SharePoint, OneDrive, and Office DLP

Data loss prevention (DLP) is a set of governance and management controls that limit leakage of sensitive content, such as credit card numbers, by combining identification of such data with appropriate data-handling policies. DLP works with Microsoft-hosted OneDrive for Business and SharePoint Online documents and is also enabled in some Office 2016 applications. Organizations subject to data-handling regulations and companies with bring-your-own-device policies can benefit from DLP. However, older server and desktop applications do not support DLP, and new DLP features are available only with an enterprise-level Office 365 plan.

New DLP Features in SharePoint, OneDrive for Business

New DLP features in Microsoft-hosted SharePoint and OneDrive for Business implement data controls in a two-stage process:

• Discovery of sensitive content
• Enforcement of data handling policies.

These actions are set up by an administrator within the Office 365 Security & Compliance Center, a part of the organization’s Office 365 Portal. The Security & Compliance Center also provides incident and trend reporting after DLP policies are activated.