Microsoft has a diverse catalog of extensions for the Chrome Web Store including those for Teams, Office, Solitaire Collection, News and more. We have recently also seen examples of malicious developers taking advantage of this and releasing illegitimate extensions in the store with Microsoft"s branding.
The "Microsoft Compliance Extension" for Chrome is primarily meant for organizational use as it utilizes Microsoft"s Data Loss Prevention (DLP) and Insider Risk Management solutions for sensitive workflows.
It enables organizations to setup granular policies for handling sensitive data on Chrome, such as blocking and recording violations, and even allowing users to override it if they have a legitimate business need. The DLP events and logs can then be used in Insider Risk Management investigations that can be utilized to deliver insights about this particular threat.
To reduce training time and create awareness about policy violations, the extension immediately shows alert with guidance and remediation activities that a user can undertake if they perform such an activity.
Despite being available for quite some time in preview already and having over 5,000 users, Microsoft"s blog post does not detail any new enhancements or improvements that come with general availability. The only notable difference we can spot is the removal of the "preview" branding. If you are an IT admin and Microsoft Compliance Extension suits your needs, you can download it from the Chrome Web Store here.