← All guides
5 min read
Locking down anonymous "Anyone with the link" file sharing
Prevent accidental public exposure of customer data and internal spreadsheets in SharePoint Online, OneDrive, and Google Drive.
The hidden risk of "Anyone with the link"
When "Anyone with the link" is the default sharing mode, a single forwarded email or Slack message gives unauthenticated outsiders permanent read or edit access to internal files—and AI search indexers inside the tenant can surface those files broadly.
Require authenticated guest or specific-people links
Set SharePoint and OneDrive sharing to "New and existing guests" or "Existing guests only", and set default link types to "Specific people" with an automatic 30-day expiration on external links.
PowerShellMicrosoft.Online.SharePoint.PowerShell · CIS M365 v3.1 7.2.1
Set-SPOTenant -SharingCapability ExistingExternalUserSharingOnly -DefaultSharingLinkType Direct