Applies to: Exchange Server 2013, Exchange Online

Topic Last Modified: 2012-09-26

A custom data loss prevention (DLP) policy allows you to establish conditions, rules, and actions that can help meet the specific needs of your organization, and which may not be covered in one of the pre-existing DLP templates.

The rule conditions that are available to you in a single policy include all the traditional transport rules in addition to the sensitive information types presented in Sensitive Information Types Inventory. For more information about transport rules in Exchange 2013, see Transport Rules.

Caution:
You should enable your DLP policies in test mode before running them in your production environment. During such tests, it is recommended that you configure sample user mailboxes and send test messages that invoke your test policies in order to confirm the results.

For additional management tasks related to creating a custom DLP policy, see DLP Procedures.

What do you need to know before you begin?

  • Estimated time to complete: 60 minutes

  • You need to be assigned permissions before you can perform this procedure or procedures. To see what permissions you need, see the “Data loss prevention (DLP)” entry in the Messaging Policy and Compliance Permissions topic.

  • In order to create a new custom DLP policy, you must follow the installation instructions for Exchange 2013. For more information about deployment, see Planning and Deployment.

  • For information about keyboard shortcuts that may apply to the procedures in this topic, see Keyboard Shortcuts in the Exchange Admin Center.

Tip:
Having problems? Ask for help in the Exchange forums. Visit the forums at: Exchange Server, Exchange Online, or Exchange Online Protection

Use the EAC to create a custom DLP policy without any existing rules

  1. In the EAC, navigate to Compliance management > Data loss prevention. Any existing policies that you have configured are shown in a list.

  2. Click the arrow that is beside the Add Add Icon icon, and select New custom policy.

    Important:
    If you click Add Add Icon icon instead of the arrow, you will create a new policy based on a template. For more information about using templates, see Create a DLP Policy From a Template.
  3. On the New custom policy page, complete the following fields:

    1. Name   Add a name that will distinguish this policy from others.

    2. Description   Add an optional description that summarizes this policy.

    3. Choose a state   Select the mode or state for this policy. The new policy is not fully enabled until you specify that it should be. The default mode for a policy is test without notifications.

  4. Click Save to finish creating the new policy reference information. The policy is added to the list of all policies that you have configured, although there are not yet any rules or actions associated with this new custom policy.

  5. Double-click the policy that you just created or select it and click Edit Edit Icon.

  6. On the Edit DLP policy page, click Rules.

    Click Add Add Icon to add a new blank rule. You can establish conditions using all the traditional transport rules in addition to the sensitive information types.

    In order to avoid confusion, supply a unique name for each part of your policy or rule when you have the option to provide your own character string. There are several options additional options available to you:

    1. Click the arrow that is beside the Add Add Icon icon to add a rule about sender notification or allowing overrides.

    2. To remove a rule, highlight the rule and click Delete Delete Icon.

    3. Click More options More Options Icon to add additional conditions and actions for this rule including time-bound limits of enforcement or effects on other rules in this policy.

  7. Click Save to finish modifying the policy and save your changes.

DLP policy templates are one type of feature Microsoft Exchange that can help you design and apply a robust policy and compliance system for your messaging environment. For more information about compliance features, see Messaging Policy and Compliance.

For more information