Secure collaboration for public safety and national security agencies
For public safety and national security organizations, collaboration is paramount. Yet, so too is securely managing information. To make the best decisions, officials must have access to the right information at the right time. Simultaneously, information must be shared on a need-to-know basis, without it being leaked.
Consider a circle of trust in the intelligence community. It’s critical that intelligence officials within a circle of trust quickly obtain access to relevant information so they can communicate and collaborate in real time. But team members may have different security classifications, requiring that different levels of information be shared with different people.
Public safety organizations face similar challenges. For example, courts typically keep juvenile criminal records confidential to prevent the juvenile from being labeled a criminal. Yet school officials, child protective workers, attorneys, researchers, and others who work with juveniles must be able to obtain access to these cases on a need-to-know basis.
Managing information in scenarios such as these can be complex. But the good news is that technologies such as Microsoft Office 365 and Microsoft SharePoint make it easy for public safety and national security agencies to collaborate—while preventing information from falling into the wrong hands. Consider the following capabilities:
Multi-factor authentication
Office 365 and SharePoint prevent unauthorized user access to files by requiring at least two pieces of evidence for users to log in. To be granted sign-in access, users typically must acknowledge a phone call, text message, or app notification on their smartphone after correctly entering their password.
Role-based user access
Office 365 and SharePoint enable organizations to grant different levels of permission to information based on different roles within the organization.
Data loss prevention
Data loss prevention features help organizations identify, monitor, and automatically protect sensitive information across Office 365.
Message encryption
Office 365 comes with an easy-to-use service that lets email users send encrypted messages to people inside or outside their organization.
Information Rights Management
Information Rights Management helps prevent sensitive information from being printed, forwarded, saved, edited, or copied by unauthorized people.
Audit trails
Administrators can review records to see what actions were performed by users—including workers who attempt to access information without the proper authority.
Mobile device management
Office 365 lets administrators manage mobile devices by setting device access rules, viewing device reports, and remotely wiping devices that are lost or stolen.
With features such as these, public safety and national security organizations can effectively perform their jobs without the fear of information being leaked. Simply put, they can easily control sensitive information, while ensuring that the right stakeholders have the information they need to make effective decisions based on real-time information.
One national security agency that’s migrating to Office 365 to improve information sharing is the United Kingdom Ministry of Defence (MOD). MOD is moving its 420,000-employee workforce to Office 365 as part of a larger effort to embrace user-friendly technologies that exploit the cloud and mobile computing. As Mike Stone, Chief Digital and Information Officer at the Ministry of Defence, put it: “At the MOD, we have a clear mission to deliver the modern, open, and flexible IT resources required to ensure our forces have information capabilities tailored to their mission, location, and role, accessible through a cost-effective and adaptable infrastructure. Microsoft’s plans to offer highly secure, UK-based cloud services is an exciting development and one that will clearly support the MOD in our transformation journey.”
To learn more about how Microsoft enable public safety and national security agencies to collaborate securely, please see our Office 365 Security and Compliance white paper. Also, look to request a trial: Azure Government Trial, Office 365 Government Trial.
