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Dynamics 365 cloud security: What you need to know

Considering the move to Dynamics 365 Business Central from Microsoft Dynamics GP or another solution?

If so, you may already know that Business Central is hosted in the cloud. As you consider a move to cloud hosting, you may also be thinking about the safety and security of your data and organization.

The cloud makes digital communication and work more convenient. It has also spurred rapid innovation within most businesses and organizations.

But when friends share photographs, colleagues collaborate on a new service, or governments deliver online services, it’s not always clear where the data or information is being stored. People may inadvertently move data to a less secure location, and with everything being internet accessible, assets are at greater risk of unauthorized access.

This article is the first in a three-part series on your company’s responsibilities with cloud security with your Microsoft Dynamics 365 solutions. Microsoft Dynamics solutions are secure by design. Microsoft continues to do their part to ensure their solutions stay ahead of the security curve. At the same time, your company or organization has its own responsibilities.

Joesoftware is your Microsoft Dynamics Partner in Alberta and elsewhere. As your trusted advisor, we want to ensure your systems, operations and data remain secure and safe. As you move to Business Central or consider other Microsoft solutions like Dynamics 365 Sales or Dynamics 365 Customer Service, it is critical that your organization understand cloud security.

While the cloud brings many efficiencies and conveniences, it also comes with threats and risks. It is critical that your organization protect itself, your data, and your systems from these types of threats:

Compromised accounts
Attackers often use phishing campaigns to steal employee passwords and gain access to systems and valuable corporate assets.

Hardware and software vulnerabilities
Whether an organization uses a public or private cloud, it’s critical that the hardware and software is patched and up to date.

Internal threats
Human error is a big driver of security breaches. Misconfigurations can create openings for bad actors, and employees often click on bad links or inadvertently move data to locations that are less secure.

Lack of visibility of cloud resources
This cloud risk makes it challenging to detect and respond to security vulnerabilities and threats, which can lead to breaches and data loss.

Lack of risk prioritization
Once security administrators gain visibility into cloud resources, the number of recommendations to improve your organization’s security posture can be overwhelming. It’s important to prioritize risk so your team knows where to focus to make the greatest impact on security.

High-risk cloud permissions
The proliferation of cloud services and identities has increased the number of high-risk cloud permissions, which expands the potential for cyber attacks. The permission creep index (PCI) metric measures how much damage an identity can cause based on their permissions.

Emerging threat landscape
Cloud security risks are constantly evolving. To protect against security breaches and data loss, it’s important to stay up to date as new threats emerge.

Lack of integration between cloud-native development and security
It’s critical for security and development teams to work together to identify and fix code issues before an app is deployed to the cloud.

With a growing number of threats and how sophisticated some of the threats have become, it can be overwhelming to know where to start, especially as you consider a move to a new Microsoft ERP or CRM solution. In our next post, we will share how cloud security can be put to work for your organization.