection
  • Admin Quarantine
  • Admin and user submissions of False Positives and False Negatives
  • Allow/Block for URLs and Files
  • Reports
  • Audit log search
  • Message Trace
  • Zero-hour Auto-Purge (ZAP)
  • Refinement and testing of Allow and Block lists
  • If you want to dig in to EOP, jump to this article.

    Because these products are cumulative, if you evaluate Microsoft Defender for Office 365 P1 and decide to subscribe to it, you'll add these abilities.

    Gains with Defender for Office 365, Plan 1 (to date):

    Prevent/DetectInvestigateRespond
    Technologies include everything in EOP plus:
  • Safe attachments
  • Safe links
  • Microsoft Defender for Office 365 protection for workloads (ex. SharePoint Online, Teams, OneDrive for Business)
  • Time-of-click protection in email, Office clients, and Teams
  • anti-phishing in Defender for Office 365
  • User and domain impersonation protection
  • Alerts, and SIEM integration API for alerts
  • SIEM integration API for detections
  • Real-time detections tool
  • URL trace
  • Same
  • So, Microsoft Defender for Office 365 P1 expands on the prevention side of the house, and adds extra forms of detection.

    Microsoft Defender for Office 365 P1 also adds Real-time detections for investigations. This threat hunting tool's name is in bold because having it is clear means of knowing you have Defender for Office 365 P1. It doesn't appear in Defender for Office 365 P2.

    Gains with Defender for Office 365, Plan 2 (to date):

    Prevent/DetectInvestigateRespond
    Technologies include everything in EOP, and Microsoft Defender for Office 365 P1 plus:
  • Same
  • Threat Explorer
  • Threat Trackers
  • Campaign views
  • Automated Investigation and Response (AIR)
  • AIR from Threat Explorer
  • AIR for compromised users
  • SIEM Integration API for Automated Investigations
  • So, Microsoft Defender for Office 365 P2 expands on the investigation and response side of the house, and adds a new hunting strength. Automation.

    In Microsoft Defender for Office 365 P2, the primary hunting tool is called Threat Explorer rather than Real-time detections. If you see Threat Explorer when you navigate to the Security center, you're in Microsoft Defender for Office 365 P2.

    To get into the details of Microsoft Defender for Office 365 P1 and P2, jump to this article.

    Tip

    EOP and Microsoft Defender for Office 365 are also different when it comes to end-users. In EOP and Defender for Office 365 P1, the focus is awareness, and so those two services include the Report message Outlook add-in so users can report emails they find suspicious, for further analysis.

    In Defender for Office 365 P2 (which contains everything in EOP and P1), the focus shifts to further training for end-users, and so the Security Operations Center has access to a powerful Threat Simulator tool, and the end-user metrics it provides.

    Microsoft Defender for Office 365 Plan 1 vs. Plan 2 cheat sheet

    This quick-reference will help you understand what capabilities come with each Microsoft Defender for Office 365 subscription. When combined with your knowledge of EOP features, it can help business decision makers determine what Microsoft Defender for Office 365 is best for their needs.

    Defender for Office 365 Plan 1Defender for Office 365 Plan 2
    Configuration, protection, and detection capabilities: Defender for Office 365 Plan 1 capabilities

    --- plus ---

    Automation, investigation, remediation, and education capabilities:

    • Microsoft Defender for Office 365 Plan 2 is included in Office 365 E5, Office 365 A5, and Microsoft 365 E5.

    • Microsoft Defender for Office 365 Plan 1 is included in Microsoft 365 Business Premium.

    • Microsoft Defender for Office 365 Plan 1 and Defender for Office 365 Plan 2 are each available as an add-on for certain subscriptions. To learn more, here's another link Feature availability across Microsoft Defender for Office 365 plans.

    • The Safe Documents feature is only available to users with the Microsoft 365 E5 or Microsoft 365 E5 Security licenses (not included in Microsoft Defender for Office 365 plans).

    • If your current subscription doesn't include Microsoft Defender for Office 365 and you want it, contact sales to start a trial, and find out how Microsoft Defender for Office 365 can work for in your organization.

