Microsoft Entra Gets New Identity Secure Score Recommendations to Boost Security

Microsoft has announced the general availability of new Identity Secure Score recommendations in Microsoft Entra. These recommendations are designed to help administrators strengthen their security posture and provide actionable insights to detect and mitigate security risks within the organization.

Microsoft first announced the Entra Identity Secure Score recommendations feature in April 2024. It provides recommendations to help organizations improve their security posture by following the best practices and industry standards. This security feature provides clear guidance and support for implementation through the Microsoft Entra admin center.

What are the new Identity Secure Score recommendations?

The new Identity Secure Score recommendations include requiring multifactor authentication (MFA) for administrative roles, ensuring all users can complete MFA, and enabling policies to block legacy authentication. Additionally, Microsoft recommends that cloud-only tenants set their password policies to never expire.

Additionally, it is recommended that users be protected by implementing user and sign-in risk policies, enabling password hash synchronization for hybrid environments, and restricting user consent to trusted applications only. Furthermore, the Identity Secure Score recommendations encourage IT admins to adopt least-privileged administrative roles, assign more than one Global Admin, and enable self-service password reset for end users.

How to access the Identity Secure Score recommendations?

To access Identity Secure Score recommendations, administrators will need to head over to the Microsoft Entra admin center and then go to Identity > Overview > Recommendations. Navigate to the recommendation page, click filter by “Category” and select “Identity Secure Score.” Alternatively, IT admins can access the new Recommendations feature by clicking on the “Security Recommendations” filter at the top of the search bar on the overview page.

Microsoft has also introduced two new features to the new Secure Score Recommendations. With the Secure Score Trend Chart, administrators can track the progress of their secure score over time. They can also view the detailed list of user entities that should help to identify potential risks and take appropriate security measures.

Later this year, Microsoft plans to introduce recommendations to help customers optimize their implementation of the Zero Trust framework. The company will also provide guidance on maximizing the effectiveness of the Microsoft Entra Suite license.