The risks of SharePoint security mismanagement

How would you feel if that creep from the office had looked through your contract to find out what you earn? Would it bother you if anyone other than your direct manager could read your performance review? What would it look like if your company’s customer details or information about a merger were hacked?

SharePoint is an amazingly powerful tool which, when implemented correctly, is perfectly secure. However, that’s the catch: it has to be implemented correctly. We love SharePoint because it’s so amazingly flexible, and this flexibility basically allows you to deploy it in almost any way you want. However, this feature is a double-edged sword – people often implement SharePoint in a risky manner, and open their organizations to the danger of leaks and hacks.

Why you need to be aware of SharePoint risks

Not convinced that having a security policy is such a big deal? Think again. 

A recent survey of 1000 SharePoint users found some pretty surprising results. 34% of respondents admitted that themselves or their colleagues had, at some point, looked at documents they weren’t supposed to read. Of those who had, 23% had looked into their colleagues’ salary information, 34% had looked at other personal details and 8% had discovered secret information about mergers and acquisitions. Respondents also shared information they weren’t supposed to, either by putting it on USB sticks or sharing it with themselves via email. 

Perhaps most worryingly, a lot of companies don’t have any kind of strategy for dealing with security. Research by Emedia revealed that a staggering 22% of organizations have NO information security policy:

As Emedia’s research shows, only 1/3 of organizations actually have a comprehensive and up-to-date security policy to protect themselves against data breaches.

Why is all of this a problem?

If you don’t have a comprehensive security strategy, you’re opening your company up to a lot of risks.

Privacy

It goes without saying, but most employees would feel violated if they knew anyone in the business would be able to see their personal information. Even if they had ‘nothing to hide’ the simple fact that their colleagues could discover private information without asking them directly would make many people feel uncomfortable.

Leaks

Another major risk for organizations without a strong security policy is that information may be leaked by employees with an agenda or who want to damage the organization in some way. While it’s true that SharePoint wasn’t at fault for the Edward Snowden leaks at the NSA (lax security was to blame), it does show how even a technically advanced organization can be vulnerable to internal attacks. Without a strong security policy, your organization’s plans, trade secrets and strategy could be shared with competitors and undermine your market position. 

Hacking

Almost any organization worth its salt is at risk of hacking. If a hacker is determined, they may well find a hole at some point in your company’s security – even if you have a well maintained firewall. However, those organizations who have developed ‘defense in depth’ will always be able to limit the impact of such attacks. Even if a hacker ‘gets in’ with a valid user name they’ve acquired, they’ll only ever be able to see what that user had access to. If your company doesn’t have a well maintained internal security policy and allows anyone to look at any document, you may as well fling the doors wide open. 

Compliance

You might still not be convinced that any of the above reasons are enough to make you improve your SharePoint security strategy. However, you never really had much of a choice anyway. There are a range of regulations around the world which, to some degree or another, will force you to treat and manage the data your company collects in a secure manner. 

The European Union's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) will be coming into force over the next couple of years. It will basically affect any company that ever treats the Personably Identifiable Information (PII) of individuals from the EU – whether they’re customers, clients or employees. The rule will force companies to implement strict data management policies to reduce the chances of private data getting into the wrong hands. And if you don’t comply, expect a hefty fine – either 100 million Euros or 5% of annual turnover – whichever is greater. 

Get smart

SharePoint security needn’t be too hard, though. Fortunately, there is software out there, such as Sharegate, that makes SharePoint security management very simple. If you properly manage SharePoint’s security, you’ll massively reduce your chances of losing vital information, secrets and being fined by international organizations. Secure SharePoint management doesn’t require a HUGE effort, just a little planning and preparation. If you make up one of the two thirds of companies that don’t have a comprehensive strategy, ask yourself “why not?”.

The risks of SharePoint security mismanagement

Posted by Sophina Dillard No comments

How would you feel if that creep from the office had looked through your contract to find out what you earn? Would it bother you if anyone other than your direct manager could read your performance review? What would it look like if your company’s customer details or information about a merger were hacked?

