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All you need to know about the mandatory multifactor authentication for Azure and other administration portals

In case you didn’t get the latest memo, Microsoft is tightening the security around the Azure and Microsoft 365 admin portals by enforcing multifactor authentication for all interactive sign-ins. In this post, I will try to answer all the questions about this change, as there seem to be a lot of questions on social media lately. If you still have questions after reading this post (which I’m sure you have), please reach out so I can add your Q&A to… 

Temporary exclusions for Conditional Access using PIM for Groups

Conditional Access include and exclude groups cannot be messed with. As we have seen in a previous blog post, this will impact your security posture. But what if you need to create a legitimate escape for operational purposes? Take this use case, for example: You’ve enforced phishing-resistant MFA for your admin accounts on all apps (you are a rockstar!). Still, some applications do not support MSAL/WAM, or you have legacy scripts that use Internet Explorer 11 for authentication, so your… 

Prevent Conditional Access bypass with Restricted Management Administrative Units in Entra ID

Bypassing Conditional Access is easy. That’s because most Conditional Access policies rely on Entra ID Security Groups. Since Entra ID is very “flat” by default, every admin with group management permissions can add or remove members to ANY group. That’s why we want to handle our include and exclude groups carefully. This idea does not stand alone and is also mentioned in this marvelous article by Thomas Naunheim. If you’re new to Restricted Management Administrative Units, I suggest reading this… 

Entra ID Dynamic Groups – Direct reports of a manager

Here’s a quick tip that I discovered only recently. A nice, somehow hidden feature of Entra ID dynamic groups is the possibility of creating a dynamic group for the reports of a specific manager. When the manager’s direct reports change in the future, the group’s membership is adjusted automatically. Assume you want to create a dynamic group that holds all the direct reports of Miriam Graham; here’s how to do it. From the Entra admin center, go to Identity >… 

Get started with passkeys in Microsoft 365

It’s here! A long-awaited feature in Microsoft 365 is finally there. Now, in public preview, organizations can add another phishing-resistant credential to their arsenal: device-bound passkeys. DISCLAIMER: This feature is currently in public preview. Everything you read in this blog post is subject to change and may be outdated soon. Always check the current documentation on Microsoft Learn to keep track of changes. Images in this post might be slightly different in reality. What is a device-bound passkey? First, let’s… 

How to simulate risk in Microsoft Entra ID Protection

Entra ID protection is an excellent feature amongst the other services in the Entra Premium P2 license SKU. Microsoft Entra ID Protection detects identity-based risks so that admins can mitigate those risks. Users can also self-mitigate risk. To evaluate and asses this feature, you could, of course, simulate a bunch of risky events, as described here. Using a TOR browser and the developer tools in the browser, you can quickly bump up your sign-in risk to trigger the policies in… 

Microsoft 365 end-user notifications for changes in authentication methods

When moving away from traditional and weak authentication methods like passwords to stronger ones like Authenticator App and passkeys, it’s essential to keep informed when some of these methods change. Organizations moving to modern authentication are facing new challenges around onboarding and recovery of authentication methods, as attackers can also use this to settle in someone’s account by simply adding an extra authentication method. Entra ID will log this event, but no out-of-the-box feature informs the user. This step-by-step tutorial… 

Viewing changes to Conditional Access policies just became easier!

Today, a quick tip for all Entra admins out there. Conditional Access policies can be subject to change. When a policy is changed, its not very easy to see what changed. From the audit logs, this is how it looks: Let’s face it; that’s not very convenient to read. Well, here’s the good part: Microsoft released a new feature that can “visualize” changes to Conditional Access straight from the audit logs. This will show the changes side by side. You… 

A Thread on Frosty Fiascos: Delving into the Microsoft Midnight Blizzard Hack

This post is all about the hack on Microsoft by Midnight Blizzard (NOBELIUM, Cozy Bear, APT29)A lot has been said already, and this event has many angles. This post is focused on one part: What can Entra/Microsoft 365 admins do to prevent such an attack? I don’t have all the answers (certainly not!) but I feel the urge to bundle all the resources so that the community can find guidance during this snowstorm. I did not find any time to… 

Prevent AiTM with Microsoft Entra Global Secure Access and Conditional Access

Microsoft Entra Global Secure Access brings a new control to Conditional Access. By installing the Global Secure Access Client on (hybrid) Entra joined devices and enabling Global Secure Access signaling for Conditional Access, admins can now work with a new condition: All Compliant Network locations (Preview) That means we can add another layer to our tenant to prevent token theft and replay. Let’s have a first look. Prepare the lab The first step is to activate Global Secure Access in…