Most Common Causes of Office 365 Data Loss

Nowadays, we can see that many companies are devastated because they face data loss from Office 365.

Novica Gijevski
Backupology
3 min readAug 5, 2022

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From introductory emails to end-user files, data loss has become common for today’s organizations, bringing down businesses or, worse, they close.

Microsoft 365 is the most user-friendly product Microsoft has ever launched. It attracted millions of companies and brought significant benefits to Microsoft.

Because it has cloud applications, there is great flexibility in managing large-scale data recovery. Many users are still wondering which Microsoft 365 backup they should use and continue to grow their workloads.

This post will inform you about the standard ways you can cause Office 365 data loss and what you can do to save your data. Why look further when we have already shared the most suitable one?

Now let’s get down to the point of this post because a few lines of error can target your data and make you lose it.

Microsoft is not responsible for your sensitive Office 365 data!

Microsoft is responsible for the infrastructure, but the data remains the customers’ responsibility. A common misconception among users is that Office 365 has data backup capabilities to protect you from the scenarios below.

While it is true that Microsoft retains some deleted data through the Recycle Bin feature, this is only for a limited time. For OneDrive or SharePoint content, the information is kept for about 90 days before it is permanently deleted.

Prevent Office 365 Data Loss

Data loss prevention is a complex set of measures to reduce the likelihood and impact of data loss. To that end, here are the five most common reasons for Office 365 data loss:

Cybersecurity, hacking, or malware

The growth of technology is indeed faster than we think, bringing many positive changes in our lives. On the other hand, it also brings negativity. One of them is cyber security. Office 365 can be attacked by hackers. In particular, if a user clicks on a phishing email, a hacker can quickly remove the data.

Deletion of data — intentional or accidental deletion of data

Most data loss on the cloud platform happens due to the accidental deletion of items. It’s likely to accidentally delete critical data from your Office 365, which happens to most of us. It can appear in all Office 365 apps, including SharePoint Online, OneDrive, and Exchange Online.

Set up multi-factor authentication — MFA

Establishing multi-factor authentication (MFA) and installing the authenticator mobile app provides an additional layer of protection for access that requires a password and a unique randomly generated code.

Configure Office 365 built-in data security

Office 365 includes many data security tools, policies, and options. These include DLP policies in the Security and Compliance Center, eDiscovery, email encryption, mobile management, and more.

Using backup software

Including a backup is a great way to keep your data more secure. Office 365 provides some recovery functionality, but specialized backup software is a great idea to get extra protection for Office 365 data. Office 365 DLP won’t be a problem in this particular case.

Conclusion

Office 365 data loss prevention should be on your schedule if you and your business continuity operate on Microsoft 365. You can also enable advanced threat protection in Office 365 to help you fight any unwanted malicious threats.

In summary, combining the top 5 most common reasons for Office 365 data loss prevention practices is a fantastic way to prevent data loss in your Office 365 business environment.

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Novica Gijevski
Backupology

Novica Gijevski delivers unmatched reliability and is a well-experienced professional for business with an indicated performance record.