Summary: Exchange Server is a vital component of many organizations that need to be adequately protected to prevent cyber threats, malware, unauthorized access, and other risks. In this guide, we will provide you with the knowledge and expertise needed to protect your Exchange Server, ensuring the complete integrity of your email infrastructure.
Microsoft Exchange Server has earned the trust of the majority of its users because they know that their data is safe at the Exchange Server. Microsoft always puts the security measures of Exchange Server at a high pedestal and uses various techniques to safeguard the data. The latest version of Exchange Server 2019 has increased the level of security by allowing to install the Exchange Server 2019 at only the Windows Server 2019 as well as Windows Server Core. But, still, you should know about various techniques to further protect your Exchange Server data present in different mailboxes. In the present article, we will go through some useful practices which we can use to enhance the protection of your business data.
How to secure Exchange Server data?
Here are the multiple tips and Microsoft tools you must follow to protect your Exchange data from any issues and external threats.
Take assistance of external IT experts: There are many security experts and ethical hackers who can check the health of your network. Various businesses hire these professionals and use their expertise to find out the loopholes in their system. It is a white hat technique that critically examines your current IT setup and allows the experts to give you some valuable suggestions.
Secure your Operating System: Many Exchange Administrators overlook the significance of a secure operating system. They only focus on Exchange Server and its given security methods. But the Operating system has many unnecessary processes running in the background, which can hamper ongoing email communication. That’s why you should check such processes and disable them. You should also delete the old files present on the Operating System.
Use valid security certificates from an authorized vendor: The security certificates are required for efficient incoming/outgoing communication, and they make sure that the messages are safe from any external threat. You need to have different certificates for different hostnames, so plan your budget accordingly. But it is better to go for an authorized vendor only.
Apply the firewall: A firewall may seem like a simple method, but it is a useful one. Microsoft provides an in-built Windows Firewall including Advanced Security. Here, you can filter the communication coming towards the Exchange Server.
Take a routine backup: Taking a backup of the Exchange database is an essential job of the Exchange Administrator, and you need to save it at a routine interval. Windows Server Backup is the tool that you should utilize to take the backup as per your comfort. With the use of the Windows Server Backup tool, you can save the backup of either the full server or customize to select only the important ones.
You can also use the Kernel Exchange Backup & Restore, tool which can perform both data backup and restore functionalities. It allows you to save EDB to PST file, which you can again restore to Exchange later.
Use various Microsoft tools: There are different tools from Microsoft that are extremely useful, and you can check and find out the current health of the Exchange Server. Here is the list:
Exchange Best Practices Analyzer (EBPA): It is a unique tool for the Exchange Administrators that programmatically collects the values from the various data repositories like Active Directory, Metabase, and performance monitor. Later, it provides a detailed report and recommends the changes helpful in scaling the performance of Exchange Server.
Security Compliance Manager: It is a security and compliance tool that lets you plan and manage the security baseline for the client and server operating system, and other Microsoft software. It reduces the time and energy required to secure the IT environments.
Microsoft Security Configuration Wizard: It is a unique program that lets the Administrator change the server’s default settings. You can customize network security policy, registry values, services, and audit policies.
Microsoft Baseline Security Analyzer: It is a free scan tool that can scan the local and remote Windows systems. It lets you access the missing security updates, update rollups, and Service packs available from Microsoft.
These referred tools make the Exchange Server more secure and easier to use.
Apply safe and block list: There is an in-built feature that lets you specify the senders you want to send messages to you. The list tells the Edge Transport Server to allow, or block senders mentioned in the list.
What to do if Exchange Server got corrupted?
Even after applying every possible security feature, the database may get corrupted due to any hardware or software failure. In case of corruption, you need to have an advanced Exchange data recovery tool which helps you access the database and remove the corruption. Kernel for Exchange Server is the best software which supports each version of Exchange Server and saves data in multiple formats. It not only helps the recovery of on-premises Exchange, but it can also recover the data from Exchange Online, hosted Exchange, etc. There are multiple filtering options which let you select only the essential data and leave the rest of the data. If the data was deleted accidentally, then you will find the data present in the mailbox colored in red and from there, you can easily recover EDB files.
By following the practices mentioned in this guide, you can significantly reduce the risk of security breaches and cyber-attacks and can easily protect your organization from Exchange Server. Moreover, in case of any corruption issues, we suggest using our recommended tool, which allows you to migrate EDB to Live Exchange and other platforms.