How much personal information does your organisation collect?

Information management Microsoft 365

Did you know Microsoft 365 has built in functionality that shows you where Personally Identifiable Information (PII) is stored within SharePoint, Teams, Exchange and OneDrive?

Microsoft has in-built classifiers that identify sensitive content using pattern recognition. They automatically scan your environment for important PII such as:

  • Bank account numbers
  • Tax File Numbers
  • Australian Business Numbers and Australian Company Numbers
  • Passport numbers
  • Driver’s licenses
  • Medicare card numbers
  • Physical addresses

The classifiers are not perfect so keep an eye out for false positives, but it is a great place to start to understand what PII you hold and where is it stored. Knowing what PII your organisation collects and where it is stored is the first step to protecting it.

To find out how much PII is stored within your environment:

  1. Open Microsoft Purview (you will need Admin access)
  2. Go to the Data classification module
  3. Click on the Content explorer tab
  4. Search the sensitive info types (listed above)
  5. And see the locations and volumes where the sensitive info types are stored.

Data classification screen in Microsoft Purview to identify personal information. Microsoft consultants in Brisbane that can help you leverage the features of Microsoft Purview to identify personal information.

Recent major data breaches in Australia have exposed the lack of safeguards in place in organisations to prevent such personal and private information being released to wrongdoers, resulting in lasting harmful impacts on the customers and organisations involved.

Contact the Breadcrumb team for advice and support to protect the sensitive information your organisation manages in Microsoft 365.