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Protect against malware and other cyberthreats

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This article describes how to increase your threat protection with Microsoft 365 Business Premium. It's critical to protect your business against phishing, malware, and other threats. Use this article as a guide to walk through the following steps:

• Review and apply preset security policies for email and collaboration . Preset security policies can save a lot of time in setup and configuration.
• Turn on Microsoft Defender for Business now so that you are ready to secure your organization's managed devices.
• Adjust sharing settings for SharePoint and OneDrive files and folders to prevent accidental oversharing of files.
• Set up and review your alert policies to protect against data loss.
• Manage calendar sharing to determine whether employees can share their calendars with external users or manage the level of detail that can be shared.
• Create more security policies for email and collaboration (if needed). Preset security policies provide strong protection; however, you can define your own custom policies to suit your company's needs.

1. Review and apply preset security policies for email and collaboration

Your subscription includes preset security policies that use recommended settings for anti-spam, anti-malware, and anti-phishing protection. By default, built-in protection is enabled; however, consider applying standard or strict protection for increased security.

Preset security policies are not the same thing as security defaults . Typically, you'll be using either security defaults or Conditional Access first, and then you'll add your security policies. Preset security policies simplify the process of adding your security policies. You can also create optional custom security policies (if needed).

What are preset security policies?

Preset security policies provide protection for your email and collaboration content. These policies consist of:

• Profiles , which determine the level of protection
• Policies (such as anti-spam, anti-malware, anti-phishing, spoof settings, impersonation, Safe Attachments, and Safe Links)
• Policy settings (such as groups, users, or domains to receive the policies and any exceptions)

The following table summarizes the levels of protection and preset policy types.

You can specify the users, groups, and domains to receive preset policies, and you can define certain exceptions, but you cannot change the preset policies themselves. If you want to use different settings for your security policies, you can create your own custom policies to suit your company's needs.

Policy order of priority

If users are assigned multiple policies, an order of priority is used to apply the policies. The order of priority works as follows:

Strict protection receives the highest priority and overrides all other policies.

Standard protection

Custom security policies

Built-in protection receives the lowest priority and is overridden by strict protection, standard protection, and custom policies.

Strict protection overrides all other policies, and other policies override built-in protection.

To learn more about preset security policies, see Preset security policies in EOP and Microsoft Defender for Office 365 .

How do I assign preset security policies to users?

Before you begin, make sure you have one of the following roles assigned in Exchange Online (which is included in your subscription):

• Global Administrator
• Organization Management
• Security Administrator

To learn more, see Permissions in Exchange Online and About admin roles .

To assign preset security policies, follow these steps:

Go to the Microsoft Defender portal ( https://security.microsoft.com ) and sign in.

Go to Email & Collaboration > Policies & Rules > Threat policies > Preset Security Policies in the Templated policies section. (To go directly to the Preset security policies page, use https://security.microsoft.com/presetSecurityPolicies .)

On the Preset security policies page, in either the Standard protection or Strict protection section, select Manage Protection Settings .

The Apply Standard protection or Apply Strict protection wizard starts in a flyout. On the EOP protections apply to page, identify the internal recipients that the policies apply to (recipient conditions):

In the appropriate box, start typing a value, and then select the value that you want from the results. Repeat this process as many times as necessary. To remove an existing value, select the Remove icon next to the value.

For users or groups, you can use most identifiers (name, display name, alias, email address, account name, etc.), but the corresponding display name is shown in the results. For users, type an asterisk (*) by itself to see all available values.

To specify an exclusion, select the Exclude these users, groups, and domains checkbox, and then specify users, groups, or domains to exclude.

When you're finished, select Next .

On the Defender for Office 365 protections apply to page to identify the internal recipients that the policies apply to (recipient conditions). Specify users, groups, and domains just like what you did in the previous step.

On the Review and confirm your changes page, verify your selections, and then select Confirm .

To learn more about assigning preset security policies, see the following articles:

• Use the Microsoft Defender portal to assign Standard and Strict preset security policies to users
• Recommended settings for email and collaboration content (Microsoft 365 Business Premium includes Exchange Online Protection and Microsoft Defender for Office 365 Plan 1)

2. Turn on Microsoft Defender for Business

Microsoft 365 Business Premium includes Defender for Business , which provides advanced protection for your organization's devices, including client computers, tablets, and mobile phones. Server protection is also available if you have Microsoft Defender for Business servers.

To turn on Defender for Business, you actually initiate the provisioning process.

In the navigation bar, go to Assets > Devices . This action initiates the provisioning of Defender for Business for your tenant. You know this process has started when you see a message like what's displayed in the following screenshot:

It might take a few hours for your tenant to finish provisioning before you can onboard devices or complete the setup and configuration process.

Do one of the following steps:

• Proceed to 3. Adjust sharing settings for SharePoint and OneDrive files and folders (recommended) and set up Defender for Business later, when you get to Mission 6: Secure managed devices with Microsoft 365 Business Premium .
• Set up and configure Microsoft Defender for Business now, and then return to this article to complete the remaining steps.

3. Adjust sharing settings for SharePoint and OneDrive files and folders

By default, sharing levels are set to the most permissive level for both SharePoint and OneDrive. We recommend changing the default settings to better protect your business.

Go to Sharing in the SharePoint admin center , and sign in with an account that has admin permissions for your organization .

Under External sharing , specify the level of sharing. (We recommend using Least permissive to prevent external sharing.)

Under File and folder links , select an option (such as Specific people ). Then choose whether to grant View or Edit permissions by default for shared links (such as View ).

Under Other settings , select the options you want to use.

Then choose Save .

To learn more about these settings, see Manage sharing settings .

