People take their privacy very seriously, and you could argue that large enterprises make their privacy even more seriously considering the millions of dollars at stake. So it is of vital importance for Microsoft to ensure that its services are as safe and as secure as possible.
One way to ensure the security of files stored in cloud-based services such as OneDrive for Business and SharePoint Online is encryption, and Microsoft encrypts data stores on those services at multiple levels. Microsoft notes that while it is important to encrypt files that are in transit between the data center and the user, it is equally important to encrypt files that are at rest, sitting on a hard drive.
Microsoft uses two types of encryption to secure data at rest; disk encryption and file encryption. Without going into too much technical depth, disk encryption uses Microsoft’s BitLocker technology to secure files on physical hard drives with AES 256-bit protection. Just to give you an idea of the absurd level of protection that AES 256 offers, it would take billions of years for a modern day supercomputer to crack, billions.
The second type of encryption is file encryption where every file is encrypted with AES 256, and each file that is larger than 64kb is split into a number of parts, each part is then encrypted and stored in different Microsoft Azure containers. You guessed it, every container is also protected, and then there’s even more encryption over that making the server and its contents practically impenetrable.
If you’re interested to learn more about how Microsoft goes about securing customer content in its services and servers, check out the video above and head over to the source link below for all the technicalities. Additionally, you can download the Office 365 Security White Paper that goes into details covering security on all of Microsoft’s Office productivity tools; that’s at the download link below.
Further reading: Encryption, Enterprise, Microsoft, OneDrive for Business, Security, SharePoint Online