SharePoint is an amazingly powerful tool which, when implemented correctly, is perfectly secure. However, that’s the catch: it has to be implemented correctly. We love SharePoint because it’s so amazingly flexible, and this flexibility basically allows you to deploy it in almost any way you want. However, this feature is a double-edged sword – people often implement SharePoint in a risky manner, and open their organizations to the danger of leaks and hacks.

Why you need to be aware of SharePoint risks

Not convinced that having a security policy is such a big deal? Think again. 

A recent survey of 1000 SharePoint users found some pretty surprising results. 34% of respondents admitted that themselves or their colleagues had, at some point, looked at documents they weren’t supposed to read. Of those who had, 23% had looked into their colleagues’ salary information, 34% had looked at other personal details and 8% had discovered secret information about mergers and acquisitions. Respondents also shared information they weren’t supposed to, either by putting it on USB sticks or sharing it with themselves via email. 

Perhaps most worryingly, a lot of companies don’t have any kind of strategy for dealing with security. Research by Emedia revealed that a staggering 22% of organizations have NO information security policy:

As Emedia’s research shows, only 1/3 of organizations actually have a comprehensive and up-to-date security policy to protect themselves against data breaches.

Why is all of this a problem?

If you don’t have a comprehensive security strategy, you’re opening your company up to a lot of risks.

Privacy

It goes without saying, but most employees would feel violated if they knew anyone in the business would be able to see their personal information. Even if they had ‘nothing to hide’ the simple fact that their colleagues could discover private information without asking them directly would make many people feel uncomfortable.

Leaks

Another major risk for organizations without a strong security policy is that information may be leaked by employees with an agenda or who want to damage the organization in some way. While it’s true that SharePoint wasn’t at fault for the Edward Snowden leaks at the NSA (lax security was to blame), it does show how even a technically advanced organization can be vulnerable to internal attacks. Without a strong security policy, your organization’s plans, trade secrets and strategy could be shared with competitors and undermine your market position. 

Hacking

Almost any organization worth its salt is at risk of hacking. If a hacker is determined, they may well find a hole at some point in your company’s security – even if you have a well maintained firewall. However, those organizations who have developed ‘defense in depth’ will always be able to limit the impact of such attacks. Even if a hacker ‘gets in’ with a valid user name they’ve acquired, they’ll only ever be able to see what that user had access to. If your company doesn’t have a well maintained internal security policy and allows anyone to look at any document, you may as well fling the doors wide open. 

Compliance

You might still not be convinced that any of the above reasons are enough to make you improve your SharePoint security strategy. However, you never really had much of a choice anyway. There are a range of regulations around the world which, to some degree or another, will force you to treat and manage the data your company collects in a secure manner. 

The European Union's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) will be coming into force over the next couple of years. It will basically affect any company that ever treats the Personably Identifiable Information (PII) of individuals from the EU – whether they’re customers, clients or employees. The rule will force companies to implement strict data management policies to reduce the chances of private data getting into the wrong hands. And if you don’t comply, expect a hefty fine – either 100 million Euros or 5% of annual turnover – whichever is greater. 

Get smart

SharePoint security needn’t be too hard, though. Fortunately, there is software out there, such as Sharegate, that makes SharePoint security management very simple. If you properly manage SharePoint’s security, you’ll massively reduce your chances of losing vital information, secrets and being fined by international organizations. Secure SharePoint management doesn’t require a HUGE effort, just a little planning and preparation. If you make up one of the two thirds of companies that don’t have a comprehensive strategy, ask yourself “why not?”.

Using SharePoint 2010 Development Services for Better ROI

Today's topic is discussed by our guest blogger, D R Sampath. He has written various articles related to technology and on software industry. Today he would like to tell us about SharePoint development and what all factors are responsible for its better growth and development. Lets read what he want to share with us - 

Several factors are responsible for making a business productive, successful and efficient. For successful achievement of the project goals and well-timed delivery of solutions, a concerned team needs to work strongly on each aspect. They need to make an effective collaborative or communication system with the aim to maintain the complete panel updated about every improvement according to the current market scenario and business needs. For this purpose, most of the organizations are looking to hire SharePoint 2010 development services of a professional body. Moreover, they want to use latest technologies and methods to make a business process more effective.

