One of the big concerns companies have when they look to moving over to cloud based services is the perceived loss of control for the data in those services.
Microsoft understand this dilemma so they have added a new portal under the Office 365 Security and Compliance Center called the Service Assurance Dashboard.
The Service Assurance Dashboard provides access to:
- Details on how Office 365 implements security, privacy and compliance controls including details of how third-party independent auditors perform audits to test these controls.
- Third-party independent audit reports including: SSAE 16 / SOC 1, SOC 2 / AT 101, ISO 27001 and ISO 27018.
- Deep insights into how we implement encryption, incident management, tenant isolation and data resiliency.
- Information on how you can leverage Office 365 security controls and configurations to protect your data.
According to Microsoft, customers find the the Audited Controls of the dashboard most helpful and under this section users can perform the following tasks:
- Test status—Status of the Office 365 controls.
- Control implementation details—Explanation of how Office 365 implements a control.
- Testing performed to evaluate control effectiveness—How independent auditors test the effectiveness of our security, compliance and privacy controls.
- Test date—When a control was validated.
- Office 365 controls—How the Office 365 internal controls map to standard controls.
Of course, any work to validate data controls that are in place need reports to back up the effort to protect the data so customers can also access Compliance Reports and Trust Documents in the portal for that purpose.
Included in those documents are independent audit reports, white papers and FAQs focused on your area of the world and the industry you are in.
In the long run it is about saving you time, money and keeping your data secure:
"Tens of thousands of organizations already use Office 365 Service Assurance and have indicated that they are saving a significant amount time in evaluating the security, privacy and compliance of Office 365. Information available through Service Assurance such as the “Customer Security Considerations Workbook” have helped customers secure their Office 365 service with features/configurations that they manage."
But, wait...there's probably more so be sure to follow me on Twitter and Google+.
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