Azure Information Protection Part V – advanced features & scenarios

Label an Office document by using an existing custom property

This option allows us to reflect on existing metadata values for example coming from SharePoint or other solutions like for example Secure Islands (which was acquire by Microsoft in 2015).

As a result of this, when a document without an Azure Information Protection label is opened and saved by a user, the document is then labeled to match the corresponding property value.

This configuration requires two settings in the advanced client settings section. The first is named SyncPropertyName, which is the custom property name that has been set from the other classification solution, or a property that is set by SharePoint. The second is SyncPropertyState and must be set to OneWay:

• Key 1: SyncPropertyName
• Key 1 Value: <property name>
• Key 2: SyncPropertyState
• Key 2 Value: OneWay

Keys and corresponding values are good for one custom property.

Example:

We have a SharePoint column named Classification. Possible values are: Public, Internal and Confidential. SyncPropertyName value is then: Classification.

To make this feature work we need labels with the same name (Public, Internal and Confidential) in AIP. Now, when an Office documents from this SharePoint library is opened and saved and this document is labeled as Public, Internal or Confidential in SharePoint Azure Information Protection applies the corresponding AIP label. If no label with a corresponding name exists in AIP, the document remains unlabeled.

More details about how to label an Office document by using an existing custom property: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/information-protection/rms-client/client-admin-guide-customizations#label-an-office-document-by-using-an-existing-custom-property

Convert Templates to Labels

When you create a label in AIP under the hood also a new custom template is created. This new template can then be accessed by services and applications also using Rights Management templates. The new template is not shown in Azure AIP portal but can be managed by using PowerShell.

If you delete the label the template will still exists and is then shown in Azure AIP portal. In Azure AIP portal you can convert a template to a label:

If you change the protection settings in this newly created label, you're changing them in the template and any user or service that uses this template will get the new protection settings with the next template refresh.

More details about labels and templates in AIP can be found in this article: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/information-protection/configure-policy-templates#to-configure-the-templates-in-the-azure-information-protection-policy

Cloud App Security to auto apply Labels for scenario / location

Microsoft Cloud App Security lets you apply AIP labels as part of a CAS policies. You can also investigate files by filtering for the applied classification label within Cloud App Security.

Scenarios:

• Apply classification labels as a governance action to files that match specific policies
• View all classified files in a central location
• Perform investigation according to classification level
• Create policies to make sure classified files are being handled properly

More details:

• Integrate AIP in CAS: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/cloud-app-security/azip-integration
• Automatically apply AIP labels using CAS: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/cloud-app-security/use-case-information-protection

Encrypting Emails using Exchange Mail Flow Rule

Exchange Mail Flow Rule can be used to automatically apply AIP labels:

This is based on the RMS template associated to the AIP label.

A step-by-step documentation on how to configure a mail flow rule using a RMS template can be found here: https://blogs.technet.microsoft.com/kemckinn/2018/07/09/encrypting-emails-from-anywhere/

Decommissioning and deactivating protection

If AIP is no longer needed you can deactivate it. Make sure that you have a copy of your Azure Information Protection tenant key before you deactivate the Azure Rights Management service. If you deactivate AIP make sure, that you won’t be locked out of content that was previously protected.

You have the following options to deactivate AIP:

• PowerShell cmdlet Disable-Aadrm to deactivate Rights Management
• Deactivate Rights Management from Office 365:
• Go to the Rights Management page for Office 365 administrators
• On the Rights Management page click deactivate
• Deactivate Rights Management from the Azure portal
• On Azure Information Protection blade => Protection activation blade, select Deactivate

Further details about deactivating AIP: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/information-protection/deploy-use/decommission-deactivate

Related posts:

• AzureInformation Protection Part I – Overview
• AzureInformation Protection Part II – PowerShell
• AzureInformation Protection Part III – AIP Scanner
• AzureInformation Protection Part IV – Work with AIP