After vowing to be compliant with the European Union's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) by May 25, 2018 - when the legislation comes into force - and offering public contractual commitments surrounding the new law, Microsoft has now extended a helping hand to other companies that wish to comply.
In a post on its official blog, the Redmond giant states that there are "roughly 160 GDPR requirements ranging from how you collect, store and use personal information, to mandating a 72-hour notification for personal data breaches". As such, it details a couple of tools that it puts at the disposal of partners who wish to track and manage their GDPR compliance.
The first to be highlighted is Azure Information Protection, which gives you "document tracking and revocation capabilities", allowing thus the monitoring of the path of sensitive data, and revoking of access if needed. This is in place to secure data that's shared outside of company walls, whether it be documents or emails.
Also part of the tool kit is Office 365 Advanced Data Governance, which can label sensitive data automatically, and thus organize it with classifications. Through this, you can easily set policies for "protection, retention or deletion", which translates into an easier road to compliance.
Last but not least, building on top of Office 365 Secure Score, Microsoft plans to launch a new dashboard centered on security, privacy and compliance. The portal would allow companies to see the degree of compliance as well as what other steps need to be taken.
No specific date has been pointed out in relation to when the new dashboard would be available, only that it would show up "later this year".
Source and images: Microsoft
