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Microsoft Purview - Paint By Numbers Series (Part 6) – Insider Risk Management - Overview

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James_Havens
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May 25, 2022

 

Before we start, please not that if you want to see a table of contents for all the sections of this blog and their various Purview topics, you can locate the in the following link:

Microsoft Purview- Paint By Numbers Series (Part 0) - Overview - Microsoft Tech Community

Disclaimer

This document is not meant to replace any official documentation, including those found at docs.microsoft.com.  Those documents are continually updated and maintained by Microsoft Corporation.  If there is a discrepancy between this document and what you find in the Compliance User Interface (UI) or inside of a reference in docs.microsoft.com, you should always defer to that official documentation and contact your Microsoft Account team as needed.  Links to the docs.microsoft.com data will be referenced both in the document steps as well as in the appendix.

 

All of the following steps should be done with test data, and where possible, testing should be performed in a test environment.  Testing should never be performed against production data.

Target Audience

The Insider Risk Management section of this blog series is geared toward Security and Compliance officers who need to monitor users behavior when it comes to compliance data.

 

 

Document Scope

This document is meant to guide an administrator who is “net new” to Microsoft E5 Compliance through the use of Insider Risk Management (IRM).

 

It is presumed that you already data to search inside your tenant.

 

We will only step through a basic eDiscovery case (see the Case section).

 

This piece of the blog is only an overview of the IRM tool.

 

Out-of-Scope

This document does not cover any other aspect of Microsoft E5 Compliance, including:

  • Sensitive Information Types
  • Exact Data Matching
  • Data Protection Loss (DLP) for Exchange, OneDrive, Devices
  • Microsoft Cloud App Security (MCAS)
  • Records Management (retention and disposal)
  • Overview of Advanced eDiscovery (AeD)
  • Reports and Analytics available in of Advanced eDiscovery (AeD)

It is presumed that you have a pre-existing of understanding of what Microsoft E5 Compliance does and how to navigate the User Interface (UI).

 

It is also presumed you are using an existing Information Types (SIT) or a SIT you have created for your testing.

As it relates to Insider Risk Management we will not be covering:

  • Permissions
  • Settings
  • Policies
  • Alerts
  • Cases (investigations)
  • Users
  • Notifications
  • Creation of Advanced eDiscovery Cases from IRM

 

If you wish to set up and test any of the other aspects of Microsoft E5 Compliance, please refer to Part 1 of this blog series (listed in the link below) for the latest entries to this blog.  That webpage will be updated with any new walk throughs or Compliance relevant information, as time allows.

Microsoft Compliance - Paint By Numbers Series (Part 1) - Sensitive Information Types - Microsoft Tech Community

 

Use Case

There are many use cases related to accessing and sharing of sensitive data.  One example is – A user is accessing and sharing sensitive data on a regular basis and management needs to know if there are any spikes in access or sharing of that information that might coordinate with negative HR reports, resignations, etc.

 

Overview of Document

This piece of the blog is only an overview of the IRM tool.

 

 

Definitions

  • Data Theft – This means data taken/stolen by departing users near their resignation or termination date.
  • Data Leakage – Data leaks can range from accidental oversharing of information outside your organization to data theft with malicious intent.​
  • Indicators – Indicators included in insider risk management policies used to determine a risk score for an in-scope user. These policy indicators are only activated after a triggering event occurs for a user.
  • Thresholds – Each indicator uses default thresholds that influences an activity's risk score, which in turn determines whether an alert's severity is low, medium, or high. The threshold is based on the number of events recorded for an activity per day.
  • Triggers – Triggering events determine when a policy will begin to assign risk scores to a user's activity.
  • Anonymization – Masking a user’s name and account information to prevent bias from investigators
  • Telemetry – data from the M365 Audit log (ex. deletions, changes, label modifications, uploads, etc),
  • Risk Score – Insider Risk Management leverages a score system to track how low or high a risk an activity is 100/100 is the highest risk possible.  0/100 is the lowest risk possible. 

 

Notes

None

 

Pre-requisites

If you have performed parts 1-3 of this blog series, then you have everything you need to run this .  If you have not done those parts of the blog, you will need to populate your test environment with test data for the steps to follow.

 

You must have enabled at least 1 Insider Risk Management license

 

It is recommended you have completed Part 3a DLP for Endpoint, or at the least, that you have on-boarded a minimum of one Windows 10/11 device to test the collection of Endpoint DLP policies into Insider Risk management (IRM).

 

You have loaded an Insider Risk Management (IRM) licensing for at least 1 week in order to collect as much telemetry as possible.  That you have run Sensitivity and DLP testing during that 1 week, again, to add telemetry information to your IRM console.

 

 

 

Overview

Insider Risk Management takes a subset of the telemetry from the Audit log (ex. deletions, changes, label modifications, uploads, etc), and then feeds that into a single console.

The tool is designed to guide you through monitoring user behaviors as it relates to violation of corporate mandates to keep corporate data secure.

Here is the flow we will follow for the Insider Risk Management section of this blog.

 

Overview

Insider Risk Management takes a subset of the telemetry from the Audit log (ex. deletions, changes, label modifications, uploads, etc), and then feeds that into a single console.

 

The tool is designed to guide you through monitoring user behaviors as it relates to violation of corporate mandates to keep corporate data secure.

 

 

Here is the flow we will follow for the Insider Risk Management section of this blog.

 

 

You are not ready to move the next section in this blog series – Permissions

 

 

Appendix and Links

 

Learn about insider risk management - Microsoft 365 Compliance | Microsoft Docs

 

Investigate insider risk management activities - Microsoft 365 Compliance | Microsoft Docs

 

Insider risk management cases - Microsoft 365 Compliance | Microsoft Docs

 

Insider risk management policies - Microsoft 365 Compliance | Microsoft Docs

 

Insider risk management notice templates - Microsoft 365 Compliance | Microsoft Docs

 

Insider risk management settings - Microsoft 365 Compliance | Microsoft Docs

 

Note: This solution is a sample and may be used with Microsoft Compliance tools for dissemination of reference information only. This solution is not intended or made available for use as a replacement for professional and individualized technical advice from Microsoft or a Microsoft certified partner when it comes to the implementation of a compliance and/or advanced eDiscovery solution and no license or right is granted by Microsoft to use this solution for such purposes. This solution is not designed or intended to be a substitute for professional technical advice from Microsoft or a Microsoft certified partner when it comes to the design or implementation of a compliance and/or advanced eDiscovery solution and should not be used as such.  Customer bears the sole risk and responsibility for any use. Microsoft does not warrant that the solution or any materials provided in connection therewith will be sufficient for any business purposes or meet the business requirements of any person or organization.

 

 

Updated Nov 03, 2022
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