Feature Highlight: Microsoft Surface Security

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Security for business should be your top priority, especially in today’s digitally-driven world where cyber threats and data breaches are incredibly commonplace.

Your business can combat these security threats by leveraging the right Microsoft tools and technology, such as its family of Surface devices. Microsoft Surface security features are robust and incredibly valuable to your business—here is a breakdown of a few major ones.

Microsoft Surface Security Feature #1: Secure Business Mobility

Business mobility is a term that means leveraging remote working technology and business practices that allow employees to work from outside of a traditional office setting. While there are many benefits your business can realize from allowing remote work policies, such as the ability to utilize talent that isn’t local to your office’s location, increased productivity, and reduced overhead for office space and utilities, there are a few disadvantages to remote work environments.

Two main ones are both the result of your remote employees not having access to a stable, high-speed internet connection: one being the increased risk for data breaches, and the other being a decrease in productivity. Why?

If your employees are tapping into a public network, it may be glitchy, slow, or plagued by poor upload/download speeds. This means they will be unable to access the files and apps they need to get their job done—plus, the public, unsecured Wi-Fi networks at locations such as shopping centers, coffee shops, or your client’s offices can heighten security risks. To combat these two disadvantages, your business needs to leverage the right remote working tools and technology.

These are two of the major problems Microsoft Surface on the go devices were designed to help solve. The Microsoft Surface with LTE uses radio frequency communications to connect to an LTE network tower, similar to the way a cell phone does. This way, remote employees using Microsoft Pro security features like LTE connectivity can enjoy secure access to the internet and any cloud-based apps—without having to connect to sketchy public Wi-Fi networks. All they need is a cell phone signal!

Microsoft Surface Security Feature #2: Ability to Avoid “Man-in-the-Middle” Attacks

If your remote employees do not have access to the kind of LTE-capable device we just mentioned, they’re left to rely on often inefficient and dangerous public Wi-Fi connections. This is not an optimal solution, as when your employees are connected to those unsecured Wi-Fi networks, they run the risk of connecting to a malicious network posing as a public one.

This is what is referred to as a “man-in-the-middle” (MITM) attack—when a hacker spoofs a network’s identity to trick people into connecting to it. An employee that falls for a MITM attack would have their data routed through the attacker’s system, which would then copy all of their data before forwarding it to the real Wi-Fi network.

Using a Microsoft Surface with LTE capabilities can help avoid these “man-in-the-middle” attacks in two main ways. The first is by avoiding the need for your employees to connect to public Wi-Fi networks entirely, as a MITM attack cannot happen if the user does not need Wi-Fi in the first place.

Surface devices can also minimize the threat of these attacks even if your employees are using a Surface device without LTE and do have to connect to a public Wi-Fi. How? When your employees are using Microsoft Teams or Office 365 software through their Surface devices, their data is automatically encrypted (both at-rest and in-transit). This means that even if hackers are able to steal transmitted data, they won’t be able to read it immediately—which frustrates attackers and makes them more likely to simply move on to another user whose device is not so secure.

Microsoft Surface Security Feature #3: Utilize the Software you Need With Peace of Mind

Not only does your Microsoft device security need to be robust—the software you’re using on it needs to have strong security as well. That is why Surface devices were specifically designed to pair with Office 365 software. The benefit of having a subscription-based, continuously-updated software like Office 365 Business Premium is that, as long as you can connect to the subscription-based business enterprise software’s server, you will always have the latest security patch for the software.

However, a recent report from Barracuda Networks found a “startling rise” in the number of account takeover (ATO) attacks plaguing Office 365 accounts—in just March alone, 29% of organizations had seen their Office 365 accounts compromised by hackers, who were then able to send over 1.5 million malicious and spam emails.

To combat the risk of becoming a victim of one of these ATO attacks if you use Office 365, your business should deploy technology that leverages machine learning applications to analyze communication patterns in order to spot abnormalities that are possible indicators of an attack.

Additionally, multi-factor authentication should be used to provide another layer of security to usernames and passwords that can be so easily compromised, which is included in the Business Premium version of the software. This tier also includes phishing email protection in the Outlook tools. Therefore, to have more enhanced security measures for your surface devices, your business should strongly consider upgrading to a higher tier of Office 365 software if you are currently on a lower-tier plan.

Microsoft Surface Security Feature #4: Utilize Hardware Designed with Security In Mind

Microsoft Surface security features include a built-in firewall, an anti-malware solution, and automatic updates. This means your business will have access to the newest Teams and Office 365 security features on their Surface devices—as soon as they are rolled out.

What does this mean for your business? Increased security and productivity without any additional time or effort. How? You don’t need to be aware that a new feature has been rolled out, go wait in line at the store/wait for an online order to ship, spend time installing it on each device, and train your employees on the new features.

All you and your employees have to do is continue utilizing the devices you’re already using with peace of mind that you have access to the latest security measures possible!

These Microsoft Surface security features can help to safeguard your business against cybersecurity threats and breaches, particularly when paired with other Microsoft software such as Teams and Office 365.

There’s no need to sacrifice speed or productivity for security—your business can still experience enhanced productivity, collaboration, and communication while still being secure. To learn more about Microsoft device security or how your business can transform into a modern digital workplace built on an ecosystem of Microsoft Teams and the Microsoft 365 platform, reach out to an expert today!

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