Microsoft announced that Data Loss Prevention (DLP) capabilities will soon be expanded from being available for just Exchange 2013 to SharePoint Online and OneDrive for Business.

The update has been planned for a release in different phases.

What does DLP mean for SharePoint Online/OneDrive? Read on to know how it can protect you better

Today since collaboration has gone beyond e-mails, Microsoft Office 365 team will be releasing protection of customers’ sensitive data on SharePoint Online and OneDrive for Business. The administrator in the customer’s organization can easily apply a new DLP policy to protect sensitive data. The policy update is a change in the conditions related to using and accessing data within an organization.

The Office 365 team has worked in phases on the DLP policy where Phase I focused on understanding the risks associated with information disclosure. Phase II focused on prevention of sensitive information disclosure and Phase III will enable customization of the policy with the ability to detect sensitive information and apply single policy to manage it across various workloads.

One of the most critical aspects of the entire exercise is to educate end users on maintaining data safety. The administrator can create rules wherein end users can access certain data and are alerted when using sensitive data out of context. The end user will receive policy notifications and are notified with an e-mail in case of a violation of data sensitivity policy. The administrator can also set exceptions, in case, they want the policy override for certain users.

What’s more to it?

The administrator will have the option to track incidence management and monitor policy effectiveness with a dashboard. The stats can be reviewed for a week, month or custom selected.

Phase III, with all the updates and new features, is expected to be available in the second half of 2015. So it’s a matter of a few months before we can enjoy enhanced security and some more amazing features for SharePoint Online/OneDrive.