    Tip

    Insider tip. You can use the docs.microsoft.com table of contents to learn about EOP and Microsoft Defender for Office 365. Navigate back to this page, Office 365 Security overview, and you'll notice that table of contents organization in the side-bar. It begins with Deployment (including migration) and then continues into prevention, detection, investigation, and response.

    This structure is divided so that Security Administration topics are followed by Security Operations topics. If you're a new member of either job role, use the link in this tip, and your knowledge of the table of contents, to help learn the space. Remember to use feedback links and rate articles as you go. Feedback helps us improve what we offer you.

    Where to go next

    If you're a Security Admin, you may need to configure DKIM or DMARC for your mail. You may want to roll out 'Strict' security presets for your priority users, or look for what's new in the product. Or if you're with Security Ops, you may want to leverage Real-time detections or Threat Explorer to investigate and respond, or train end-user detection with Attack Simulator. Either way, here are some additional recommendations for what to look at next.

    See the specific recommended 'golden' configs and use their recommended presets to configure security policies quickly

    Catch up on what's new in Microsoft Defender for Office 365 (including EOP developments)

    Use Attack Simulator in Microsoft Defender for Office 365

    Microsoft Office 365 is a modern collaboration platform that provides a full-featured email system with web access, integrated calendaring, a campus contacts directory, support for mobile device access, and 50 gigabytes of email storage and 5 terabytes of document storage per account.

    Features

    • Convenient web and desktop access to your email and integrated calendar. Full-featured web interface for accessing email and calendar (Outlook Web App), as well as email and integrated calendar compatibility with desktop email clients such as Microsoft Outlook and Apple Mail.
    • Large message storage capacity. 50 gigabytes of email storage for each user.
    • Access from portable devices, including iOS and Android-based phones and tablets. Access to your email, calendar entries, and contacts from your mobile device.
    • Built-in anti-spam message filtering. Integrated anti-spam tools for smoother control of email filtering and identification.
    • OneDrive for Business, an online document storage and sharing tool that faculty and staff can access through the Outlook Web App (OWA). 5 terabytes of document storage for each user.

    NOTE: Visit itservices.usc.edu/officefacstaff for information on how to download free Microsoft Office software.

    Eligibility

    All USC faculty and staff.

    NOTE: USC students have access to some of the Office 365 suite, including OneDrive for Business, Skype for Business, and SharePoint. More information on Office 365 for students can be found at itservices.usc.edu/office365/students.

    System Requirements

    For information on the web browser requirements for accessing Office 365, see the Microsoft Office 365 System Requirements page.

    Getting Started

    Accessing the Outlook Web App for Office 365

    The Outlook Web App (OWA) is the web-based email client for Office 365. In order to access OWA, open a supported web browser and go to www.usc.edu/office365. If you haven’t already signed into any USC single sign-on services from your web browser for the day, you will be taken to the red USC NetID sign-in screen where you will log in using your USC NetID and password.

    Signing Out of OWA

    Office 0365 admin

    When you are finished using the Outlook Web App, you should exit your web browser by closing all open tabs to ensure you have properly signed out of your Office 365 account.

    Learn More

    Office 365 Documentation

    The documentation in this section will provide information on how to access your email and calendar through the Outlook Web App, configure an email client to access mail through Office 365, set up your mobile device to access your Office 365 email, configure settings such as forwarding and automatic replies (vacation messages) using OWA, store and collaborate on documents using OneDrive for Business and connect with USC and non-USC colleagues using Skype for Business.

    Office 365 Outlook Login

    Video Tutorials

    There are video tutorials available from Lynda.com, Apple.com, and Microsoft.com on a variety of Office 365 topics. You will find links to these video tutorials on pages throughout the Office 365 documentation and from the Office 365 Video Tutorials page.

    Data Security

    OneDrive for Business is approved for storing some restricted data, including Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA)- and Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA)-related information. Please note that additional controls may be required, depending on the type of data and relevant regulations. (Contact usc-ciso@usc.edu for additional information.)

    Support

    If you have any questions or concerns regarding your Microsoft Office 365 account, please contact the ITS Customer Support Center.

    Pricing

    Office 0365 Mail

    Microsoft Office 365 is a free service.