Why Your Business Needs Conditional Access to Secure Your Company Data
In the digital age, protecting your business data is crucial. One of the ways to do this is by using a system called “Conditional Access”. Conditional Access is a security feature included with Microsoft’s Business Premium licencing. With this licence, you can configure custom conditional access policies to lock down access so people can only log in if that log in request meets a set of criteria that has been specified.
You need to configure Conditional Access policies tailored to your business needs, and you need to have this done yesterday. High-value companies are being actively targetted and exploted by hackers - High-value companies often possess valuable data, such as intellectual property, trade secrets, or sensitive business information. This data can be sold for a high price on the black market, used to gain a competitive advantage, or leveraged for other malicious purposes.
Some hackers use ransomware attacks to encrypt a company’s data and demand a ransom for its release. High-value companies are often targeted because they are more likely to pay large sums to recover their data.
If you don’t purchase Microsoft Business Premium licencing, and have a lower tier such as Business Basic, you can still benefit from some of the security features of conditional access by enabling Microsoft Security Defaults. Microsoft is automatically enabling Microsoft Security Defaults for some M365 tenants now as in their words “99.9% of organization account compromise could be stopped by using multifactor authentication. Enable security defaults to apply Microsoft best security practices.”
Let’s break down Conditional Access focusing on how it protects staff in your company from these attacks, and why you need it configured.
1. Keeping Out Unwanted Guests
Imagine Conditional Access as a bouncer at a nightclub. It checks each person (or user) before they can enter your business’s digital space. If they don’t have the right ID (or permissions), they’re not getting in. This is a key aspect of user protection - ensuring that only authorised users can access the system.
2. Safeguarding Your Secrets
Your business has information that you don’t want falling into the wrong hands. Conditional Access acts like a safe, keeping your valuable data locked away from cyber threats. It ensures that users can only access the data they are authorised to see, thereby protecting sensitive information from being viewed or stolen by unauthorized users.
3. User Authentication
Conditional Access also involves user authentication, which is like a digital handshake between the user and the system. It verifies the user’s identity and ensures that they are who they claim to be. This could involve something the user knows (like a password), something the user has (like a digital token), or something the user is (like a fingerprint). This multi-factor authentication adds an extra layer of security.
4. Following the Rules
Just like how traffic rules keep the roads safe, Conditional Access uses policies (or rules) to keep your business data safe. These policies define who, when, where, and how a user can access the system. They ensure that users follow best practices for data security, such as not logging in from unknown locations, using insecure networks, or blocking logins that are not using MFA (multi-factor authentication).
For more information on Conditional Access and Microsoft Security defaults, including best practice and why Microsoft recommends you enable it, follow these links:
Providing a default level of security in Microsoft Entra ID - Microsoft Entra | Microsoft Learn
Block legacy authentication - Microsoft Entra ID | Microsoft Learn
What is Conditional Access in Microsoft Entra ID? - Microsoft Entra ID | Microsoft Learn
What Are the 5 Advantages of Implementing Conditional Access? - Sieve Networks
Conditional Access feature for Azure AD explained (quest.com)