In today’s digital age, data security and regulatory compliance are essential for businesses across industries. Protecting sensitive information, while ensuring that communication within an organisation aligns with compliance standards, can be challenging. This is especially the case for those operating in highly regulated sectors like finance, healthcare, legal services and government agencies.
Microsoft’s Information Barriers (IB) in Microsoft 365 offers a robust solution to these challenges, providing organisations with the tools to prevent unauthorised communication and ensure compliance with industry regulations. This blog will explore what Information Barriers are, how they work, and why they are crucial for businesses in today’s regulatory landscape.
Information Barriers (IB) are a set of controls within Microsoft 365 that allow organisations to block or restrict communication between specific groups or individuals by segmenting groups of users or departments. These barriers are particularly useful in scenarios where there is a requirement to prevent potential conflicts of interest, safeguard sensitive data, or comply with regulatory requirements.
Common scenarios include:
Education: Students in one school aren’t able to look up contact details for students at other schools.
Legal: Maintaining the confidentiality of data that is obtained by the lawyer of one client and preventing it from being accessed by a lawyer for the same firm who represents a different client. Government: Information access and control are limited across departments and groups.
Professional services: A group of people in a company is only able to chat with a client or a specific customer via guest access during a customer engagement.
Microsoft Information Barriers are designed to control the flow of information within an organisation by limiting who can communicate with whom. Microsoft 365 admins can set up these barriers to block communications, including Exchange online emails, Teams collaborations, chats, Sharepoint online and OneDrive for business.
Key features include:
For example, a financial firm might restrict communication between its investment research team and its sales team to avoid conflicts of interest. Once an Information Barrier policy is in place, these two teams wouldn’t be able to communicate or share information with each other via Microsoft Teams, Exchange, or SharePoint, ensuring compliance with regulatory guidelines.
The benefits of Information Barriers extend beyond compliance with regulatory requirements. They provide a holistic approach to safeguarding sensitive information and controlling internal communications, while also improving organisational efficiency and collaboration.
Implementing Information Barriers in Microsoft 365 requires careful planning to ensure alignment with your organisation’s needs, regulatory compliance and minimal disruption.
Data#3’s Microsoft experts will guide you from design to seamless implementation, applying best practices to meet your compliance and security requirements. We also provide documentation and training to ensure ongoing policy management.
Protect sensitive data, control internal communications and stay compliant with Microsoft’s Information Barriers. Speak to a Microsoft Security Specialist today to enhance your Microsoft 365 environment.