What is Customer Lockbox for Office 365?
< 1 minute read
Last week at RSA Conference, Microsoft announced a new capability for Office 365 called Customer Lockbox.
What is Customer Lockbox?
This new access control service gives Office 365 customers even more control over their data stored in the cloud. With Customer Lockbox, during the rare situations when a Microsoft engineer would need to directly access customer content in Office 365 (i.e. troubleshooting an issue with a mailbox), access would be obtained through Lockbox. According to Microsoft,
All access is obtained through a rigorous access control technology called Lockbox. Today, Lockbox enforces access control through multiple levels of approval within Microsoft, providing just-in-time access with limited and time-bound authorization. In addition, all access control activities in the service are logged and audited.
So, Microsoft employees will not be able to access any customer content without explicit approval from the customer.
Who can use Customer Lockbox, and when?
Eventually Customer Lockbox will be available to all Office 365 commercial plans. Administrators can control who can approve or reject Lockbox requests. The service will be available for Exchange Online by the end of 2013, and SharePoint Online by the first quarter of 2016.
