Entra.Chat

On 3 November 2026, the memberOf operator in Microsoft Entra dynamic membership groups stops working. Nothing errors. Nothing breaks loudly. Every dynamic group, dynamic administrative unit and entitlement management auto-assignment policy that uses it simply freezes in its last known state the people who should be added are not added, and the people who should be removed stay.It was a preview feature for four years. It is in a lot of production tenants.In this episode of Entra.Chat, Merill is joined by three guests for the first time: Gregor Reimling, Chief Azure Technologist at adesso SE and Microsoft MVP for Azure and Security; René Wasel, a Microsoft 365 specialist and Microsoft MVP; and returning guest Eric Woodruff, Chief Identity Architect at Semperis. Gregor and René co-organise the Cloud Identity Summit, which happens to fall on the same date the deprecation lands.The conversation starts with the deadline and quickly becomes something more useful: an honest audit of what groups in Entra actually do, versus what administrators assume they do.The memberOf operator existed because Entra does not resolve nested groups the way Active Directory does. It was a flattening trick — take the members of several groups and produce one flat group that applications, licensing and policies could read. With it going away, the panel walks through the realistic replacements: move to supported attribute-based rules where an attribute exists, stamp an attribute with PowerShell where one does not, or convert the group to assigned membership and script it. Gregor and René both raise the version of this that is easy to forget — a rule written years ago that nobody documented, using a sync rule editor nobody wants to reopen.Then the discussion turns to the part that is not on any deprecation notice. Nested groups are supported in Conditional Access. They are not supported for group-based licensing, where only first-level members get a licence. They are not supported for Global Secure Access, where a nested group assigned to a traffic forwarding profile applies only to its direct members with no error, no warning, and nothing in the portal to tell you. Chris Brumm found that one and wrote a Maester test for it, because the only way to know is to go looking.There is a new group property that blocks nesting in both directions, undocumented when this was recorded. Sensitivity labels have reached Entra security groups in preview, bringing a guest-access control that stops new guests but does not evict the ones already in the group. And Merill spotted something through Entra.News Daily that deserves more attention than it has had: an agent’s user account is a user identity, so existing dynamic user rules already evaluate it. If your licensing group has a broad rule and your developers start creating agent accounts, those accounts qualify. If it is a group behind a Conditional Access policy or an exclusion, that is a different conversation entirely.Which leads to the sharpest point in the episode, and Eric makes it plainly: the security of a dynamic group is the security of the write permissions on the attributes in its rule. Some of those attributes are self-service. Some flow up from on-premises Active Directory, changed by people who are not thinking about the cloud at all. Microsoft Learn now carries an explicit warning about exactly this, and it is why groups used for privileged access cannot be dynamic.The last third is about the Cloud Identity Summit itself. More info below.If you have memberOf in a rule anywhere, the useful thing to do this week is find it. Everything else in this episode can wait until after November.Featured sponsorCloud Identity Summit 2026 → One Day, One Topic, In the RoomIdentity. Security. 2026. On Tuesday 3 November in Frankfurt, the Cloud Identity Summit gives cloud identity a conference of its own, now in its seventh year, and free to attend.Two parallel tracks, Identity Management and Identity Security, run 50-minute sessions in English. It is deliberately vendor-neutral: Microsoft Entra, AWS, Google Cloud and whatever else you actually run. Eric Woodruff keynotes with Identity Security Kindergeburtstag fourteen years of identity being called “the new security perimeter”, and an honest look at what that has actually got us.Why it is worth the trip:* It is in person only. No livestream, no catch-up recordings. The organisers built it that way on purpose — “a strong focus on face-to-face conversations to support networking and exchange of experiences.” If you want the hallway conversation, you have to be in the hallway.* Everything is identity. No filler tracks. A whole day of people who work on the same problems you do, from an international mix of industries.* The Community Ticket is 100% free. There is an optional paid Supporter Ticket if you want to help fund the event.* It is easy to get to. adesso SE, Prisma Frankfurt-Niederrad — around ten minutes by S-Bahn from Frankfurt Airport, ten from Frankfurt Hauptbahnhof, and a short walk from Frankfurt-Niederrad station.