Professional developers are always ready to adopt essential changes in technology, trends, requirements, development methods, and business models. Usually, they need to communicate at every step and keep updated about modifications. Better co-ordination among team members can make a project work successful and generate better ROI (Return on Investment) for their clients. Expert developers or designers of a top IT company have knowledge and capability in creating different SharePoint solutions like interactive rich internet apps, intranet solutions, student management portal, HR solutions, extranet solutions, vendor management portal, enterprise content management solutions, distant learning solutions, data migration solutions, custom solution and many more.

SharePoint 2010 development framework provides a single web-based platform and a collaborative work team environment to the users. As well as, with built-in search capabilities, it helps users to find valuable data or information more successfully compared to the traditional file sharing system. Using feature-rich SharePoint 2010 version, many IT companies are offering excellent SharePoint software development services and a reliable platform to the business people.

Nowadays, most of the small and big organizations are relying on highly secure, cost-effective, customized and scalable SharePoint solutions for optimum business performance. Indeed, SharePoint services and solutions ensure the better ROI with a great user experience. It offers a lot of possibilities and opportunities for a successful industrial process. Using this platform, users can easily manage content or data throughout the information life cycle. On the other hand, it allows business organizations to quickly respond to varying market condition as well as customer needs by building data-driven decisions and deploying customized solutions securely and fast.

Besides, it is very important for you to hire an experienced and professional SharePoint development company for top-quality business results by increasing profits. A top IT company has a team of skilled and highly qualified developers to build secure, robust and exclusive applications. They have a vast knowledge of all critical technologies (Silverlight, Dot Net, SQL Server, DirectX(r) and so on), innovative development methods and utilization of different SharePoint versions. Using latest SharePoint version, most of the IT companies have become successful by creating best possible business results and revenue for different clients.

Using SharePoint 2010 Development Services for Better ROI

Posted by Sophina Dillard No comments

Today's topic is discussed by our guest blogger, D R Sampath. He has written various articles related to technology and on software industry. Today he would like to tell us about SharePoint development and what all factors are responsible for its better growth and development. Lets read what he want to share with us - 

Several factors are responsible for making a business productive, successful and efficient. For successful achievement of the project goals and well-timed delivery of solutions, a concerned team needs to work strongly on each aspect. They need to make an effective collaborative or communication system with the aim to maintain the complete panel updated about every improvement according to the current market scenario and business needs. For this purpose, most of the organizations are looking to hire SharePoint 2010 development services of a professional body. Moreover, they want to use latest technologies and methods to make a business process more effective.

Professional developers are always ready to adopt essential changes in technology, trends, requirements, development methods, and business models. Usually, they need to communicate at every step and keep updated about modifications. Better co-ordination among team members can make a project work successful and generate better ROI (Return on Investment) for their clients. Expert developers or designers of a top IT company have knowledge and capability in creating different SharePoint solutions like interactive rich internet apps, intranet solutions, student management portal, HR solutions, extranet solutions, vendor management portal, enterprise content management solutions, distant learning solutions, data migration solutions, custom solution and many more.

SharePoint 2010 development framework provides a single web-based platform and a collaborative work team environment to the users. As well as, with built-in search capabilities, it helps users to find valuable data or information more successfully compared to the traditional file sharing system. Using feature-rich SharePoint 2010 version, many IT companies are offering excellent SharePoint software development services and a reliable platform to the business people.

Nowadays, most of the small and big organizations are relying on highly secure, cost-effective, customized and scalable SharePoint solutions for optimum business performance. Indeed, SharePoint services and solutions ensure the better ROI with a great user experience. It offers a lot of possibilities and opportunities for a successful industrial process. Using this platform, users can easily manage content or data throughout the information life cycle. On the other hand, it allows business organizations to quickly respond to varying market condition as well as customer needs by building data-driven decisions and deploying customized solutions securely and fast.

Besides, it is very important for you to hire an experienced and professional SharePoint development company for top-quality business results by increasing profits. A top IT company has a team of skilled and highly qualified developers to build secure, robust and exclusive applications. They have a vast knowledge of all critical technologies (Silverlight, Dot Net, SQL Server, DirectX(r) and so on), innovative development methods and utilization of different SharePoint versions. Using latest SharePoint version, most of the IT companies have become successful by creating best possible business results and revenue for different clients.

