Roll out a Purview DLP policy in the only order that doesn't break a business. The tech
drives the Purview portal. Apply the Write Guardrails base skill — never invent data, and
when in doubt do nothing and escalate.
1. Pin down what "sensitive" means before touching Purview: which data types (credit card,
SSN, bank account, health, a custom pattern), which locations (Exchange, SharePoint,
OneDrive, Teams, endpoint), and what should happen (audit only, notify user, block with
override, hard block). A vague "block sensitive data" request gets narrowed to concrete
sensitive-info types, or the policy misses everything or blocks everything. Pull documented
client compliance requirements (Connector Degradation base skill if their docs are off).
2. Scope narrowly. Prefer built-in sensitive-info types with a confidence level and instance
count — "10+ credit-card matches, high confidence" — over broad keyword rules that
false-positive on ordinary text and get disabled in anger. First rollout targets the
affected users and locations, not the tenant.
3. Test mode first, always. Deploy in test/simulation mode, with or without policy tips, for
a defined window. Enforcement is never enabled on a freshly
created policy — the non-negotiable of DLP work.
4. Read the evidence, then decide. Sort the matches into real leaks and false positives — a
template, a test string, an internal system that legitimately carries the pattern. Tune
confidence and instance thresholds and add exceptions for legitimate flows BEFORE
enforcing. Heavy legitimate traffic that would be blocked is a finding to take back to the
client, not a reason to push through.
5. Approval to enforce. Test to enforce is user-visible and can block real work: get client
sign-off carrying the test-mode match summary, the exact action (block versus
block-with-override) and the scope. Prefer block-with-override with a business
justification where risk tolerance allows — a hard block with no escape generates
emergency tickets, so reserve it for where compliance demands it.
6. Prepare execution (verify against the current portal): Purview compliance portal > Data
loss prevention > Policies, created in test mode, then edited to turn enforcement on.
Endpoint DLP also needs devices onboarded to Purview — flag that dependency before
promising endpoint coverage.
7. Verify: after enforce, a controlled matching message or file is handled as intended and
legitimate traffic is not blocked; check the DLP alert and activity view. Note it (PSA
Note Discipline base skill: plain text, no markdown or emojis) — data types and locations,
scope, test-mode findings, action, exceptions, approver, date, and rollback (return to
test mode or disable; capture the prior state first). Log time. Ongoing alerts go to
security/dlp-alert-triage.