Extracting Timely Sign-in Data from Office 365 Logs

Office 365 is quickly becoming a repository of valuable organizational information, including data that falls under multiple privacy laws. Timely detection of a compromised account and stopping the bad guy before data is exfiltrated, destroyed, or the account used for nefarious purposes is the difference between an incident and a compromise. Microsoft provides audit logging and alerting tools that can assist system administrators find these incidents. An examination of the efficacy and efficiency of these tools and the shortcomings and advantages provides insight into how to best use the tools to protect individual accounts and the organization as a whole.