Detect, investigate, and respond to risky internal activity with privacy-by-design controls and policy-driven workflows.
Microsoft Purview Insider Risk Management helps minimise internal risks by enabling you to detect, investigate, and act on malicious and inadvertent activities in your organisation. It correlates signals to identify potential insider risks such as IP theft, data leakage, and security violations, and is built with privacy by design: users are pseudonymised by default, and access is protected with role-based controls and auditing.
LW IT Solutions implements Insider Risk Management as a governed capability, not just a set of alerts. We help you define the insider risk scenarios you care about, select the right policy templates and indicators, configure prerequisites (permissions, connectors, and analytics scanning where appropriate), and establish an operating model for triage, investigation, and escalation. Where required, we design workflows to escalate cases into Microsoft Purview eDiscovery (Premium) and align insider risk operations with your HR, legal, and security governance.
Talk through your requirements and leave with a clear next-step plan.
Book a discovery call
Service Overview
Highlights
- Readiness and governance: define scenarios, stakeholders, privacy controls, and acceptable use of insights
- Policy template selection and design (for example: data leaks, departing user data theft, and security policy violations)
- Indicator and threshold configuration, with structured tuning to reduce noise over time
- Analytics scan enablement to evaluate potential insider risks and inform policy design before enforcement
- Priority user group configuration and risk score boosters (where appropriate) to support triage
- Connector planning (including HR connector requirements for certain templates) and data-source scoping
- Case management workflow: triage, investigation, evidence handling, and escalation to eDiscovery (Premium) when required
- Operationalisation: runbooks, role-based training, governance cadence, and ongoing optimisation
Business Benefits
- Identify and triage risky activity earlier to reduce the likelihood and impact of internal incidents
- Reduce data leakage and IP theft risk by combining signals into actionable alerts and investigations
- Support compliance and HR/legal processes with governed workflows and evidence-handling guidance
- Maintain trust with privacy-by-design features (pseudonymisation, RBAC, and audit logs) and clear internal governance
Typical use cases
- Detect and investigate potential data theft risks by departing employees
- Identify data leak patterns (accidental oversharing or malicious exfiltration) and escalate to investigation workflows
- Investigate security policy violations by selected user populations (for example, priority users) with documented governance
- Use analytics scanning to evaluate insider risk exposure and tune indicators before formal policy rollout
- Integrate insider risk cases with eDiscovery workflows for complex matters requiring preservation, collection, and review
Objectives & deliverables
What Success Looks Like
- A governed insider risk capability aligned to your organisational policies, privacy requirements, and legal obligations
- A pilot-first rollout of insider risk policies with measurable tuning and reduced false positives over time
- A repeatable process for triage, investigation, and escalation (including eDiscovery where required)
What You Get
- Insider Risk readiness pack (governance, privacy controls, stakeholder model, and policy recommendations)
- Configured permissions model and access controls for Insider Risk Management roles
- Configured analytics scanning and initial evaluation outputs (where enabled) to guide policy creation
- Configured insider risk policies using agreed templates, indicators, and thresholds (pilot scope first)
- Case triage and escalation workflow design (including eDiscovery (Premium) escalation where required)
- Operational runbooks, training guidance, and handover documentation
How It Works
- Discovery and governance - align stakeholders (security, HR, legal, compliance), define acceptable use, privacy controls, and risk scenarios.
- Prerequisites and setup - configure permissions/roles, connectors (including HR connector where required), and enable analytics scanning if needed.
- Evaluation and design - run analytics scan to identify potential risk areas and tune indicator thresholds; select templates and define policy scope.
- Pilot deployment - implement policies for a controlled scope, validate alert quality, triage workflow, and reporting outputs.
- Scale and operate - expand coverage, implement governance cadence, ongoing tuning, and escalation workflows for complex cases.
Engagement Options
- Insider Risk Readiness Assessment - governance and current-state review plus recommendations and implementation plan
- Insider Risk Pilot Deployment - configure prerequisites, analytics scan, and a pilot policy using selected templates and indicators
- Insider Risk Programme Rollout - phased rollout of multiple policy templates, triage workflow, and eDiscovery escalation design
- Operate - ongoing tuning, governance support, complex case support, and training refreshers
Additional Information
Prerequisites & licensing
Subscriptions, licensing, and some advanced indicators vary by tenant, geography, and configuration. Microsoft documentation notes that some indicators require pay-as-you-go billing, and that administrators must assign appropriate licenses and configure the required prerequisites before policies can be created. We confirm the correct approach during discovery and design the rollout to match your governance and compliance requirements.
- Role groups and permissions must be configured before analysts and investigators can access insider risk features.
- Analytics scanning can be enabled to evaluate potential insider risks before creating policies; Microsoft notes that scan results may take up to 48 hours to surface.
- Certain policy templates require the Microsoft 365 HR connector (for example: departing user data theft and some risky user templates).
- Some indicators are only available if pay-as-you-go billing is enabled for your organisation.
Security & Compliance Notes
- Microsoft documents that Insider Risk Management is built with privacy by design: users are pseudonymised by default and access is controlled with RBAC and auditing.
- Microsoft also notes that customers are responsible for using Insider Risk Management in compliance with applicable laws and should not rely solely on service insights for employment-related decisions; a full investigation process is required.
- Some indicators are only available with pay-as-you-go billing enabled, and subscription and regional availability prerequisites apply.
Common Bundles
Customers who use this service often bundle with these services
eDiscovery (Premium)
Configure Microsoft Purview eDiscovery Premium with defensible case setup, legal holds, collections, and review workflows for investigations and litigation support.
Audit & Audit Retention
Search and retain Microsoft Purview unified audit logs to support forensic investigations, internal reviews, and compliance obligations across Microsoft 365.
Audit (Standard & Premium)
Enable Microsoft Purview Audit Standard and Premium to capture, retain, and investigate user and administrator activity across Microsoft 365 services.
Data Loss Prevention (DLP)
Policy-driven Microsoft Purview DLP detects and controls sensitive data across Microsoft 365 and endpoints, balancing protection with user productivity.
Information Protection & Sensitivity Labels
Design and deploy Microsoft Purview sensitivity labels to classify data, apply protection controls, and support safer collaboration across Microsoft 365.
Frequently Asked Questions
Get an expert-led assessment with a prioritised remediation backlog.
Request an assessment
