Session Abstract

Organisations are facing a digital avalanche of unstructured data across Microsoft 365, making information protection more challenging than ever. With most sensitive data remaining undiscovered and unclassified, the risk of data loss and compliance breaches is high. Securing your data can feel like climbing Everest. You would not attempt the summit without a guide, a plan, and the right equipment. Similarly, Microsoft Purview’s “Secure by Default” blueprint offers a strategic path with clear checkpoints to help you build strength, resilience, and readiness at every stage of your data protection journey. This session offers a practical roadmap for tackling your own data mountain. You will learn how to: - Identify and classify sensitive data across your Microsoft 365 environment. - Apply sensitivity labels and data loss prevention policies to both active and archived content. - Transform chaos into control by simplifying your labelling strategy and aligning it with DLP. - Implement adaptive protection and continuous improvement to ensure your data security posture evolves with your organisation’s needs. - Empower users to make informed decisions and foster a culture of data protection. By establishing strong data security foundations, you will also help ensure that Microsoft Copilot does not reveal sensitive or confidential information in its responses. Through real-world examples and practical guidance, you will leave with a clear strategy to scale your own data Everest, protect sensitive information, support compliance, and build trust in a rapidly changing digital landscape.

Nikki Chapple

Nikki Chapple is a Principal Cloud Architect at CloudWay and a dual Microsoft Most Valuable Professional (MVP) in Microsoft 365 and Security. She specialises in AI governance, Microsoft Purview and helping organisations build trusted data foundations for AI across Microsoft 365, Copilot and AI agents. With more than 35 years of experience spanning IT and business, Nikki works with organisations to identify sensitive information that is overshared or exposed, strengthen data security and governance, and implement Microsoft Purview to protect critical information. By ensuring data is trusted, secure and well governed, she helps organisations adopt AI with confidence while reducing risk and meeting compliance obligations. Nikki believes successful AI adoption starts with trusted, governed data, not the AI itself. This philosophy underpins her work with enterprise customers and is the foundation of her conference sessions, workshops and technical guidance. Nikki co-authored the Governance, Risk & Compliance competency of the Microsoft 365 Maturity Model and was recognised in Microsoft's People of Purview (2025) and with the UK Community Award for Security & Compliance Evangelist (2023). She is an international conference speaker, blogs at nikkichapple.com, and co-hosts the AI Governance & Data Security Show.