* Travelling in? The Crowne Plaza Frankfurt is a ten-minute walk, €89 single with breakfast on the “Cloud Identity Summit” booking code — 50 rooms, held until 5 October.One more thing, given what this episode is about: 3 November is also the day Microsoft retires the memberOf operator. If you are going to spend that Tuesday thinking about Entra groups anyway, spend it in a room with people solving the same problem.Subscribe with your favorite podcast player or watch on YouTubeAbout Gregor ReimlingGregor is a Microsoft MVP in Azure and Security, Chief Azure Technologist at adesso SE, and a passionate advocate for the Microsoft cloud community. His expertise spans Azure architecture, Microsoft Entra, Zero Trust and hybrid cloud environments; he helps organizations successfully navigate their cloud journey. Beyond his day job, Gregor is a frequent speaker at international events, co-host of the Cloud Inspires podcast and co-founder of the Cloud Identity Summit. As a Microsoft Certified Trainer, he enjoys sharing knowledge, mentoring others, and helping IT professionals get the most out of Microsoft technologies.LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/gregorreimling/About René WaselRené is a Microsoft 365 specialist, and a Microsoft MVP for Microsoft 365. He describes his work as helping people actually use the technology they have been given, and he is active in the community as a meetup and event organiser. He co-organises the Cloud Identity Summit.LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/renewasel/About Eric WoodruffThroughout his 25-year career in the IT field, Eric has sought out and held a diverse range of roles. Currently the Chief Identity Architect for Semperis; Eric previously was a member of the Security Research and Product teams. Prior to Semperis, Eric worked as a Security and Identity Architect at Microsoft partners, spent time working at Microsoft as a Sr. Premier Field Engineer, and spent almost 15 years in the public sector, with 10 of them as a technical manager.LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/ericonidentity/Related Links* MC1448379 - Microsoft Entra ID: Replace MemberOf rules by November 3, 2026 - https://mc.merill.net/message/MC1448379* Entra.News Daily, Merill’s daily diff of Microsoft Entra documentation changes (mentioned at 26:26) - https://daily.entra.news/changes/2026-08-14/manage-rules-for-dynamic-membership-groups-in-microsoft-entra-id-16/* Maester, the open-source test framework used for the dynamic-group and nested-group checks discussed (mentioned at 06:09 and 30:06) - https://maester.dev/contributors/agnivesh* Configure dynamic membership groups with the memberOf operator - the official retirement notice and migration guidance - https://learn.microsoft.com/entra/identity/users/groups-dynamic-rule-member-of* Manage rules for dynamic membership groups - covers agent user accounts and the attribute write-permission warning - https://learn.microsoft.com/entra/identity/users/groups-dynamic-membership* Assign users and groups to Global Secure Access traffic forwarding profiles - confirms nested groups are not supported (discussed at 15:50) - https://learn.microsoft.com/entra/global-secure-access/how-to-manage-users-groups-assignment* Group-based licensing - confirms only first-level members receive licences - https://learn.microsoft.com/entra/fundamentals/concept-group-based-licensing* Assign sensitivity labels to Microsoft Entra security groups (preview) (discussed at 25:09) - https://learn.microsoft.com/entra/identity/users/groups-sensitivity-labels* Eric’s Cloud Identity Summit keynote, “Identity Security Kindergeburtstag” (mentioned at 34:12) - https://www.identitysummit.cloud/speakerRelated Entra.Chat Episodes* Operational Groups in Entra with Nathan McNulty - https://entra.news/p/operational-groups-in-entra-with* Mastering Microsoft Entra ID: Real-World Passkey Deployment Tips - Eric’s previous episode, referenced at 02:12 - https://entra.news/p/mastering-microsoft-entra-id-real* From Active Directory to AI Agents: The 25-Year Saga of Microsoft’s Identity - the keynote-turned-podcast Merill promised to link (mentioned at 40:16) - https://entra.news/p/from-active-directory-to-ai-agentsChapters00:00 Intro 01:17 Meet Gregor, René and Eric 02:12 Passkeys: what comes after the rollout 04:17 memberOf is being retired 06:45 Workarounds: attributes, PowerShell and sync rules 10:41 Why Entra wants your groups flat 14:36 Where nested groups silently fail 17:45 The new property that blocks nesting 19:27 AD-sourced groups vs Entra-sourced groups 25:09 Sensitivity labels come to security groups 26:23 Agents are already in your dynamic groups 28:23 Why dynamic groups are not a security control 31:31 Inside the Cloud Identity Summit 35:21 Identity is not the “new” perimeter 41:44 November 3, tickets and wrap-upPodcast AppsApple Podcast - https://entra.chat/appleYouTube - https://entra.chat/youtubeSpotify - https://entra.chat/spotifyOvercast - https://entra.chat/overcastPocketcast - https://entra.chat/pocketcastOthers - https://entra.chat/rssMerill’s socialsYouTube - youtube.com/@merillxLinkedIn - linkedin.com/in/merillTwitter - twitter.com/merillTikTok - tiktok.com/@merillfBluesky - bsky.app/profile/merill.netMastodon - infosec.exchange/@merillThreads - threads.net/@merillfGitHub - github.com/merill Get full access to Entra.News - Your weekly dose of Microsoft Entra at entra.news/subscribe

