Cybersecurity threats are on the rise. In the past year alone, half of UK businesses and around a third of charities (32%) have faced some form of cybersecurity attack.

Fortunately, as a fast-track Microsoft Partner, Atech is here to help.

On 17th October 2024, we hosted a roundtable in collaboration with Microsoft to discuss security solutions and learn about our attendees’ unique cybersecurity challenges.

Led by James Pearse (Atech CTO) and Karim Fayad (Technical Specialist at Microsoft), we showcased the power of Microsoft 365 E5’s integrated capabilities to our global audience.

Read on to discover our key takeaways from the event, and learn how Microsoft Security solutions can help your enterprise stay safe.

Managing cyber threat risk is becoming increasingly complex

The roundtable opened with a discussion of the key security challenges many organisations face, including:

• Managing multiple security tools: Coordinating multiple cybersecurity tools from different vendors often leads to inefficiencies and protection gaps. 2024 Microsoft findings reveal that organisations with 16+ tools experience 2.8 times more security incidents than those with consolidated security solutions.
• Multi-cloud complexities: Multi-cloud environments provide flexibility, but also increase an organisation’s attack surface. Research suggests that the average multi-cloud estate has up to 351 exploitable attack paths. Security teams need to maintain consistent identity, security, and compliance policies across Cloud Service Providers (CSPs). However, diverse features and configurations make it difficult to establish uniform policies across platforms.
• Skills and expertise gaps: Training security teams on numerous systems is time-consuming and resource-intensive. According to 2024 UK government findings, 30% of UK cyber security firms are affected by technical skills gaps, potentially putting those organisations at risk.
• Lack of real-time threat response: Microsoft research reveals that 6.5% of Defender for Cloud alerts in 2024 were linked to multiple domains and products — highlighting the propensity for cyber attackers to target multiple systems at once. Furthermore, delayed responses due to security complexities give cybercriminals windows of opportunity to inflict significant damage.
• Cost management considerations: Rising cybersecurity threats drive up the cost of security solutions, especially when licenses are underutilised. Businesses today face tough choices between comprehensive protection and cost-cutting — understanding that the latter increases their vulnerability to cyberattacks.

These challenges all highlight the importance of centralising security solutions, reducing complexities and enhancing real-time threat response capabilities.

How Microsoft 365 E5 license holders stay one-step ahead of attackers

Next, Karim showcased key Microsoft 365 security solutions included in E3 and E5 licenses. These technical demos highlighted how each component integrates seamlessly within the Microsoft 365 tech stack and solves event attendees’ unique security challenges.

Here’s a quick rundown of some of the solutions we discussed in detail:

• Defender for Identity: This solution acts as your digital watchdog, monitoring user activities across on-premises and cloud environments –– rapidly detecting compromised identities, insider risks, and other advanced threats.
• Defender for Cloud Apps: This tool provides comprehensive visibility and control over cloud applications. It leverages sophisticated analytics and threat detection capabilities to protect your data across Microsoft and third-party CSPs.
• Microsoft Purview: This platform is your one-stop shop for managing, protecting, and governing your data across on-premises, multi-cloud, and SaaS environments. With Microsoft Purview, organisations can ensure regulatory compliance and reduce business risk.
• Microsoft Entra ID P2: This solution (formerly known as Azure Active Directory P2) offers advanced identity and access management capabilities. It provides risk-based conditional access and privileged identity management tools to safeguard your cloud and on-premises environments from unauthorised access and data breaches.
• Microsoft Sentinel: This cloud-native platform combines Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) and Security Orchestration, Automation, and Response (SOAR) capabilities to efficiently detect, investigate, and respond to all manner of cyber threats.

For attendees with existing E5 licenses, James and Karim also outlined some best practices for optimising costs and eliminating overlapping functionalities.

Accessing support and a Microsoft 365 E5 Security trial sets you up for success

At the end of the technical demonstration, James invited attendees to take part in a series of one-on-one Microsoft Engagement workshops run by Atech.

These discovery sessions are designed to evaluate your security posture and establish a roadmap to securing your digital estate through cutting-edge Microsoft technologies and Atech’s exceptional customer support.

During the meeting, many attendees showed interest in the following workshops:

• Microsoft Threat Protection Engagement: This discovery session helps organisations identify, prioritise, and mitigate potential attack risks.
• Microsoft Data Security Engagement: This workshop helps organisations understand and mitigate potential privacy and regulatory risks stemming from ‘dark data.’

Karim also promoted the opportunity for attendees to access an exclusive E5 security trial after taking part in any of Atech’s in-depth workshops.

This trial, which has been highly successful for many businesses, provides access to a set of E5 licenses — typically 25-50 user licenses per organisation for a 30-90 day period.

This cost-effective opportunity allows organisations to experience firsthand how Microsoft can help them address their biggest security challenges and future-proof their digital estate from emerging threats.

Atech: Putting our Microsoft Security expertise to work for you

We would like to thank James, Karim, and all of our roundtable attendees for participating in our lively discussion on the merits of Microsoft Security solutions.

If you missed the roundtable event, don’t worry. We can schedule a one-to-one Microsoft Engagement session to discuss your unique needs. Choose from our list of tailored workshops here, fill in our brief contact form, and we’ll book you in as soon as possible.

Stay tuned for our next Microsoft Security webinar on 12th November 2024. In it, we’ll discuss how you can gain quick visibility of your cloud security posture through Azure Arc and CSPM. Sign up for the webinar here or contact us for more information.