Security News > 2022 > June > Microsoft 365 now prevents data leaks with new session timeouts

Microsoft announced today the general availability of tenant-wide idle session timeout for Microsoft 365 web apps to protect confidential data on shared or non-company devices left unattended.

After an IT admin such as a Microsoft 365 or Office 365 global admin enables this new feature, users who have reached the configured period of inactivity will be notified that they're going to be automatically signed out.

"Today, we are super pleased to announce the general availability of idle session timeout for Microsoft 365 web apps. IT admins can now configure a tenant-wide timeout policy to automatically sign out users after a period of inactivity on Microsoft 365 web apps," said Namit Gupta, Principal Product Manager at Microsoft.

"From June to August 2022, this functionality will be rolled out in Microsoft 365 worldwide cloud environments of Office.com, Word, Excel, PowerPoint for the web, Outlook on the web, OneDrive for the web, SharePoint, and Microsoft 365 admin center."

In October 2019, Microsoft announced that its engineers are working on a new tenant-wide idle session timeout feature for Microsoft 365 web apps to prevent information exposure.

Global admins can enable idle session timeout functionality in the Microsoft 365 admin center by toggling "Idle session timeout" in Org Settings -> Security & privacy.

News URL

https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/microsoft/microsoft-365-now-prevents-data-leaks-with-new-session-timeouts/