SaaS Security
Onboard Office 365 Productivity Apps to SSPM
Table of Contents
Onboard Office 365 Productivity Apps to SSPM
Connect Office 365 productivity app instances to SSPM to detect posture
risks.
| Where Can I Use This? | What Do I Need? |
|---|---|
|
Or any of the following licenses that include the Data Security license:
|
To detect posture risks in your Office 365 productivity apps (Microsoft Word,
Microsoft PowerPoint, and Microsoft Excel), SSPM connects to the productivity apps
by using information that you provide. Once SSPM connects, it scans the Office 365
productivity apps for misconfigured settings and will continue to run scans at
regular intervals.
Previously, you could
also onboard Office 365 productivity apps by using a PowerShell connector, which
enabled SSPM to scan the Office 365 productivity apps using a Microsoft Graph API.
In May 2025, we discontinued this PowerShell connector because it did not support
multi-factor authentication (MFA). If you already connected SSPM to your Office 365
productivity app instances using the PowerShell connector, your established
connection will continue to work. However, if there is any change to the
configuration information that you provided to SSPM (such as an updated login
password), you will need to onboard the Office 365 productivity apps again. To
re-onboard the Office 365 productivity apps, use the connector described below,
which uses data extraction techniques to scan your app instance.
Onboard Office 365 Productivity Apps for Scans That Use Data Extraction
Connect Office 365 productivity app instances to SSPM to detect posture
risks.
The Office 365 productivity apps are Microsoft Word, Microsoft PowerPoint, and
Microsoft Excel. High-level configuration scanning across Office 365 products is
available by onboarding the Office 365 app. Adding the Office 365
productivity apps gives you greater visibility into Microsoft Word, Microsoft
PowerPoint, and Microsoft Excel settings.
For SSPM to detect posture risks in Office 365 productivity apps with more detail
than the Office 365 app scan, you must onboard your Office 365 productivity apps to
SSPM. Through the onboarding process, SSPM logs in to a Microsoft administrator
account. SSPM uses this account to scan your Office 365 productivity apps for
misconfigured settings. If there are misconfigured settings, SSPM suggests a
remediation action based on best practices.
During the onboarding process, you will supply Microsoft account credentials to SSPM.
SSPM can access the account directly or through the Okta or Microsoft Azure identity
providers. Having SSPM access the account through one of these identity providers
requires MFA, which adds an extra layer of security.
To onboard your Office 365 productivity app instances, you complete the following
actions:
Collect Information for Connecting to Your Office 365 Productivity App Instances
To access your Office 365 productivity app instances, SSPM requires the following
information, which you will specify during the onboarding process.
| Item | Description |
|---|---|
| User | The username or email address of the
administrator account. The format that you use can depend on
whether SSPM will be logging in directly to your account or
through an identity provider. Required Permissions:
The user must be assigned to the Microsoft Global Admin
role. |
| Password | The password for the administrator account. |
If you are using Okta as your identity provider, you must provide SSPM with the
following additional information:
| Item | Description |
|---|---|
| Okta subdomain | The Okta subdomain for your organization. The subdomain was included in the login URL that Okta assigned to your organization. |
| Okta 2FA secret | A key that is used to generate one-time passcodes for MFA. |
If you are using Azure Active Directory (AD) as your identity provider, you must
provide SSPM with the following additional information:
| Item | Description |
|---|---|
| Azure 2FA secret | A key that is used to generate one-time passcodes for MFA. |
As you complete the following steps, make note of the values of the items
described in the preceding tables. You will need to enter these values during
onboarding to access your Office 365 productivity app instances from SSPM.
- Identify the Microsoft administrator account that SSPM will use to access your Microsoft productivity apps. The administrator must be assigned to the Microsoft Global Admin role.Determine whether you want SSPM to log in to the administrator account directly, or through an identity provider.Using an identity provider adds an extra layer of security by requiring MFA using one-time passcodes. You can use Okta or Microsoft Azure as the identity provider for accessing the administrator account. However, if you use an identity provider, SSPM requires more information for MFA.
- (For Okta log in) To access the administrator account through Okta:
- (For Microsoft Azure log in) To access the administrator account through Microsoft Azure:
Connect SSPM to Your Office 365 Productivity App Instances
By adding the Office 365 productivity apps in SSPM, you enable SSPM to connect to your Microsoft Word, Microsoft PowerPoint, and Microsoft Excel instances.- Log in to Strata Cloud Manager.Select and click the Office 365 - Productivity Apps tile.Under posture security instances, Add Instance or, if there is already an instance configured, Add New instance.Specify how you want SSPM to connect to your Office 365 productivity apps. SSPM can Log in with Credentials, Log in with Okta, or Log in with Azure.When prompted, provide SSPM with the administrator credentials. If SSPM is connecting to the account through an identity provider, specify the information that SSPM needs for MFA.Connect.