Passkeys are phishing-resistant. But that resistance is enforced by your browser, which binds every authentication to the origin that requested it. Skip the browser, and the guarantee weakens.In this episode of Entra.Chat, I spoke with Michael Grafnetter, Principal Security Researcher at SpecterOps and Microsoft MVP, about the Pass-the-Passkey research he presented at Black Hat USA 2026. A family of attacks against passkey implementations across Windows, Microsoft Entra ID, browsers and password managers.Michael starts with the vulnerability chain he reported to Microsoft. Windows was writing the complete passkey assertion into the event log, and Microsoft Entra ID would accept a replay of that assertion for up to ten minutes. Any user able to read those logs including a member of Remote Desktop Users on a shared server, or unprivileged malware quietly reading event logs without tripping EDR could impersonate whoever had just signed in. If that person was a Global Administrator, so was the attacker. Windows now truncates the logged message, and Microsoft Entra ID checks authenticator signature counters to reject replays.One clarification Michael is emphatic about: private keys were never written to the event log. They stay bound to the TPM or never leave the security key at all. What leaked were the short-lived digital signatures made by those keys and for this attack, that was enough.We also covered the attacks that do not depend on any single bug. Malware running without administrator rights can call the native Windows WebAuthn APIs directly and raise a passkey prompt flood that keeps returning until the user gives in and approves it. Synced passkeys, exported from a password manager and decrypted with a keylogged password, hand an attacker a credential with no ten-minute limit at all. And a browser-hooking technique Michael calls a passkey detour attack quietly redirects a legitimate assertion into the attacker’s own session.The defensive thread running through all of it is the same: every one of these attacks assumes malware is already on the device. That makes device trust the key control. Privileged access workstations for administrators, Conditional Access requiring compliant devices with EDR running, and the clean source principle that says a system can only be as trustworthy as whatever it depends on.Michael closes on an optimistic note, and it is worth repeating. Passkeys are still the future. They remain far better than passwords and phishable MFA, and every attack here costs an adversary vastly more effort than sending a phishing link. But as passkeys become the default in Microsoft Entra, the threat model deserves an honest read.Watch the demos. This episode includes three on-screen demonstrations that are much easier to follow on video than on audio.This episode brought to you by Workplace Ninjas USWorkplace Ninjas US isn’t just another tech conference. It’s where Microsoft experts, MVPs, engineers, and IT professionals come together to learn, network, and build lasting connections. We are a community built on diversity, mentoring, fellowship, and creating a place where everyone belongs.Our core DNA comes down to a few pillars:* Over 60 sessions from the largest collection of MVPs and SMEs you will find in any event in America.* Amazing mentoring, development, and growth through our one on one mentoring system with any speaker, our hackathon, community theatre and more.* A diverse expo hall featuring some of the best Microsoft partners in the world that will help you drive deep efficiencies from your M365 stack.* A place where you will learn how to think differently and collaborate better through a collection of activities and can return refreshed and invigorated to drive change in your organization.* Don’t miss out on our early bird tickets while supplies lastSubscribe with your favorite podcast player or watch on YouTube About Michael GrafnetterMichael Grafnetter is a Principal Security Researcher at SpecterOps and a Microsoft MVP, based in Prague. He specializes in Microsoft Entra ID and Active Directory security and PowerShell. He is the author of the DSInternals PowerShell module and the researcher who originally discovered the Shadow Credentials attack technique, now widely used by penetration testers, red teamers and attackers alike. He has presented his security research at international conferences including Black Hat Europe, Black Hat USA, SecTor, TROOPERS and BSides Lisbon.* LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/grafnetter/Related Links* Pass-the-Passkey research and tools, including Passkey Injector and the DSInternals.Passkeys module (discussed at 14:57 and 34:22) - https://github.com/SpecterOps/pass-the-passkey* Pass-the-Passkey research paper from Black Hat USA 2026 (introduced at 07:34) - https://specterops.io/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2026/08/Pass-the-Passkey_A4_v2.pdf* Shadow Credentials, Michael’s earlier Active Directory research (mentioned at 01:46) - https://specterops.io/blog/2021/06/17/shadow-credentials-abusing-key-trust-account-mapping-for-account-takeover/* DSInternals PowerShell module (mentioned at 01:34) - https://www.dsinternals.com/en/* Passkeys (FIDO2) authentication in Microsoft Entra ID (context throughout) - https://learn.microsoft.com/entra/identity/authentication/concept-authentication-passkeys-fido2* Synced passkeys, device-bound passkeys and passkey profiles (discussed at 23:21) - https://learn.microsoft.com/entra/identity/authentication/how-to-authentication-passkeys-fido2* Deploy phishing-resistant passwordless authentication (context