Protection scope for the security policy

In the default security policy, you can set a custom protection scope by selecting sites that you want to protect in the policy.

Depending on the size of the Office 365 organization and the number of selected sites, it may take up to several hours to update the protection scope.

Protected sites

To configure sites that you want to protect in the policy:

1. Select the Protected sites section.
2. Select one of the following options:
   • Protect all sites, if you want to protect all sites within the current Office 365 organization. If you select this option, any new sites further added to your organization will be included automatically in the protection scope.
   • Protect selected sites only, if you want to protect only specific sites. If you select specific sites for protection, any new subsequently added sites must be included in the protection scope manually.
3. For the Protect selected sites only option, select the check boxes next to the sites that you want to protect.

   To filter the list of sites, use the Search entry field or the Display the following sites list (available values are All, Selected, and Not selected).

   The sites are listed alphabetically. By default, the list of sites is arranged by 10 lines per page. You can switch the pages of the list back and forth or change the default number of displayed lines per page at the bottom of the page.

4. Click Save.

If necessary, you can force the application to retrieve the list of SharePoint Online sites by clicking the Synchronize list link above the list.

Excluded sites

To configure sites that you want to exclude from protection:

1. Select the Excluded sites section.
2. Select the corresponding elements.

   To filter the list of sites, use the Search entry field or the Display the following sites list (available values are All, Selected, and Not selected).

   The sites are listed alphabetically. By default, the list of sites is arranged by 10 lines per page. You can switch the pages of the list back and forth or change the default number of displayed lines per page at the bottom of the page.

   If the same site is listed as a protected item but is also added to the list of exclusions, the exclusion has priority over the general protection scope settings.

3. Click Save.

If necessary, you can force the application to retrieve the list of SharePoint Online sites by clicking the Synchronize list link above the list.