The things they don't tell you about moving to Microsoft Office 365

Orlando Scott-Cowley, cyber security specialist at Mimecast, explains the pros and cons of moving email into the cloud

Migrating to Office 365 does not necessarily make your email data easier for hackers to access, not because it's perfectly secure, but because it's equally vulnerable on-premise.

That is the view of Orlando Scott-Cowley, cyber security specialist at Mimecast, speaking during a Computing web seminar today titled "The things they don't tell you about moving to Microsoft Office 365."

"If someone wants your data, they'll find it, whether it's in the cloud or on-premise," said Scott-Cowley. "If the attacker has resources, they'll find a way in. It's more likely though to be a malicious insider; someone could have been made redundant and want to cause you harm, for example. But you'll have better auditing and logging in the cloud than you would have elsewhere, so it will be harder for them to cover their tracks," he added.

This chimes with the feelings of a panel speaking at technology conference IPEXPO recently, who warned that a business could soon be sufficiently damaged to be completely wiped out by the actions of a malicious insider.

Presenting the results of Computing's research into the subject, senior reporter Sooraj Shah pointed out that 21 per cent of the brand's readers had indicated that they had already migrated all staff to Office 365.

And responding to a poll conducted during the event, 53 per cent of viewers (senior technology professionals at medium-sized to large organisations) said they were planning to migrate, while a further 11 per cent indicated that they were going through the migration process.

But that does not mean the decision to migrate is a no-brainer. Scott-Cowley explained that the change alters an organisation's risk profile.

"We find that the move changes the risk profile for organisations, in terms of their security, continuity, retention and data assurance. You're closing what is sometimes a 15 to 20 year-old infrastructure on the network, and moving into the cloud, and that's no easy move," he said.

This migration can often be a catalyst for adopting other cloud services, as Scott-Cowley explained.

"We've seen that once businesses think about Office 365, it starts a ripple; they look around and work out what other technology could go into the cloud. And that could be different third-party cloud services or other Microsoft offerings."

Scott-Cowley concluded by outlining some of the high-level benefits of the migration. "Office 365 is about reducing cost and flexibility, offering new functionality to your users, and being ahead of the curve," he said.