Keep your company secure: Microsoft Dynamics 365 & cloud security

Posted February 26, 2024

As your organization considers a move to Dynamics 365 Business Central and with that, a move to the cloud, it is important to put internal controls and processes in place to reduce the risk of a cyberattack.

Microsoft Dynamics 365 products are secure by design. Microsoft has invested significantly in making sure their ERP and CRM solutions keep your data and information secure.

The Chief Executive Officer of Microsoft, Satya Nadella, has been quoted as saying, “Businesses and users are going to embrace technology only if they can trust it.”

With Dynamics 365, you own your data, but share some control over the apps with Microsoft. Security, compliance, privacy, and data protection are shared responsibilities between you and Microsoft.

Microsoft has shared what steps they have taken to make sure their Dynamics 365 solutions are secure. But what can your small to medium-sized business or organization do to ensure you have the right internal controls and risk mitigation strategies in place? Here are some important initiatives your company should consider:

• Conduct regular training to help employees recognize phishing campaigns and other security threats.

• Make sure it’s easy for people to notify someone if they suspect they’ve received a malicious email.
  
  
• Run phishing simulations to monitor the effectiveness of your program.
  
  
• Develop processes that help you prevent, detect, and respond to an attack.
  
  
• Regularly patch software and hardware to reduce vulnerabilities.
  
  
• Encrypt sensitive data and develop strong password policies to reduce your risk of a compromised account.
  
  
• Multifactor authentication makes it more difficult for unauthorized users to gain access, and passwordless technologies are simple to use and more secure than a traditional password.
  
  
• Identify all the cloud service providers in your organization and familiarize yourself with their responsibilities as it relates to security and data and information privacy.
  
  
• Deploy a cloud security posture management to help you identify and fix configuration errors.
  
  
• Where possible, embed security into code so cloud-native applications start secure and stay secure.

With hybrid work models that give employees the flexibility to work remotely becoming increasingly common, organizations need a security model that protects people, devices, apps, and data no matter where they’re located.

Your organization may want to consider a Zero Trust framework, which starts with the principle that you cannot trust an access request, even if it comes from inside the network. To mitigate risk, your organization assumes you’ve been breached and explicitly verifies all access requests. You can also employ least privilege access which gives people access only to the resources they need and nothing more.

How can Joesoftware help? As you consider Dynamics 365 Business Central and running your ERP system in the cloud, we can help you think through the opportunities and the risks. That’s what makes us a trusted Dynamics 365 partner.