at 18:08) - https://learn.microsoft.com/entra/identity/authentication/how-to-deploy-phishing-resistant-passwordless-authentication* Require device compliance with Conditional Access (recommended at 21:12) - https://learn.microsoft.com/entra/identity/conditional-access/policy-all-users-device-compliance* Privileged access devices and the clean source principle (discussed at 21:55 and 35:41) - https://learn.microsoft.com/security/privileged-access-workstations/privileged-access-devices* Unit 42, “Pass the Passkey: A Novel Attack Surface in Passwordless Authentication” — the Palo Alto research on Google Password Manager passkeys (mentioned at 26:27) - https://unit42.paloaltonetworks.com/passwordless-authentication-security-risks/Related Entra.Chat Episodes* From SMS MFA to Passkeys: A Practical Microsoft Entra Migration Plan - https://entra.news/p/from-sms-mfa-to-passkeys-a-practical* 5 Lessons from Rolling Out Passkeys to Millions of Users - https://entra.news/p/5-lessons-from-rolling-out-passkeys* Attackers Are Targeting The AI Ecosystem You Cannot See - https://entra.news/p/attackers-are-targeting-the-ai-ecosystemChapters00:00 Intro01:02 Meet Michael Grafnetter03:09 How the Research Started06:50 Windows Hello for Business Was the First Passkey07:30 The Signature in Your Event Log10:18 No, Private Keys Are Not Logged12:25 How Entra Mitigated the Replay13:44 Demo: Signing In With a Stolen Signature15:22 Malware-Initiated Passkey Phishing18:08 The Browser Is What Makes Passkeys Phishing-Resistant20:42 What Defenders Should Actually Do23:04 Synced Passkeys and the Export Problem26:13 Credential Exchange and Password Manager Risk28:19 The Passkey Detour Attack30:43 The Authentication Broker Debate31:57 RDP Redirection and Remote Passkey Abuse32:59 Spotting a Suspicious Passkey Prompt34:46 Passkeys Are Still the FuturePodcast AppsApple Podcast - https://entra.chat/appleYouTube - https://entra.chat/youtubeSpotify - https://entra.chat/spotifyOvercast - https://entra.chat/overcastPocketcast - https://entra.chat/pocketcastOthers - https://entra.chat/rssMerill’s socialsYouTube - youtube.com/@merillxLinkedIn - linkedin.com/in/merillTwitter - twitter.com/merillTikTok - tiktok.com/@merillfBluesky - bsky.app/profile/merill.netMastodon - infosec.exchange/@merillThreads - threads.net/@merillfGitHub - github.com/merill Get full access to Entra.News - Your weekly dose of Microsoft Entra at entra.news/subscribe

Microsoft-managed SMS and voice MFA will stop working on February 1, 2027. That deadline makes passkey planning urgent, but enabling a new authentication method is only the first milestone.In this episode of Entra.Chat, Merill speaks with Jai Maharaj, Product Manager at Microsoft, about the practical journey from legacy MFA to a passwordless Microsoft Entra environment. Jai explains what is actually being retired, why organizations can still use a customer-managed telecom provider, and how passkey profiles support synced and device-bound passkeys for different user personas.The user-experience case is compelling: Microsoft reports roughly 69 seconds for password plus traditional MFA compared with about three seconds for a synced passkey. The security case is stronger still. Passkeys resist phishing by design, but Jai stresses that deploying them does not make an organization phishing-resistant until it enforces the right authentication strength and addresses the passwords and legacy applications still in the environment.The conversation then follows the complete identity lifecycle. How do you ensure the right person receives a passkey during onboarding? How do you verify someone requesting a sensitive role? How do you recover an account without relying on knowledge-based help-desk questions? Jai connects those scenarios to Microsoft Entra Verified ID, verifiable credentials, Face Check, identity verification partners, and self-service account recovery.Sponsored byScan, Score, and Secure Your Applications in EntraApplication identities represent one of the largest attack surfaces in Entra and are often among the least consistently governed. ENow AppGov Score helps IT and identity teams understand where risk exists. Its 25-check assessment evaluates Entra ID application integrations against Microsoft-recommended governance practices, analyzing:* App registrations and enterprise apps for excessive permissions* Expired or unmanaged secrets and certificates* Risky consent grants* Privileged service principalsResults are delivered as a clear, defensible risk score with actionable findings. No scripts. No manual inventory. Just a fast, read-only scan that reveals app sprawl, identity misconfigurations, and blast radius so you can prioritize remediation and strengthen your security posture.Subscribe with your favorite podcast player or watch on YouTube 👇About Jai MaharajJai Maharaj is a Senior Product Manager at Microsoft. He works with customers and engineering teams across Microsoft Entra, with experience spanning ID Governance, Verified ID, External ID, and passkeys. He helps enterprise and public-sector organizations move from legacy authentication methods to phishing-resistant authentication.* LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/jai-maharaj-0938305a/Related Links* Microsoft-managed SMS and voice retirement timeline (discussed at 02:19 and 06:31) - https://learn.microsoft.com/entra/identity/authentication/concept-sms-voice-retirement* Customer-managed telecom provider FAQ (mentioned at 03:41 and 07:13) - https://learn.microsoft.com/entra/identity/authentication/phone-providers-faq* Passkey profiles, synced passkeys, and device-bound passkeys (discussed at 09:44) - https://learn.microsoft.com/entra/identity/authentication/how-to-authentication-passkeys-fido2#passkey-profiles* Passkey concepts and Microsoft performance figures (mentioned at 14:22) - https://learn.microsoft.com/entra/identity/authentication/concept-authentication-passkeys-fido2#what-are-passkeys* Microsoft Entra Verified ID Face Check (introduced at 31:57) - https://learn.microsoft.com/entra/verified-id/using-facecheck* ASD/ACSC Essential Eight maturity model (mentioned at 33:41) - https://www.cyber.gov.au/business-government/asds-cyber-security-frameworks/essential-eight/essential-eight-maturity-model* Microsoft Entra account recovery overview (discussed at 36:59) - https://learn.microsoft.com/entra/identity/authentication/concept-account-recovery-overview* Verified ID identity verification partners (discussed at 37:12) - https://learn.microsoft.com/entra/verified-id/idv-partners* Microsoft Entra licensing (discussed at 39:27) - https://learn.microsoft.com/entra/fundamentals/licensing* Verified ID and Face Check pricing model (discussed at 39:27) - https://learn.microsoft.com/entra/verified-id/verified-id-pricing* Deploy phishing-resistant passwordless authentication (mentioned at 52:34) - https://learn.microsoft.com/entra/identity/authentication/how-to-deploy-phishing-resistant-passwordless-authenticationRelated Entra.Chat Episodes* Microsoft Is Auto-Enabling Passkeys in March 2026 - https://entra.news/p/microsoft-is-auto-enabling-passkeys* Mastering Microsoft Entra ID: Real-World Passkey Deployment Tips - https://entra.news/p/mastering-microsoft-entra-id-real* Entra Ignite Recap: Synced Passkeys, Agent ID & The Future of Identity - https://entra.news/p/entra-ignite-recap-synced-passkeysChapters00:00 Intro02:19 Why Microsoft Is Retiring Managed SMS and Voice03:32 What the February 2027 Deadline Means09:27 Synced vs Device-Bound Passkeys14:22 From 69 Seconds to Three19:02 Making Passkeys Easier for Users23:14 Customer Passkey Deployment Lessons28:41 The Secure Bootstrapping Problem31:57 Verified ID and Face Check33:41 Essential Eight and High-Value Access36:24 Self-Service Account Recovery39:27 Licensing and Recovery Economics44:45 Why Face Check Augments Passkeys49:40 Enforce Phishing Resistance and Build a RoadmapPodcast AppsApple Podcast - https://entra.chat/appleYouTube - https://entra.chat/youtubeSpotify - https://entra.chat/spotifyOvercast - https://entra.chat/overcastPocketcast - https://entra.chat/pocketcastOthers - https://entra.chat/rssMerill’s socialsYouTube - youtube.com/@merillxLinkedIn - linkedin.com/in/merillTwitter - twitter.com/merillTikTok - tiktok.com/@merillfBluesky - bsky.app/profile/merill.netMastodon - infosec.exchange/@merillThreads - threads.net/@merillfGitHub - github.com/merill Get full access to Entra.News - Your weekly dose of Microsoft Entra at entra.news/subscribe

An Entra GSA migration should not mean throwing away years of useful SSE policy work and rebuilding every application, segment, and rule by hand.Existing configuration carries hard-won intent: which populations need access, which destinations should be blocked, and which exceptions keep the business running. Migrate2GSA creates a path to preserve the useful parts while making the migration a deliberate cleanup opportunity.In this episode of Entra.Chat, I spoke with Andres Canello, Principal Product Manager at Microsoft and creator of Migrate2GSA. Andres demonstrates how the open-source toolkit exports configuration from third-party products, converts it into a common CSV schema, gives administrators an intentional review step, and provisions the approved configuration into Global Secure Access through Microsoft Graph.The goal is not to configure the product end to end or remove human judgment. Andres describes it as a way to accelerate the repetitive 80%. Conflicting segments default to “do not provision,” existing applications are skipped, generated Conditional Access policies remain disabled, and there is no delete API call in the toolkit.The conversation also covers greenfield provisioning, backup and restore, reusable consultant baselines, and the unusual development story behind more than 30,000 lines of PowerShell. Andres explains why detailed, published specifications produced better AI-generated code than incremental prompting—and why the intent and edge cases in an open-source contribution matter more than who typed the implementation.Subscribe with your favorite podcast player or watch on YouTube.About Andres CanelloAndres Canello is a Principal Product Manager at Microsoft, where he works at the intersection of modern identity and Secure Service Edge. Over his 15 years at Microsoft, he was a founding member of the Entra Global Secure Access team, helping shape the product before it launched, and has since guided some of the largest identity and secure-access deployments in the industry, from banks and miners to national governments. He’s the creator of Migrate2GSA, an open-source migration toolkit used by organizations around the world, which he built end-to-end using AI-assisted, spec-driven development.