4. Set up and review your alert policies

Alert policies are useful for tracking user and admin activities, potential malware threats, and data loss incidents in your business. Your subscription includes a set of default policies, but you can also create custom ones. For example, if you store an important file in SharePoint that you don't want anyone to share externally, you can create a notification that alerts you if someone does share it.

The following image shows some of the default policies that are included with Microsoft 365 Business Premium.

View your alert policies

Go to the Microsoft Purview compliance portal at https://compliance.microsoft.com and sign in.

In the navigation pane, choose Policies , and then choose Alert policies .

Select an individual policy to view more details or to edit the policy. The following image shows a list of alert policies with one policy selected:

For more information, see alert policies .

How to view alerts

You can view your alerts in either the Microsoft Defender portal or the Microsoft Purview compliance portal.

For more information, see View alerts .

5. Manage calendar sharing

You can help people in your organization share their calendars appropriately for better collaboration. You can manage what level of detail they can share, such as by limiting the details that are shared to free/busy times only.

Go to Org settings in the Microsoft 365 admin center and sign in.

Choose Calendar , and choose whether people in your organization can share their calendars with people outside who have Office 365 or Exchange, or with anyone. We recommend clearing the External sharing option. If you choose to share calendars with anyone option, you can choose to also share free/busy information only.

Choose Save changes on the bottom of the page.

The following image shows that calendar sharing isn't allowed.

The following image shows the settings when calendar sharing is allowed with an email link with only free/busy information.

If your users are allowed to share their calendars, see these instructions for how to share from Outlook on the web.

6. Create additional security policies for email and collaboration (if needed)

The preset security policies described earlier in this article provide strong protection for most businesses. However, you're not limited to using preset security policies only. You can define your own custom security policies to suit your company's needs.

For more information about using preset security policies or custom policies, see Determine your protection policy strategy .

For our recommended policy settings, see the tables in Recommended settings for EOP and Microsoft Defender for Office 365 security .

To create and configure security policies, see the following articles:

• Configure anti-malware policies in EOP
• Configure anti-spam policies in EOP
• Configure anti-phishing policies in Microsoft Defender for Office 365
• Set up Safe Attachments policies in Microsoft Defender for Office 365
• Set up Safe Links policies in Microsoft Defender for Office 365

Proceed to:

• Secure managed and unmanaged devices
• Protect all email
• Collaborate and share securely

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With Microsoft 365 Business Basic, Microsoft 365 Business Standard, and Microsoft 365 Business Premium subscriptions that have a Microsoft Teams license, you can host online meetings and video calls for up to 300 people.

With Microsoft 365 E3 and E5, Microsoft 365 A3 and A5, and Microsoft 365 Government G3 and G5 subscriptions that have a Microsoft Teams license, this limit increases up to 1,000 people. Learn more . 

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Managed Service Providers (MSPs) who are part of Microsoft’s Cloud Solution Provider program can use Microsoft 365 Lighthouse as one central place to secure, manage, and grow their customers using Microsoft 365 Business Basic, Business Standard, Business Premium, Defender for Business, and Microsoft 365 for enterprise and education products.  Learn more .

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Can't access my Microsoft 365 business account

I'm trying to begin a private message with someone who can help with this.

I saw that someone else had a similar experience but there was no final resolution so it seems this is an issue that Microsoft has no goal to actually fix or make easier.

I signed up for a Microsoft 365 business account using the e-mail I use for work. However, I cannot actually sign into the account using that e-mail. I tried using the domain name e-mailed to me, but that also does not work. It's really frustrating that I'm paying for a service that I cannot actually access. I've tried calling and using the online chat feature, but after 20 minutes, no one ever showed up to chat with me. Please advise

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When I attempt to login with organization name, it allows me to add the domain name, but then immediately takes me back to the sign-in screen to type in my e-mail..which again it does not allow me to use.

If I click on "can't access your account" it says the same thing. Either that I can't use e-mail or the username i'm adding does not exist.

I attempted to login in-private mode and this still did not work.

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Problems sharing your Microsoft 365 Family subscription

Here are some common problems faced when sharing your Microsoft 365 Family subscription, and their potential solutions:

Microsoft 365 sharing invitation not received

If the person you invited to share your subscription didn’t receive the invitation, consider the following:

Confirm that you used their preferred email address.

Ask them to check their junk mail folder for a message with “Microsoft 365” in the subject.

Microsoft 365 sharing not available

You can only share your subscription if:

You have some Shares remaining. Your subscription can be shared with up to five others.

Note:  You do not need to share your subscription to install Microsoft 365 on multiple personal devices. You can use a Microsoft 365 Personal subscription on 5 devices, but you cannot share a Microsoft 365 Personal subscription with 5 other people.

If another person in your family group also has a Microsoft 365 Family or Personal subscription, it will not be shared with them. You cannot share with them because they already have the full benefits you are trying to share. 

Microsoft 365 subscription no longer available

If you leave the family group, everyone you’ve shared the subscription with will lose access.  If your Microsoft 365 Family subscription expires, you may need to remove then re-share to the Family group.

Microsoft 365 product key already used

Product keys aren't meant to be used for subscription sharing. Instead, please use the steps in Share your Microsoft 365 Family subscription  to send an email or link to each person you want to share with.

OneDrive storage not updating 

Sometimes, even after accepting the invitation, users may find that their OneDrive storage remains limited to 5 GB instead of the expected 1 TB. In such cases:

Verify that the user has accepted the invitation link.

Once accepted, they may need to wait 2 hours before changes to your storage show. Go to Manage storage , Refresh the page, and check if the additional storage is visible.

Each account has its own storage quota. If you want to share files and folders, read  Share OneDrive files and folders

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