It’s a fact: 2 out of 3 organizations have experienced SaaS data loss according to Rubrik Zero Labs. Yet many organizations still rely solely on Microsoft's native protection for their Dynamics 365 data.
That’s a problem, since Dynamics 365 houses critical business data that powers multiple operations across sales, customer service, field service, and marketing. But many organizations don’t account for the shared responsibility model—a standard security regime that makes the cloud provider responsible for securing the cloud infrastructure but leaves data security to the client.
Failure to understand the impact of the shared responsibility model could lead your IT team to underestimate the vulnerability of your data, at least until a data loss incident occurs. With 75% of businesses reporting that more than 40% of their cloud data is classified as sensitive1, this represents a significant risk to the business.
So how do you protect your business from sensitive data loss, especially when that data lives in a platform owned by another company? True Dynamics 365 data protection requires you to take proactive steps to meet the requirements of the shared responsibility model. Understanding the most common threats to your data is the first step toward implementing effective protection strategies that go beyond Microsoft's native capabilities.
Four Data Loss Scenarios That Keep Dynamics 365 Admins Up at Night
While many organizations assume their Dynamics 365 data is automatically protected, the reality is far more concerning. From simple human errors to sophisticated cyber attacks, your critical business data faces multiple threat vectors daily. Let's examine the four most common scenarios that pose significant risks to your Dynamics 365 environment and the business operations that depend on it.
Accidental Deletions: Accidents happen. Admin errors can result in the unintended deletion of business-critical customer records and sales pipelines. Imagine losing key customer data or valuable leads because of a single misguided click.
Integration Failures: Third-party applications and Power Automate workflows introduce complexity that can cause data inconsistencies. When these systems fail, they often leave corrupted records that affect multiple downstream systems. What begins as a minor synchronization issue can cascade across your entire business technology stack.
Cybersecurity Incidents: External user access and automation errors introduce security vulnerabilities that threat actors are quick to exploit. Coordinated phishing attacks can compromise both M365 and Dynamics 365 data simultaneously, giving attackers access to your most valuable business information. Microsoft cloud services are targeted in approximately 79% of observed enterprise cyberattacks, making your Dynamics 365 environment a prime target.
System Glitches: Software updates, while necessary, can corrupt key data tables within Dynamics 365. ABC Services experienced this firsthand when a routine update affected their patient records, appointment schedules, and billing information. Without proper protection, these technical issues can bring operations to a standstill.
The Limitations of Native Protection
Native Dynamics 365 capabilities provide limited protection. However, addressing the persistent threats—benign and malicious, internal and external— are the responsibility of the customers. For example:
Recycle Bin
Limited to just 28-day retention
Lacks relationship-aware restores
Doesn't protect against all types of data loss
Native Backup Tools
No granular recovery options
Metadata restoration is complex
Requires restoration to sandbox first before moving to production
Only restore full environments, making targeted rollbacks impossible
Manual CSV Exports
Time-consuming and error-prone
Lacks real-time recovery options
Difficult to scale across large organizations
When Dynamics 365 Data Disappears, The Impact Cascades
Dynamics 365 doesn't exist in isolation—it's deeply integrated with Microsoft 365 (Outlook, Teams, SharePoint) and Power Platform. These systems share identity and security through Microsoft Entra ID, meaning a breach in one area often affects multiple systems.
When data loss occurs, the business impacts are immediate and far-reaching. Deleted customer records leave sales teams without pipeline visibility, resulting in missed revenue opportunities and disrupted service. Erased case histories prevent support teams from tracking resolution progress, degrading customer experience. Integration failures corrupt data across marketing, finance, and order processing systems, while accidental bulk updates render key account and financial information inaccurate, leading to flawed business decisions.
The FBI's Internet Crime Report indicated that Business Email Compromise attacks (which can lead to compromised Dynamics 365 access) resulted in $2.4 billion in losses2. The financial implications of data loss extend far beyond the immediate recovery costs.
Lost Dynamics CRM Data | Affected Microsoft Applications | Impact on Business Operations |
Customer records (accounts, contacts, leads, opportunities) | Outlook (Exchange Online) |
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Sales pipeline data (leads, opportunities, revenue forecasts) | Teams SharePoint & OneDrive Outlook (Exchange Online) |
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Customer service case data (support tickets, case history, SLA records) | Teams |
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Marketing campaign data (email lists, segmentation, customer engagement history) | Microsoft 365 (Outlook, SharePoint, Excel) Entra ID (Azure AD) |
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Security & Access Control Data (User roles, permissions, audit logs in CRM) | Compliance & Audit Teams |
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Four Critical Elements of Effective Dynamics 365 Protection
To adequately protect your Dynamics 365 data against the threats outlined above, you need a comprehensive approach that addresses the gaps in native protection capabilities. An effective protection strategy must combine automation, intelligence, security, and integration to create multiple layers of defense. Here are the four critical elements that should form the foundation of your Dynamics 365 data protection strategy:
1. Automated, Policy-Driven Backups
Eliminate manual processes and human error through SLA policies with sub-24 hour recovery point objective (RPO). When backups happen automatically according to defined policies, you remove the risk of missed backups or human error.
2. Granular, Relationship-Aware Recovery
Preserve parent-child data relationships up to 10 levels deep—a capability unique to Rubrik. This ensures that when you restore data, all connected records maintain their relationships, preventing broken links in your business processes.
3. Immutable, Air-Gapped Backups
Protect against ransomware and unauthorized deletions through logical air gapping and isolated tenant design. With over 40% of organizations experiencing supply chain attacks affecting their cloud environments, this layer of security is essential.
4. Unified Microsoft Protection
Secure Dynamics 365 alongside Microsoft 365 and Entra ID from a single interface for comprehensive protection. With the 74% increase in identity-based attacks noted in the Microsoft Digital Defense Report, this unified approach is more important than ever.
Don't Wait Until After Data Loss to Take Action
Don't become a statistic. Now is the time to evaluate your current protection strategy and identify potential gaps before a data loss incident occurs.
Take advantage of our free Dynamics 365 data protection assessment to understand your current vulnerabilities and how to address them. Protect and rapidly recover your Dynamics 365 CRM data with simple, scalable, and automated backups Rubrk. Try Now!
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