* Andres Canello on LinkedIn* Andres Canello on X/TwitterSponsored byMaester Cloud turns every Maester and Microsoft Zero Trust Assessment run into a durable evidence trail. See new failures, fixes, accepted risks, and posture changes across every tenant - without digging through old HTML reports.* Keep 5+ years of tenant history in your chosen Azure region* Compare runs, spot drift, and get change alertsBecome a Founding Supporter for $99/month to fund open-source Maester development, shape the roadmap, and get self-hosted private-preview access plus 10% off hosted for life.Related Links* Plan and troubleshoot UserPrincipalName changes in Microsoft Entra ID (mentioned at 04:07)* Azure AD Mailbag: Conditional Access Q&A by Andres Canello (mentioned at 06:43)* Migrate2GSA documentation (mentioned at 45:37)* Migrate2GSA source repository (mentioned at 45:37)Related Entra.Chat Episodes* How to Migrate from Legacy VPNs to Entra Private Access (Real Strategies from a Veteran)* Global Secure Access Explained: Real-World Rollouts, Mistakes, and Best Practices* Identity-Centric Network Security: Entra Global Secure Access Architecture & BenefitsChapters00:00 Intro01:05 Andres Canello's 15 Years in Microsoft Identity06:43 A Conditional Access Mistake Admins Still Make11:29 From Early Customer Pilots to Entra GSA13:21 Why SSE Migrations Should Not Start From Scratch18:31 Beyond Migration: Backup Restore and Greenfield23:27 Export Convert Review and Provision27:02 How Specifications Made AI-Generated PowerShell Work35:22 Conflict Detection and the Human Review Gate39:14 Microsoft Graph Provisioning with Safety Built In43:35 Automating the Repetitive 80 Percent46:15 Contributing to Migrate2GSAPodcast Apps* Entra.Chat* Apple Podcast* YouTube* Spotify* Overcast* Pocketcast* Other podcast appsMerill’s socials* YouTube* LinkedIn* Twitter* TikTok* Bluesky* Mastodon* Threads* GitHub Get full access to Entra.News - Your weekly dose of Microsoft Entra at entra.news/subscribe

Conditional Access no longer begins and ends with identity signals.Microsoft Purview can now influence the controls Entra administrators are asked to implement. From insider-risk conditions in Conditional Access to inline protection for sensitive data moving toward unsanctioned AI apps. That means Entra teams need enough Purview knowledge to understand what triggers a policy, how users experience it, and who should respond when an alert fires.In this episode of Entra.Chat, Merill speaks with Ray Reyes, Principal Security Consultant at Engage Squared and author of Mastering Microsoft Purview Deployment in the Era of AI. Ray explains Data Loss Prevention and Insider Risk Management in plain language, then follows their integrations into Microsoft Entra ID, Microsoft Defender XDR, and Global Secure Access.The conversation moves beyond product configuration. A policy can be technically simple and still require identity, network, data-security, HR, management, and data-owner teams to agree on scope, ownership, education, escalation, and remediation. Ray’s practical advice is to understand the neighbouring Microsoft security products at a high level and deploy Purview gradually: start in audit mode or with a limited group, learn from the impact, and expand with the business.Ray also shares the story of the charity he and his wife started in Nepal, how it grew from supporting roughly 30 street children to reaching thousands, and how that chapter changed his perspective on work and stress. He and Merill close with an honest discussion about burnout, layoffs, gratitude, personal branding, and building a career safety net outside any one employer.Sponsored byRecent layoffs have left a lot of strong professionals in limbo.That’s why we built Sponsor a Seeker, a simple way for the community to lift each other up.For just $29, you can gift a full 3-month Job-Hunt Pass packed with: • Unlimited resume & job description scans • AI-powered rewrites that actually beat ATS systems • Professional cover letter generationEvery dollar goes directly to the seeker.You can: → Sponsor someone like Alex M. (recently laid off front-end engineer) → Or request sponsorship for yourselfEither way, you’re helping keep momentum alive in a tough market.👉 Take action here: pastthebots.com/sponsorLet’s turn “I was laid off” into “Someone had my back.”Thank you for being part of this community, Rod Trent Past the BotsSubscribe with your favorite podcast player or watch on YouTube.About Ray ReyesRay Reyes is a Principal Security Consultant at Engage Squared and the author of Mastering Microsoft Purview Deployment in the Era of AI. He previously worked at Microsoft, where he led data-security subject-matter expertise across Asia Pacific and Japan and helped customers deploy Microsoft Purview and Microsoft Defender XDR. His work now spans identity, data security, and the wider Microsoft security stack.