Microsoft 365: Protection unit-level offboarding for Microsoft 365 Backup

🚨 The Signal: Microsoft 365 Backup now allows permanent deletion of individual protection units (OneDrive, SharePoint sites, Exchange mailboxes). This provides granular control over data retention and deletion, crucial for compliance and data minimisation strategies.

The Impact

Backup administrators are affected, gaining new capabilities to permanently delete specific data, reducing data sprawl and associated risks.

• Backup Admins: Can now permanently delete specific data, reducing long-term data retention risks.
• Compliance Teams: Improved ability to meet data disposal requirements and minimise data sprawl.
• Security Teams: Reduced risk surface from unnecessary long-term data retention in backups.

The Action

1. Review existing data retention policies for Microsoft 365 Backup.
2. Identify protection units eligible for permanent deletion based on policy.
3. Utilise the Microsoft 365 Backup portal to initiate protection unit offboarding.
4. Monitor offboarding status and verify permanent deletion.

Impact: medium · Workload: Microsoft Purview · Essential Eight: Regular Backups · ISM: ISM-1511, ISM-1515, ISM-1705, ISM-1706, ISM-1707, ISM-1708, ISM-1810, ISM-1811, ISM-1812, ISM-1813, ISM-1814