TeamsHub by Cyclotron for Microsoft365 GCC and FTI

Introduction

Government agencies have strict security and storage requirements for data storage and sharing especially with cloud. In recent years, the US government has been aggressively targeted by foreign agencies and rogue attackers on mission-critical workloads. However, back-end silo systems, cloud adoption and improved security has not disrupted their business flexibility and citizen services. Today, amid workplace disruption due to COVID-19 outbreak, modernizing IT infrastructure to overcome security threats has become more important than ever.

Microsoft has a unique set of software and services that provide additional safeguards and protocols for US government bodies. Microsoft’s government cloud infrastructure adheres to the highest standards of privacy, security, and regulatory compliance. To help meet their goals, Microsoft offers three kinds of government-friendly versions of Microsoft 365:

1. Government Community Cloud (GCC) built for civilian agencies at the federal, state, and local levels.

2. GCC High built for highly classified government users handling sensitive operations.

3. DoD Cloud built for intelligence agencies

Depending on your organization’s compliance and security requirements, you can choose any Microsoft 365 US Government plan that is right for you by clicking here.

When it comes to the CJIS Security Policy and FTI data types, Microsoft 365 GCC is committed to trusted cloud services that are uniquely equipped and will help meet or exceed their compliance requirements.

Further in this blog, we will learn about compliant collaboration delivered by TeamsHub by Cyclotron while handling GCC and specifically FTI data.

Managing Federal Tax Information

It is extremely crucial for IRS and related agencies to handle highly confidential data such as social security numbers, federal tax information, etc. Also, FTI faces other challenges including employee fraud, data breaches, and regulatory changes that demand stringent governance framework.

Collaboration Challenges

Multiple FTI agencies and work locations, dispersed teams across various states, and the need to collaborate with external vendors require unique data restrictions and an exclusive set of configuration settings. For example, ‘one tenant, one rule’ architecture in Microsoft 365 forbids administrators to tighten security at one agency based on its use case. This compels other agencies that require sensitive data to deal with, opt for a different collaboration platform. Though Mcirosoft 365 is an incredibly robust and secured platform, it must be appropriately configured to remain in compliance.

TeamsHub by Cyclotron to manage FTI data

One size does not fit all

TeamsHub by Cyclotron extends the capabilities of Microsoft Teams. Our solution can be deployed in the customer environment or on premise with full control and can be customized as per the unique needs of each agency – FTI in this case for example

TeamsHub by Cyclotron helps organizations to collaborate under control by automating governance, improving flexibility in teams and group management, and enhancing data visibility. TeamsHub by Cyclotron enables plenty of security features with little effort, thereby making administration simpler and efficient.

Let us discern how TeamsHub by Cyclotron complements Microsoft Teams by fulfilling the compliant requirements of FTI agencies:

FTI Requirement #1: Manage Teams sprawl

Solution: TeamsHub by Cyclotron supports collaboration and communication with right people to handle FTI data, and automated workflows for approvals and provisioning. TeamsHub by Cyclotron ensures that every agency has unique classification settings to limit team or site creation.

FTI Requirement #2: Manage external users in Teams

Solution: TeamsHub by Cyclotron offers a strong permission model while handling shared information with external users such as taxpayers and contractors. TeamsHub by Cyclotron ensures different levels of guest permissions through proper configuration in Azure AD. It is also possible to limit external collaboration to only certain teams. A centralized dashboard for administrators helps track external sharing from a single interface

FTI Requirement #3: Secure data from leaks and breaches.

Solution: TeamsHub by Cyclotron identifies sensitive information such as PII with Data Loss Prevention (DLP) policies, Azure Information Protection (AIP) and Information Rights Management (IRM). Using sensitivity labels secures valuable assets through conditional access.

FTI Requirement #4: Classification and Tags

Solution: TeamsHub by Cyclotron allows the usage of filters, unified tagging, classification to derive quick information.TeamsHub by Cyclotron enables assigning of organization-specific classification to Teams. Hence, FTI agencies can detect owners or members of teams or groups belonging to a specific category of departments.

FTI Requirement #5: Alerts and notifications

Solution: FTI agencies need to be informed whenever data is accessed, modifed or created. TeamsHub by Cyclotron allows administrators to create templates for various types of notifications and alerts.

FTI Requirement #6: Archival and Restore

Solution: Using TeamsHub by Cyclotron, any agency can detect popular, recent, and inactive data or Teams and archive unused Team to restore them later. TeamsHub by Cyclotron efficiently eliminates the risk of losing a team and its data which is a critical phase in the lifecycle management of teams for FTI agencies.

FTI Requirement #7: Naming conventions and policies

Solution: TeamsHub by Cyclotron allows administrators to enforce custom naming policies. Naming conventions help in clarifying the purpose of data for both employees and external users. You can also enable Microsoft standard blocked words and custom blocked words to enforce the ethical and non-offensive use of terms

FTI Requirement #8: Ownership of data

Solution: Often, to achieve specific goals in a team, accountability or ownership may be required while handling FTI data. TeamsHub by Cyclotron lets users set minimum ownership policies. It also allows added responsibilities to manage teams if the primary owner is unavailable.

FTI Requirement #9: Analytics and Insights

Solution: With TeamsHub by Cyclotron, FTI personnel can access automated reports surfacing rich insights. Automation updates all information in the background to present real-time data.

Conclusion

TeamsHub by Cyclotron leverages the power of automation and governance and helps government bodies to remain security compliant. It is built with new efficiencies to simplify governance, maximize productivity, and transform your agency into an agile and safest digital workplace. If you are a government organization, looking to revolutionize your workplace, please click here.