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What is happening?
Beginning this July Information Technology will be making adjustments to the security around Microsoft 365 for employees.
The first change will be to enforce encryption for any emails or documents that Microsoft detects as containing potentially restricted data being shared to those outside of the Bowdoin community. This will not prevent the information from being shared externally, but will ensure that information that is shared in email or attachments with external partners is done securely. For more information on what we may consider restricted data, please see our Data Classification Policy.
The second change will enable information protection labels in Microsoft 365. This will give employees the ability to classify their emails or documents to indicate how sensitive the information is. These labels will reflect our Data Classification Policy and will apply protections and visual queues to email and documents to help recipients understand the nature of the information contained. Additional information on using these labels and how they work can be found in: Information Protection in Microsoft 365.
Why is this happening?
These changes are being made to better protect the information that Bowdoin stewards as a part of achieving it's critical mission. These protections will enhance our ability to prevent accidental data loss, and also enable our community to better protect information that they work with during their day to day.
What does it mean for me?
This will mean that all Bowdoin community members will have new tools at their finger tips to help better classify data and ensure that those being collaborated with understand the sensitivity of the information being worked on. If documents are being collaborated on with external partners using sensitive information, there may be some questions those partners must answer or respond to when they're emailed. Instead of receiving the message directly, they may now receive a secure link to log in to read the message. This extra layer of security will help prevent Bowdoin sensitive information from travelling insecurely as an email or attachment.