Utilizing Identity Secure Score in M365 Admin Center

Strengthen Your Organization’s Security Posture with Actionable Insights

📌 What Is Microsoft Secure Score?

Microsoft Secure Score is a security analytics tool available in the Microsoft 365 Defender portal. It helps organizations measure their security posture across M365 services like Azure AD (Entra ID), Exchange Online, Teams, and more. Think of it as a credit score for your cybersecurity—except instead of loans, it’s about protecting identities, devices, and data.

The Identity Secure Score is a subset of this broader metric, focusing specifically on user authentication, account protection, and access control within Microsoft Entra ID (formerly Azure Active Directory).

URL Reference:
🔗 https://security.microsoft.com/securescore

✅ Why Do You Need Identity Secure Score?

If you’re managing identities in Microsoft 365, security is non-negotiable. The Identity Secure Score gives you visibility and actionable recommendations to:

Detect weak authentication setups (e.g., no MFA).
Identify over-permissive users and roles.
Highlight risky sign-ins or outdated policies.
Guide your journey to Zero Trust.

In short: It gives you a prioritized to-do list to reduce identity-related risks.

👥 Who Uses It?

IT Admins / Security Admins – to assess and improve user authentication security.
CISOs / Security Auditors – to get measurable insights into the organization’s security compliance.
Compliance Teams – to track and document remediation steps for audits.

🛠️ Where to Access Identity Secure Score?

You’ll find it in the Microsoft 365 Defender portal:

Go to https://security.microsoft.com/securescore.
From the left menu, go to Secure Score.
Filter or select “Identity” from the categories to drill down into Entra ID (Azure AD) recommendations.

🧠 What You Need to Know Before You Start

Your score is dynamic—it changes as Microsoft updates recommendations and your organization’s security changes.
Recommendations are actionable: each comes with an impact score, implementation details, and whether it’s been implemented, partially implemented, or not at all.
Some controls can be scored without user impact, while others require policy changes (like enabling MFA for admins).

🧩 Best Practices & Implementation Approaches

Best Practice	Why It Matters	How to Do It
Enable MFA for All Users	Protects against password spray & phishing	Use Conditional Access or Security Defaults
Limit Legacy Authentication	Old protocols like POP/IMAP bypass MFA	Disable in Entra ID & Exchange Admin
Review Role Assignments	Avoid privilege creep	Use PIM (Privileged Identity Management)
Configure Sign-In Risk Policies	Automate response to risky logins	Use Identity Protection
Enable User Risk Policies	Detects compromised identities	Blocks or requires password reset

💡 Use Cases

Small Business (10-50 users)
- Implement Security Defaults to instantly boost score with minimal effort.
Mid-size Enterprise
- Customize Conditional Access Policies based on location and device compliance.
- Assign Just-In-Time admin roles using PIM.
Highly Regulated Industry (Finance/Healthcare)
- Use Identity Protection with risk-based Conditional Access.
- Automate Secure Score alerts with Microsoft Defender APIs or Power Automate.

🧪 Sample Implementation Walkthrough

Goal: Enforce MFA for admins via Conditional Access
Steps:

Go to Entra Admin Center > Conditional Access.
Create a new policy named MFA for Admins.
Target Directory Roles > select roles like Global Admin, SharePoint Admin, etc.
Under Grant, choose Require multi-factor authentication.
Enable and monitor compliance.

✅ Watch your Identity Secure Score increase after successful implementation!

🔄 Alternatives and Comparisons

Feature	Identity Secure Score	Azure Security Center	Defender for Identity
Focus	Entra ID (Azure AD) user auth	Azure workloads	Hybrid identity & on-prem AD
Audience	IT admins & auditors	Cloud security ops	Security analysts
Recommendations	Yes, actionable	Yes, VM-focused	Yes, lateral movement-focused
Reporting	Quantified score	Alerts & dashboard	Threat detection

🟢 Identity Secure Score is best when your concern is user authentication and identity access within Microsoft 365.

⚖️ Pros and Cons

Pros

✅ Real-time, quantifiable score
✅ Actionable, prioritized guidance
✅ Helps build a Zero Trust posture
✅ Integration with other Microsoft tools (Defender, Entra, Power BI)
✅ Transparent scoring logic

Cons

❌ May require premium licenses (e.g., P2 for Identity Protection)
❌ Not all recommendations may apply to every organization
❌ Requires ongoing attention—security is not one and done

🧭 Final Thoughts & Recommendations

The Identity Secure Score in Microsoft 365 is an essential metric for anyone managing access, roles, and user identities. Don’t treat it as a static number; use it as a living roadmap for continual improvement. Whether you’re a one-person IT shop or part of a large enterprise, starting with identity hygiene can prevent breaches, data loss, and costly incidents.

🔐 Security is a journey, and Identity Secure Score helps you navigate it with clarity and confidence.