Skip to content
English
Incident Support Customer Portal
Contact Us
  • There are no suggestions because the search field is empty.

What are the security features of the Microsoft E3 license?

The Microsoft 365 E3 license offers a comprehensive set of security features designed for larger organisations that require more advanced protections, compliance tools, and management capabilities compared to the Business and Business Premium plans.

It includes everything in the Business Premium license, along with additional security, compliance, and device management features that help protect an organization’s data, users, and devices across various environments.

Here are the key security features included in the Microsoft 365 E3 license:

1. Identity and Access Management

Azure Active Directory Premium P1

  • Single Sign-On (SSO): Allows users to access multiple apps with one set of credentials, simplifying the login process while improving security.
  • Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA): Adds an extra layer of security by requiring additional verification methods (e.g., text message, authentication app) beyond just a password.
  • Conditional Access Policies: Implements policies based on user identity, location, device health, and more, to control access to company resources.
  • Identity Protection: Detects and responds to potential risks (e.g., unfamiliar locations, leaked credentials) to prevent unauthorized access.
  • Password Protection and Self-Service: Helps enforce strong password policies and allows users to reset passwords securely.

2. Advanced Threat Protection

Microsoft Defender for Office 365 (Plan 1)

  • Safe Attachments: Scans email attachments for malicious content and blocks harmful files before they reach the recipient.
  • Safe Links: Protects against malicious links in emails and documents by scanning URLs in real time and blocking unsafe ones.
  • Anti-Phishing: Helps detect and block phishing attacks, including impersonation, spear-phishing, and spoofing emails.
  • Threat Intelligence: Provides insights into potential threats targeting your organization and helps admins investigate incidents.

Microsoft Defender for Endpoint (EDR)

  • Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR): Monitors devices for suspicious activity and responds to potential security incidents in real-time.
  • Threat and Vulnerability Management: Identifies and prioritizes vulnerabilities on devices, helping admins address weaknesses before they can be exploited.
  • Automated Investigation and Remediation: Automatically detects, investigates, and remediates threats on endpoints to reduce manual response times.
  • Attack Surface Reduction: Uses advanced algorithms to block exploits and malicious files from running on devices.

3. Information Protection

Microsoft Information Protection (MIP)

  • Sensitivity Labels: Classify and protect sensitive information by applying labels (e.g., "Confidential", "Public") to emails, documents, and other files. Sensitivity labels help automate protection actions such as encryption, watermarking, and access restrictions.
  • Data Loss Prevention (DLP): Helps prevent accidental sharing of sensitive information by applying policies to detect and restrict the use of confidential data in emails, documents, and more.
  • Azure Information Protection (AIP): Provides classification and encryption to protect data both inside and outside the organization. It helps apply policies that secure emails and documents regardless of where they go.

Rights Management

  • Email and Document Encryption: Encrypts sensitive emails and files, preventing unauthorized access even if they are shared outside of your organization.
  • IRM (Information Rights Management): Allows you to apply permissions to documents to control actions like editing, printing, and forwarding.

4. Compliance and Data Governance

Microsoft Compliance Center

  • Compliance Manager: Provides a dashboard to manage your organization’s compliance posture. It helps track and meet regulatory requirements like GDPR, HIPAA, and others.
  • Audit Logs: Track and review user activities in Microsoft 365 to detect any suspicious or non-compliant behavior. This is essential for auditing, reporting, and investigating security incidents.
  • Legal Hold: Place a legal hold on data for compliance, preventing it from being deleted or altered.
  • eDiscovery (Core): Search, hold, and export data for legal investigations and compliance reporting. E3 includes core eDiscovery capabilities to support legal and regulatory requirements.
  • Retention Policies: Apply retention and deletion policies across emails, documents, and other data to help ensure your organization remains compliant with industry-specific regulations.

5. Device and Endpoint Management

Microsoft Intune

  • Mobile Device Management (MDM): Enables the management and security of mobile devices accessing corporate data. Admins can enforce policies like encryption, password requirements, and remote wipe.
  • Mobile Application Management (MAM): Helps secure apps on personal devices by enforcing policies such as preventing copy-paste operations and restricting the sharing of corporate data outside of managed apps.
  • Endpoint Protection: Protects Windows, macOS, iOS, and Android devices with security configurations, app management, and device monitoring.
  • Remote Wipe: Remotely wipe company data from lost or stolen devices to protect sensitive information.

6. Advanced Security Management

Azure Advanced Threat Protection (ATP)

  • Identity Protection: Detects, investigates, and responds to advanced identity-based threats, including brute-force attacks, compromised credentials, and abnormal behavior.
  • User and Entity Behavioral Analytics (UEBA): Analyzes patterns in user and entity activities to detect potential threats based on deviations from normal behavior.
  • Risk-Based Conditional Access: Enforces additional security policies when risk is detected, such as requiring MFA or blocking access from non-compliant devices.

Security Information and Event Management (SIEM)

  • Microsoft Sentinel (via Azure): A cloud-native SIEM solution that helps aggregate, detect, investigate, and respond to security threats across the enterprise by leveraging machine learning and automated responses.

7. Email and Collaboration Security

Exchange Online Protection (EOP)

  • Spam and Malware Filtering: Blocks incoming malicious emails and protects users from email-based threats, including phishing and malware.
  • Advanced Threat Protection (ATP): Advanced email filtering protects against zero-day attacks, malicious attachments, and suspicious links.
  • Email Encryption: Encrypts sensitive emails, preventing unauthorized users from accessing email content.

Teams Security

  • Guest Access Controls: Enables admins to manage access permissions for external users who join Teams, ensuring sensitive information stays protected.
  • Secure Collaboration: Teams also supports end-to-end encryption for one-on-one and group chats, along with policies that govern data retention and sharing.
  • Compliance and Data Loss Prevention (DLP): Teams offers basic DLP capabilities and compliance policies to ensure the secure sharing of information within Teams channels and messages.

8. Backup and Disaster Recovery

  • OneDrive for Business: Includes file versioning, recycle bin, and retention capabilities to help recover lost or accidentally deleted files.
  • SharePoint Online: Provides built-in version history and file recovery features to safeguard against data loss in collaborative environments.

9. Threat Intelligence and Security Reporting

  • Advanced Threat Protection Intelligence: Provides detailed reports and insights into security events, helping to understand the nature of the threats targeting your environment.
  • Security Reports & Dashboards: Centralized view of security events across Microsoft 365 apps, including alerts, security trends, and suspicious activities.

10. Windows Defender Antivirus

  • Windows Defender: Integrated antivirus protection built into Windows 10/11 devices to protect against malware, ransomware, and other common threats.
  • Exploit Protection: Protects devices from vulnerabilities and exploits commonly targeted by cyber attacks.

Conclusion

The Microsoft 365 E3 license provides a robust security framework suitable for medium to large organizations. In addition to the features found in Microsoft 365 Business Premium, E3 includes more advanced tools for identity management, threat protection, compliance, and endpoint management.

For organizations with high security and compliance requirements, Microsoft 365 E3 provides an excellent combination of identity and access management, advanced threat protection, data governance, and device management capabilities.

It is an ideal solution for businesses that need to balance security, collaboration, and compliance while ensuring that their IT environments remain secure and well-managed.