Microsoft Purview DLP Lab | Microsoft 365 Security & Compliance

📖 Overview

This lab provides hands-on experience with Microsoft Purview DLP, a Microsoft 365 compliance and data protection tool. It focuses on creating sensitivity labels, deploying DLP policies, testing email scenarios, reviewing alerts, and verifying audit logs. Walkthroughs simulate real-world Microsoft 365 security and compliance tasks that IT and security engineers perform daily.

📚 What This Covers

🔖 Sensitivity Labels

Create and publish labels for PHI, PII, and other sensitive data to enforce classification.

🛡️ DLP Policies

Deploy Data Loss Prevention policies to detect and block sensitive content in transit.

📧 Policy Testing

Test policies by sending emails containing sensitive information and validating enforcement.

⚠️ Alerts & Incidents

Review alerts and incidents in Purview and Defender for Cloud Apps to respond to violations.

📜 Audit Logs

Verify logs for compliance reporting and auditing purposes.

📁 Lab Walkthroughs

Creating Sensitivity Labels

Step-by-step instructions to create parent and sublabels, define classifications, and publish labels to users.

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Deploying DLP Policies

Configure DLP policies, define rules and actions, enable policy mode, and manage policy scope.

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Testing Policies with Emails

Send test emails containing sensitive data to validate DLP policy enforcement.

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Reviewing Alerts

Monitor policy triggers, view alerts and incidents in Purview and Defender for Cloud Apps.

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Verifying Audit Logs

Check audit logs for DLP events and verify compliance reporting.

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🛠 Tools Used

Microsoft Purview Compliance Portal

Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps

Microsoft 365 Admin Center

Exchange Online (Mail Flow)

🔗 Related Labs

Microsoft 365 Security & Compliance Overview – Core Microsoft 365 compliance and security setup, including Purview and Defender integration
Okta IAM Lab – Application integrations, MFA policies, lifecycle automation for identities
Hybrid Identity Lab – Connect on-prem AD with Microsoft Entra ID for identity sync and federation

💡 Next Steps

Expand DLP testing to SharePoint and OneDrive
Automate DLP policy deployment with Microsoft Graph or PowerShell
Integrate additional sensitivity labels and auto-labeling policies
Monitor alerts and maintain compliance using audit logs
Explore advanced DLP policy tuning and user education to reduce false positives