Use the mitigation plan in Data Security Investigations (preview)

The mitigation plan helps you connect analysis to specific mitigation actions from examination tools and analyst reviews. The mitigation plan is like a to-do list that you can use to help manage and track data risk mitigation actions in your investigation. This plan helps analysts centralize all items that require attention or action to mitigate risks associated with the investigation and data security incident.

Using the mitigation plan, take the following actions:

• Prioritize by risk level: Immediately address anything that might lead to an active security breach if not remediated.

• Mark items for follow-up: Use the mitigation plan to track follow-up activities

• Consult or involve relevant stakeholders: Make sure your plan addresses responsibilities for the following areas:

  • Credentials: Identify who resets credentials and by when.
  • Data exposure: Identify who removes external sharing links or moves files to a secure location.
  • User education or enforcement: Identify who follows up with training or disciplinary measures.
  • Further investigation: Identify who is responsible for any item that suggests a larger security issue in your organization.

Mitigation plan dashboard

The Mitigation plan displays all items you add to the mitigation plan in your investigation. With this view, you can quickly see all the items that need action in your investigation, the status for each item, and other important information about each item in the plan.

• Name: The subject or title of the data item.
• Type: The file type of the data item.
• Description: The description of the data item.
• Status: The current status of the data item. Values include In-progress or Complete.
• Last modified by: The name of the analyst or investigator that last updated information about the data item.
• Last updated (UTC): The date and time in Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) that the data item was last updated.

Select Customize columns to customize the displayed columns and the order of the columns in the mitigation plan. Choose the columns to display or hide. Select Add filter and choose an available filter to filter items in the mitigation plan.

Select Download list to create a .csv file containing the list of data items and the column information in the mitigation plan.

Item detailed view

Analysts can view details about each data item included in the mitigation plan as part of the review and evaluation process. After you select a data item, an item summary and viewers are available for the analyst to view metadata, source, and other information.

Update item status

As you review data items and work to mitigate risks for each data item, you can manage the current status for each item. You can update the status for individual items or bulk update the status for multiple data items.

To update the status for a data item, complete the following steps:

1. Go to the Microsoft Purview portal and sign in with the credentials for a user account assigned Data Security Investigations permissions.
2. Select the Data Security Investigations (preview) solution card, then select Investigations in the left nav.
3. Select an investigation, then select Mitigation.
4. Select one or more data items in the mitigation plan.
5. Select Update status, then select the applicable status.

You can also change the status of a data item from the item detail view. From the detailed view for an item, select Complete to change the status of the data item.

Implement the mitigation plan

To implement your mitigation plan, work through the following mitigation steps:

• Revoke or change credentials immediately: For each exposed password or secret, ensure the responsible owner resets it. This might involve forcing password resets for user accounts, deleting or regenerating access keys, or changing service account credentials.

• Contain data exposure: If files were accessible publicly or to too many people, lock down permissions immediately. Remove external guest access on SharePoint sites if a sensitive file was shared. If an email with secrets was sent externally, reach out to the recipient to delete it (if appropriate) or use message recall if possible.

• Remediate documents: For files that shouldn't contain certain information, decide whether to delete them, redact them, or secure them. Often, removing the sensitive content from the source is advised (or encrypting it). Consider applying sensitivity labels or Data Loss Prevention policies to prevent files from being shared again.

• Track activities and insights: Use the activity timeline for items. This information might identify related user activities. Check if any risky user behavior is ongoing and conduct further investigation of that user might be warranted.

• Document every action: In the activity history, every search, analysis, and mitigation action is logged. This is useful for audit and post-incident review. Ensure the log shows that all risky items were addressed.

• Communicate and resolve the incident: Update all stakeholders on the following:

  • Confirm that critical holes (credentials, public links, etc.) are closed.
  • If necessary, prepare any external notifications. For example, informing customers of a data breach and informing applicable regulators.
  • Conduct a debrief with all stakeholders. The insights and lessons learned can be used to improve policies and prevent future incidents.