Over the last few years alone we’ve seen extraordinary advancements in technology. With every new innovation with services like Artificial Intelligence and cloud-based products, we see more possibilities to improve productivity, creativity, collaboration and communication. But with these advantages also comes an increase in cybercrime because while good entities can benefit from these advancements so do the bad ones as well.
The potential of getting hit by a cyber-attack and getting seriously affected by it is rising every day for every organization from healthcare and education to government facilities. Everyone is at risk of a data breach with phishing, ransomware, malware, viruses and more.
Whether it’s to work, learn or just for personal use, the websites, software and devices that we use every day are always under threat. Undoubtedly, Microsoft’s products and services are one of the most used worldwide because they have a reputation for having superior technology and security but no one should rely on this alone. Microsoft or any other tech giant is never exempt from having a data breach no matter how good their security infrastructure is. Having a good Managed IT Services Company for support and additional layers of security for your own servers is critical.
But what can you expect if there is a data breach at Microsoft?
Microsoft follows the General Data Protection Regulation guidelines and therefore has to detect and respond to any data breach of their user’s personal data, and then notify those users. Of course, Microsoft does always try to prevent data breaches from happening in the first place but in the event that it does happen, the GDPR has strict mandates to protect personal data. Anything that identifies a person is covered by the law which includes, names, locations, bank information, IP addresses, health information, and more.
When it comes to a breach of personal data this means that a user’s personal data has been affected by a breach of security. TechQuarters, a trusted IT support company, warns users that this includes unlawful or accidental loss, alteration, destruction, unauthorized disclosure, access, transmission, storage or processing of any personal data.
Because Microsoft is under GDPR, the company has responsibilities in the event of a breach. As soon as the company becomes aware of any personal breach they have to first notify their users immediately. This won’t change even if the breach was through Microsoft directly or by their sub-processors. In the event that the sub-processors have a breach, they are contractually obligated to contact Microsoft immediately. Either way, Microsoft has processes so that they can then quickly identify the designated security incident personnel in the organization and then contact them.
According to Microsoft 365 Consulting providers, when this security incident personnel is notified they will receive a detailed description of what the process was that determined the breach of personal data, a report of the nature of the breach and a report of what measures Microsoft took to mitigate the breach.
After users have been notified, Microsoft has further procedures to follow with their own trained security personnel. They have policies, procedures and controls to then create and maintain detailed records of any breach that occurs. These records are detailed documents that contain facts about the incident, what effects it had, and remedial actions taken. Further, tracking and storing information is then kept in incident management systems.
Once the breach has happened and all procedures have been completed it’s all a matter of the person or organization affected taking their own steps of dealing with the aftermath. For organizations this should be documenting the breach with information on how many people have been impacted, how many data records were affected and then dealing with the consequences of the breach. The organizations should take remedial actions, and notify their own users. For personal users affected they should be mindful of any suspicious activity on devices, online accounts or financial statements.
Data breaches are bound to happen. Organizations, businesses and personal users can take many steps to reduce the risk of them happening but there is no foolproof system. When a data breach happens it’s best to follow all guidelines and learn from what happened to find ways to ensure it doesn’t happen again.