As technology advances, newer and more sophisticated cybersecurity threats continue to emerge. As a result, it has become increasingly important to check your security posture in order to address vulnerabilities. A great way to stay on top of your cybersecurity is with tools like Microsoft Secure Score.
This tool allows you to improve your security protocols, meaning your cybersecurity will be stronger than other companies in your industry. Identifying gaps in your cybersecurity will allow you or your cybersecurity services company to fill them before a hacker can infiltrate.
Continue reading to learn about Microsoft Secure Score and how it can help your organization strengthen its cybersecurity.
What is Microsoft Secure Score, and how does it enhance your cybersecurity?
Microsoft Secure Score is an analytics tool used to enhance your organization’s safety by offering details about your security posture. This score empowers organizations to protect themselves from potential cybersecurity threats.
To calculate a score, Microsoft looks into many factors:
- Security controls enforced in the infrastructure
- Vulnerabilities in the system
- The severity of the vulnerabilities
- How to mitigate the risks created by the vulnerabilities
As your security improves, your score increases. The Microsoft Secure Score dashboard will give you insight into details about your infrastructure that you can leverage to refine the security of your organization’s apps, devices, and more.
The tool also suggests ways to improve your secure score, such as changing your current policies or introducing new ones. These recommendations are based on an understanding of best practices combined with tips from industry experts. By implementing these recommendations, your organization will be able to strengthen its cybersecurity and avoid future risks.
Pros of Microsoft Secure Score
- It can review current cybersecurity configurations to identify areas of improvement.
- It will set KPIs with relevant action plans to give your organization a jump-start on strengthening your security.
- It provides specific details about your IT infrastructure rather than giving general statements.
- It sends recommendations and visual graphs to give a full scope of your infrastructure’s cybersecurity.
Cons of Microsoft Secure Score
- Implementing and maintaining your Microsoft Secure Score can be complex and time-consuming and is most successful when managed as an on-going process.
- The scoring criteria cannot be customized to be industry-specific.
- There are no real-time threat alerts.
- To access certain features or configurations, organizations may be required to buy additional licensing, depending on their goals and security needs.
What is included in the cybersecurity report?
Aside from a general score of your security, the report analyzes both your companies and industry peers in further detail. This gives you an opportunity to see where you stand in comparison to competitors in regard to cybersecurity. The report includes a lot of information to help your organization clearly understand areas where your cybersecurity could use some improvement.
The score looks into four main components of your cybersecurity strength:
- Identity
- Data
- Device
- Apps and services
The Secure Score report includes the following components:
- An overall score
- Recommended action steps
- Historical trends
- Metrics
- A breakdown of your score
Now that you have a score and a breakdown of how Microsoft calculated the score, your IT team or cybersecurity services company can directly apply these action plans to enhance your security.
What is a good Microsoft Secure Score?
Most businesses or individuals can consider an 80% secure score as sufficient; however, if you have a 60% or lower score, there may be reasons for concern. With a score of 60% or lower, your infrastructure is considered vulnerable to security risks and will probably need to enforce stronger security measures to avoid data breaches.
A Microsoft score is a percentage given based on the strength of your organization’s data protection. The goal may not always be to reach a 100% secure score based on an individual organizations needs. However, this can be challenging, especially if cybersecurity is not your forte. To reach a perfect score, you need to have a deep understanding of how to set up cybersecurity on a business level.
It’s important to prioritize your secure score as soon as possible. Otherwise, you’re giving hackers more time to infiltrate your system. Leverage your IT team or cybersecurity services company to formulate a specific plan to enhance your security so your organization can focus on its business goals, knowing your data is safe and secure.
How to improve your security posture levels
With a list of improvements, your IT team or cybersecurity services company can take action. Administrators can leverage the information gathered in the score report and activate or change security settings to make sure all apps and tools are up to date.
Examples of quick improvements could include:
- Enforcing two-step authentication for employee logins
- Improving weak passwords
- Data encryption
- Regular data backups
Additionally, Microsoft Secure Score offers information on user behavior and threat intelligence to provide even more details into your security posture. If your organization is not sure how to start improving your cybersecurity efforts, we are here to help. Reach out to our team of IT experts today.
About Applied Tech
Applied Tech is a leading IT and cybersecurity services provider dedicated to helping businesses protect their digital assets. Our proactive and strategic services include cloud management, security, productivity, and IT growth strategy. With a team of experienced professionals, we provide unique solutions tailored to your IT needs.
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