How to manage Microsoft SharePoint efficiently: Tips for IT managers

SharePoint helps you to collaborate, share documents, construct internal and external websites of any enterprise platform and the most importantly ensures the ideal communication within the organization using it. While there are so many free and low cost tools and applications available in the market – such as Google Apps, Box.net and Hyper Office etc. Microsoft’s Share Point offers the improved security, feature set, advanced user interface and integration with Microsoft Office that is quite essential tool for many organization functional needs.

For small businesses, who want the familiarity of Microsoft can check out Microsoft Office 365. Still there are some points or tips that need to be considered for the optimal use of SharePoint in a company. They are:

1. Proper Planning: Planning is really important to take the further steps. It is important for better performance, delivering results and authentication etc. After deployment, it is most important step for building and maintaining SharePoint 2010.  It becomes misleadingly and complex when there is a lack of planning in the initial stages as well as in the long term planning which can cause pain points.

2.  Use site quota: It is one of the most underused features in SharePoint yet it is critical to maintain it for the proper functioning environment. It gives you an opportunity to ask the right set of queries in order to keep the content stored in SharePoint organized and new, while maintaining a supportable database. 

3.  Recycle bins consumed space outside the site: In this point, it has 2 categories for the recycle bins. In the first stage, it is used by user-recoverable contents; this uses space against the site collection quota. In the second one, it is used by the site collection administrator and/support staff to recover the content that may have been deleted and/or expired from the first stage recycle bin.

4. Understand its limitations: No doubt, it is extremely scalable and flexible depending on the deployment architecture, but it does have limitations. It comes with guidelines around limits and boundaries for SharePoint. A good rule of thumb is to stay within 50% of Microsoft’s suggested limits and boundaries.

5. Sizing Issues: When it comes to sizing disputes, then the consumed space and resources are need to be taken under consideration in the SharePoint environment. Especially for Searching, User Profiles allocation, Web Analytics and Usage and Health Services etc.

These are just few main pain-points that you face at downtime. If you follow these basic tips it will definitely ensure you to have low downtime and inactivity and will require minimal administrative resources for better performance.

How to manage Microsoft SharePoint efficiently: Tips for IT managers

Posted by Sophina Dillard No comments

SharePoint helps you to collaborate, share documents, construct internal and external websites of any enterprise platform and the most importantly ensures the ideal communication within the organization using it. While there are so many free and low cost tools and applications available in the market – such as Google Apps, Box.net and Hyper Office etc. Microsoft’s Share Point offers the improved security, feature set, advanced user interface and integration with Microsoft Office that is quite essential tool for many organization functional needs.

For small businesses, who want the familiarity of Microsoft can check out Microsoft Office 365. Still there are some points or tips that need to be considered for the optimal use of SharePoint in a company. They are:

1. Proper Planning: Planning is really important to take the further steps. It is important for better performance, delivering results and authentication etc. After deployment, it is most important step for building and maintaining SharePoint 2010.  It becomes misleadingly and complex when there is a lack of planning in the initial stages as well as in the long term planning which can cause pain points.

2.  Use site quota: It is one of the most underused features in SharePoint yet it is critical to maintain it for the proper functioning environment. It gives you an opportunity to ask the right set of queries in order to keep the content stored in SharePoint organized and new, while maintaining a supportable database. 

3.  Recycle bins consumed space outside the site: In this point, it has 2 categories for the recycle bins. In the first stage, it is used by user-recoverable contents; this uses space against the site collection quota. In the second one, it is used by the site collection administrator and/support staff to recover the content that may have been deleted and/or expired from the first stage recycle bin.

4. Understand its limitations: No doubt, it is extremely scalable and flexible depending on the deployment architecture, but it does have limitations. It comes with guidelines around limits and boundaries for SharePoint. A good rule of thumb is to stay within 50% of Microsoft’s suggested limits and boundaries.

5. Sizing Issues: When it comes to sizing disputes, then the consumed space and resources are need to be taken under consideration in the SharePoint environment. Especially for Searching, User Profiles allocation, Web Analytics and Usage and Health Services etc.

These are just few main pain-points that you face at downtime. If you follow these basic tips it will definitely ensure you to have low downtime and inactivity and will require minimal administrative resources for better performance.