M365 Changelog: Certificate based Authentication for Security and Compliance Center PowerShell

MC316448 – Updated February 11, 2022: Microsoft has updated the content below for clarity. Thank you for your patience.

With this update, which will improve the security of your tenant, Security & Compliance PowerShell will enable configuration of certificate-based authentication to allow unattended App-only access. 

When this will happen:

Rollout will begin in mid-February and is expected to be complete by early March.

How this will affect your organization:

No impact. Existing “Basic authentication” for application access to Security and Compliance Center PowerShell will continue to work, even after the roll-out of “Certificate based authentication”. 

What you need to do to prepare:

To migrate to certificate-based authentication, follow these steps:

• Step 1: Register the application in Azure AD
• Step 2: Assign API permissions to the application
• Step 3: Generate a self-signed certificate
• Step 4: Attach the certificate to the Azure AD application
• Step 5: Assign Azure AD roles to the application

Learn more:

• Connect to Security & Compliance PowerShell
• App-only authentication for unattended scripts in the EXO V2 module

Additional information