Microsoft Secure Score is most useful when it’s treated as a risk-reduction roadmap, not a vanity metric. If Microsoft Entra ID (formerly Azure AD) is your identity control plane, then the best Secure Score gains usually come from identity-driven changes: stronger authentication, tighter access conditions, reduced privilege, safer app consent, and better monitoring.
This guide explains how to use Entra ID insights (sign-in patterns, risky users, policy gaps, and admin exposure) to pick the right Secure Score actions, implement them safely, and prove real improvement.
What “Secure Score” means in practice
Secure Score is a set of recommended actions across Microsoft security products (including identity controls). Each action typically maps to:
- Control adoption (e.g., enabling MFA, disabling legacy authentication)
- Coverage (e.g., how many users/apps/policies are included)
- Configuration quality (e.g., Conditional Access is enabled, but exclusions are too broad)
Your goal is to raise the score by closing real exposure. The score then becomes a convenient dashboard for tracking progress.
Why Entra ID insights are the fastest path to score gains
Entra ID provides the “why now?” context that Secure Score alone doesn’t:
- Sign-in insights: where logins originate, which apps are targeted, device state, auth methods used
- Risk insights: risky users, risky sign-ins, impossible travel, unfamiliar sign-in properties
- Privilege insights: who is admin, how often elevation is used, and where over-privilege exists
- App insights: consent sprawl, suspicious OAuth apps, over-permissioned enterprise apps
With these insights, you can prioritize actions that reduce actual attack paths—then earn Secure Score improvements as a byproduct.
Step 1: Build a “score-to-risk” triage list
Start by listing your Secure Score recommendations, then label each item with:
- Impact: how much exposure is reduced (credential theft, session hijack, token abuse, privilege escalation, etc.)
- Blast radius: who/what might break (legacy apps, service accounts, user friction)
- Time-to-value: quick win vs multi-week project
A simple, effective prioritization order for identity-focused score gains is:
- Stop weak auth paths (legacy auth, password-only access to sensitive apps)
- Strengthen sign-in decisions (Conditional Access coverage + device posture + risk-based controls)
- Reduce privilege and standing access (least privilege, just-in-time admin)
- Reduce app consent and token abuse paths (govern consent, remove suspicious apps)
- Improve detection/response signals (logs, alerts, and investigation readiness)
Step 2: Use Entra ID to drive the highest-value Secure Score improvements
1) Make MFA meaningful (coverage + strength)
“Enable MFA” is often the highest-impact Secure Score lever, but real value depends on:
- Coverage: all users, especially admins and access to sensitive apps
- Strength: phishing-resistant methods where possible (passkeys/FIDO2, certificate-based auth)
- Consistency: enforcing via Conditional Access rather than relying on per-user toggles
Practical approach:
- Start with admins and high-risk groups
- Expand to all users with staged rollout + support comms
- Monitor sign-in failures and user friction, then tune policies
Related reading: Azure MFA – All you need to know
2) Expand Conditional Access coverage (then tighten it)
Secure Score improvements frequently come from broader and smarter Conditional Access (CA):
- Require MFA for cloud apps (or at least for high-value apps)
- Block legacy authentication (IMAP/POP/SMTP AUTH, older clients)
- Require compliant/hybrid-joined devices for sensitive applications
- Session controls (sign-in frequency, persistent browser session limits, etc.)
Use Entra sign-in logs to find:
- Which apps still rely on legacy protocols
- Which user segments are non-compliant or unmanaged devices
- Where exclusions are too broad (a common “hidden risk”)
Related reading: How to use Azure AD Conditional Access to enforce access policies
3) Turn risk insights into automatic protection
Identity-based Secure Score actions become far more valuable when your environment reacts to risk signals automatically:
- Risk-based CA: require MFA or block when sign-in risk is high
- User risk policies: force password reset (or step-up verification) for risky users
- Investigation playbooks: define what to check when risk spikes
Use Entra’s risk dashboards to identify patterns:
- Repeated risky sign-ins from the same country/ASN
- Targeting of specific roles or departments
- Accounts that trigger risk repeatedly (often weak auth methods, shared accounts, or compromised devices)
Related reading: Azure AD Identity Protection to detect and remediate identity risks
4) Reduce standing privilege (admin accounts are score multipliers)
A small number of privileged identities can drive a large amount of risk. Many Secure Score recommendations aim at:
- Least privilege: remove unnecessary admin roles
- Role hygiene: separate admin accounts from daily-use accounts
- Just-in-time elevation: time-bound admin access with approvals where needed
Entra insights help you answer:
- Who holds privileged roles?
- How often is admin access actually used?
- Which roles could be replaced by narrower roles or scoped admin units?
Related reading: Role-based access control in Microsoft Entra
5) Control app consent and OAuth sprawl
A common modern identity attack path is “consent phishing” and over-permissioned OAuth apps. Entra app insights can reveal:
- Which apps have broad delegated permissions
- Which apps were recently consented and by whom
- Which apps are unused and can be removed
Secure Score often rewards stronger consent governance (admin approval workflows, limiting user consent, periodic review). The “win” here isn’t just points—it’s fewer token abuse opportunities.
Step 3: Prove improvement with monitoring and repeatable reviews
Secure Score is easiest to sustain when it becomes operational:
- Weekly posture review: top recommendations, progress, blocked items
- Exception management: document why exclusions exist and set expiry dates
- Change control: pilot → phased rollout → enforcement
- Detection validation: ensure logs and alerts actually light up when expected
Entra monitoring closes the loop by showing whether your policy changes are working in the real world.
Related reading: How to monitor and report security events in Microsoft Entra ID
A practical “first 30 days” improvement plan
Days 1–7: Baseline and quick wins
- Export Secure Score recommendations and rank by impact + effort
- Identify privileged roles and ensure MFA is enforced for admin access
- Review CA exclusions and reduce “blanket bypass” patterns
Days 8–14: Close the biggest auth gaps
- Block or restrict legacy authentication
- Roll out CA for core apps with staged enforcement
- Improve authentication method strength and reduce weak methods where possible
Days 15–30: Automate and harden governance
- Implement risk-based policies (sign-in risk/user risk)
- Introduce just-in-time admin access and tighten role assignments
- Establish app consent governance and remove unused/suspicious apps
- Operationalize weekly score + identity risk reviews
Common mistakes that inflate score but don’t reduce risk
- Chasing points without coverage: enabling a control but excluding most users/apps
- Overusing exclusions: bypassing CA for “convenience” and never revisiting it
- Ignoring legacy dependencies: breaking older apps without a migration plan (leads to rollbacks)
- No monitoring: implementing controls but not validating outcomes in logs and alerts
- Admin sprawl: too many privileged users, too much standing access, too little review
Checklist: Secure Score improvements powered by Entra insights
- [ ] Enforce strong MFA for admins and expand to all users
- [ ] Increase Conditional Access coverage (apps + user groups) and reduce broad exclusions
- [ ] Block legacy authentication and validate impact via sign-in logs
- [ ] Use risk insights to trigger step-up auth, blocks, or password reset flows
- [ ] Reduce privileged role assignments and move to time-bound elevation
- [ ] Govern app consent and remove risky/unused apps
- [ ] Operationalize weekly Secure Score + Entra risk reviews