* LinkedIn → linkedin.com/in/ray-reyes-598062125Related Links* Mastering Microsoft Purview Deployment in the Era of AI by Ray Reyes (mentioned at 00:00 and 02:25)* Microsoft Purview overview (discussed from 03:29)* Adaptive Protection in Microsoft Purview (discussed at 22:09)* Learn about Data Loss Prevention for Network Data Security (discussed at 33:31)* Configure Microsoft Entra Internet Access content filtering (discussed at 34:18)* The Resilience Project: Finding Happiness through Gratitude, Empathy and Mindfulness by Hugh van Cuylenburg (mentioned at 47:25)Related Entra.Chat Episodes* How Microsoft Is Securing AI Agents in Entra — Conditional Access, Zero Trust & the “Block” Debate* How to Migrate from Legacy VPNs to Entra Private Access* What’s New in Microsoft Entra — May 2026: Passkeys, Agents & Cloud SyncChapters00:00 Intro03:29 Why Purview Matters to Entra Admins05:39 How Microsoft Purview Evolved09:46 Data Loss Prevention Explained16:04 Insider Risk and Employee Departures22:09 Adaptive Protection Meets Conditional Access25:00 Education and Alert Ownership28:51 Breaking Down the Security Silos33:31 Network Data Security and Unsanctioned AI38:29 How to Roll Out Purview Safely41:20 Ray’s Charity Work in Nepal47:10 Resilience Burnout and a Career Safety NetPodcast AppsApple Podcast - https://entra.chat/appleYouTube - https://entra.chat/youtubeSpotify - https://entra.chat/spotifyOvercast - https://entra.chat/overcastPocketcast - https://entra.chat/pocketcastOthers - https://entra.chat/rssMerill’s socialsYouTube - youtube.com/@merillxLinkedIn - linkedin.com/in/merillTwitter - twitter.com/merillTikTok - tiktok.com/@merillfBluesky - bsky.app/profile/merill.netMastodon - infosec.exchange/@merillThreads - threads.net/@merillfGitHub - github.com/merill Get full access to Entra.News - Your weekly dose of Microsoft Entra at entra.news/subscribe

Xbox Security runs a gaming-specific Microsoft Entra baseline across more than 70 tenants every night.The scale is striking: about 50 controls, dozens of independently operated game-studio tenants, and one parallel pipeline that checks whether each environment still matches Xbox’s security intent. When a Conditional Access policy moves to report-only or a required service principal loses a permission, the next run finds it.In this episode of Entra.Chat, Merill speaks with Audrey Long, Principal Cloud Security Architect in Xbox Security at Microsoft, and Sam Erde, SecureShield Architect at Patriot Consulting and a Maester maintainer. Audrey explains how Xbox Security extended Maester with custom PowerShell, GitHub Actions, a multi-tenant service principal, federated identity credentials, dashboards, ticketing, and time-bound exceptions.The result is more than a posture report. Findings flow into an operational lifecycle with owners and deadlines. Studios get readable reports, deep links to the affected object, and remediation guidance. Security teams can answer audit questions without interrupting all the tenant admins, while the Maester pipeline keeps read-only observability separate from remediation authority.The conversation also covers why a Microsoft-wide baseline needs adapting for gaming acquisitions, how custom tests encode an organization’s intent, why security configuration deserves regression tests, the Investigate status Audrey’s team helped introduce, and how administrators can use AI as a first-draft assistant for PowerShell and CI/CD without outsourcing validation.Subscribe with your favorite podcast player or watch on YouTubeSponsorMaester Cloud turns every Maester and Microsoft Zero Trust Assessment run into a durable evidence trail. See new failures, fixes, accepted risks, and posture changes across every tenant—without digging through old HTML reports.* Keep 5+ years of tenant history in your chosen Azure region* Compare runs, spot drift, and get change alertsMaester Cloud is in active development. Join the waitlist for hosted, self-hosted, or enterprise onboarding updates.About Audrey LongAudrey Long is a Principal Cloud Security Architect in Xbox Security at Microsoft. She focuses on Microsoft Entra and identity security, as well as securing Azure, AWS, and Google Cloud environments across Xbox and its game studios. In this episode, she shares how her team built a gaming-specific Entra baseline and operationalized it across more than 70 tenants.* LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/aulong/About Sam ErdeSam Erde is part of the Maester core maintainer team, a Microsoft MVP, and a SecureShield Architect at Patriot Consulting. He focuses on Active Directory, Microsoft Entra ID, Microsoft 365 security, and practical PowerShell tooling for defenders.LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/samerde/Related Links* Maester, installation guide, and source code (mentioned at 02:19) - Maester · installation guide · GitHub source* Continuous monitoring with Maester and GitHub Actions (mentioned at 14:38) - https://maester.dev/docs/monitoring/github/* Writing custom Maester tests (mentioned at 22:39) - https://maester.dev/docs/writing-tests/* Connect-Maester permissions and read-only access (mentioned at 24:38) - https://maester.dev/docs/connect-maester/* Zero Trust Assessment: Secure your tenant (mentioned at 25:46) - https://entra.news/p/find-your-tenants-hidden-flaws-in* Maester’s Investigate test-result status (mentioned at 34:02) - https://maester.dev/docs/writing-tests/formatting-test-results/* Making Security Invisible for Game Developers (mentioned at 45:52) - https://opsmatters.com/videos/making-security-invisible-game-developersRelated Entra.Chat Episodes* How to Secure Copilot Agents, Azure DevOps & Defender (+ more) with Maester 2.1 (Full Breakdown)* Zero Trust Assessment: Secure your tenant* How to Design Bullet-Proof Conditional Access Policies in Microsoft Entra IDChapters00:00 