What is Advanced Threat Protection?

Mircosoft’s Advanced Threat Protection is a key component of their portfolio of security technologies. The default security for Office 365 is Exchange Online Protection (EOP).  So, Advanced Threat Protection is an add on service with an additional per user month subscription.  This technology protects emails but also data contained in Office 365, so it covers SharePoint Online, Teams and OneDrive for Business.

Traditional anti-virus products are excellent at protecting users against known threats. However, with hundreds of new (or unknown) threats being released by criminals daily, there will always be a point where users are vulnerable to attack. Advanced Threat Protection provides comprehensive protection for your business against these new and potentially damaging threats from phishing emails and unknown malware attacks.

Some of the key features of Advanced Threat Protection which help keep your business safe, are:

• Safe Attachment – Commonly known as attachment sandboxing. Safe Attachment detonates malware in a sandbox ie secure virtual environment. If found to be malicious, the attachment is removed and the rest of the email is delivered. Criminals constantly change tact and this feature is fantastic at detecting newly evolved malware, which traditional AV won’t pick up.
• Safe Links – Microsoft processes hundreds of millions of emails each day. The intelligence they gain from attacks is used to protect your email. If they detect a malicious link is contained within an email then it is replaced with a warning page when clicked. This should prevent your team from ever leaking credentials by clicking on a URL to a bogus site. If links within an email take the user to a downloadable file, this feature also scans those files for anything harmful.
• Spoof intelligence – Criminals are increasingly impersonating or spoofing emails of legitimate organisations. With ATP you will get automatic spoof detection which will defend targeted phishing attacks.
• SharePoint, OneDrive and Teams –It will find malicious files and protect your organisation by blocking them. When a malicious file is identified, it is blocked so no one can access it.

With phishing attacks now accounting for 90% of data breaches, we would advise that Advanced Threat Protection is a necessary part of any cyber security defence. The system is easy to set up and navigate and includes many useful features accessed via a Dashboard. As always, we recommend a layered approach to cyber security and Advanced Threat Protection should be a key layer of your defence. Our Technical Consultants can advise on the best cyber security products to protect your business. Why not contact us today to have a chat about your requirements and how we can help?

RedMosquito provides IT Support and IT Security Services to SMEs in Glasgow, Edinburgh and throughout the UK.