{"id":93275,"date":"2015-07-29T13:20:26","date_gmt":"2015-07-29T17:20:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bu.edu\/tech\/?page_id=93275"},"modified":"2023-08-09T14:09:35","modified_gmt":"2023-08-09T18:09:35","slug":"security","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/tech\/services\/cccs\/collaboration\/sharepoint\/security\/","title":{"rendered":"Configuring Security in Microsoft 365\/SharePoint Online"},"content":{"rendered":"

Last updated 2020-03-03<\/p>\n

Microsoft 365 is Microsoft\u2019s cloud-based offering of a number of services, including SharePoint Online. Boston University\u2019s Information Services & Technology (IS&T) maintains a tenant in Office 365, through which it offers departments, research groups, and others the opportunity to request and manage their own SharePoint site collections. Boston University\u2019s Microsoft 365 Security Policy<\/a> defines the types of information that may be stored in Microsoft 365\/SharePoint Online. The basis for that policy begins with our agreements with Microsoft regarding security in their data centers, some of which is described in the\u00a0Microsoft Trust Center<\/a>, but that security must be preserved and extended through the awareness, choices, and actions of each local site collection administrator. This page is intended to introduce local site collection administrators to concepts and settings you can use to preserve the security of your site collection. You\u2019ll find a list of pointers to more information at the end.<\/p>\n

Sharing options that can be set by IS&T, upon request, for each site collection<\/h2>\n

By default, new site collections created for departments, research groups, etc., are set to disallow sharing outside of BU. This optimizes security by guarding against accidental external sharing. The site collection administrator can request that the sharing options be changed to any of the three levels at any time. We recommend that you do not request external sharing to be enabled unless and until you need and plan to use it. Note that changing from an option that allows external sharing to a more restrictive option will cause disruption for people outside of BU with whom content has been shared. The three options that can be set for each site collection are shown below.<\/p>\n

\"O365<\/a><\/p>\n

Permissions controlled by the site collection administrator<\/h2>\n

The site collection administrator controls access to content within the site collection. While access can be controlled at various levels, e.g., the site collection, a subsite, a document library or list, or even a folder or single document, security is most easily and successfully maintained when sharing and permissions are kept as simple and clear as possible. In general, maintaining permissions at the site collection or subsite level is highly recommended: easy to understand and to maintain. Site collections should be designed so that all content in a given area, e.g., a subsite, has the same access requirements.<\/p>\n

We strongly recommend that you use groups to control access in SharePoint. Rather than assigning permissions to individuals, assign permissions to groups and then add people to the group that provides the desired access. By default, SharePoint commonly defines three groups:<\/p>\n