Intro00:42 Meet Audrey Long02:19 From 50 Controls to 70+ Tenants05:11 Making an Entra Baseline Gaming-Specific08:32 Why Custom Maester Tests Matter11:07 Governance and Nightly Automation15:27 From Findings to Remediation18:07 Reports Studios Can Actually Use22:39 Building Custom Multi-Tenant Tests28:07 Security Intent as Regression Tests30:48 Catching Drift and Producing Audit Evidence41:39 CI/CD and AI for Security AdminsPodcast AppsEntra.Chat - https://entra.chatApple Podcast - https://entra.chat/appleYouTube - https://entra.chat/youtubeSpotify - https://entra.chat/spotifyOvercast - https://entra.chat/overcastPocketcast - https://entra.chat/pocketcastOthers - https://entra.chat/rssMerill’s socialsYouTube - youtube.com/@merillxLinkedIn - linkedin.com/in/merillTwitter - twitter.com/merillTikTok - tiktok.com/@merillfBluesky - bsky.app/profile/merill.netMastodon - infosec.exchange/@merillThreads - threads.net/@merillfGitHub - github.com/merill Get full access to Entra.News - Your weekly dose of Microsoft Entra at entra.news/subscribe

Microsoft Entra Agent ID uses familiar application and service-principal objects under the hood, but its one-to-many hierarchy creates a different security boundary. A blueprint can be associated with many agent identities. When that blueprint belongs to a third-party provider and is trusted across customer tenants, the provider’s credential security becomes part of every customer’s risk model.In this episode of Entra.Chat, Merill speaks with Katie Knowles, Senior Security Researcher at Datadog, about her three-part security analysis of Microsoft Entra Agent ID. Katie explains the blueprint, blueprint principal, agent identity, and agent-user relationships before walking through a cross-tenant compromise demonstration: compromised blueprint credentials, enumeration of associated agents, token requests in trusting tenants, permission inspection, and selection of a useful target identity.That path does not automatically grant Global Administrator access. Its impact depends on what the target agent identity has been permitted to do. The important lesson is the control point: one blueprint can sit upstream of many identities, tenants, and permission sets.Katie and Merill also discuss tenant-owned versus vendor-owned blueprints, the Agent ID Administrator role, first-party agent creation through Microsoft platforms, why production client secrets compound the blast radius, workload identity federation, separating blueprints by risk, reusing app-registration detections, and Microsoft Entra ID Protection for agents.REGISTER: Hidden Risk of App Permissions in Entra IDMany Microsoft Entra ID environments contain third-party and custom applications with permissions that are broader than necessary, and most organizations lack visibility into how those permissions are being used. Excessive Microsoft Graph permissions and unused access increase the risk of OAuth abuse and privilege escalation.Join our live session on July 22 to learn how to:* Evaluate delegated versus application permissions* Build an effective app governance strategy* Reduce unnecessary access without disrupting usersYou’ll also see how a free AppGov Score assessment can help identify governance gaps and where unused permissions reporting fit into a least-privilege approach.Subscribe with your favorite podcast player or watch on YouTubeAbout Katie KnowlesKatie Knowles is a Senior Security Researcher at Datadog focused on Azure security research, cloud identity, and securing emerging technologies.* LinkedIn - https://linkedin.com/in/kaknowles* X/Twitter - https://twitter.com/_sigil* GitHub - https://github.com/siigil* Website - https://kknowl.es/* Microsoft MVP profile - https://mvp.microsoft.com/en-US/MVP/profile/a3547b6a-6a4d-4aa0-840f-23b858c43c8bRelated Links* Entra Agent ID: The blueprint blast radius (mentioned at 51:39) - https://securitylabs.datadoghq.com/articles/agent-id-blueprint-blast-radius/* Entra Agent ID: Inside a cross-tenant agent compromise (mentioned at 51:39) - https://securitylabs.datadoghq.com/articles/agent-id-inside-agent-compromise/* Entra Agent ID: Protect, detect, respond (mentioned at 51:39) - https://securitylabs.datadoghq.com/articles/agent-id-protect-detect-respond/* Disable agent identities in your tenant (mentioned at 04:00 and 49:33) - https://learn.microsoft.com/entra/agent-id/disable-agent-identities* Investigating suspicious AI workflows in Microsoft Entra Agent ID: Agent’s user account (mentioned at 05:14) - https://redcanary.com/blog/threat-detection/entra-id-ai-workflows-teams/* Entra Agent ID from a Security Perspective (mentioned at 20:38) - https://blog.compass-security.com/2026/06/entra-agent-id-from-a-security-perspective/* Spying On Your ISVs Credential Choices (mentioned at 38:11) - https://ericonidentity.com/2025/01/13/spying-on-your-isvs-credential-choices/* Who Are the Robots? Uncovering AI Agents Identities (mentioned at 51:39) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mMxACHKIAwY* AzTier (mentioned at 51:39) - https://aztier.com/* Microsoft Entra Agent ID key concepts - https://learn.microsoft.com/entra/agent-id/key-concepts* Workload identity federation - https://learn.microsoft.com/entra/workload-id/workload-identity-federation* ID Protection for agents - https://learn.microsoft.com/entra/id-protection/concept-risky-agentsRelated Entra.Chat Episodes* If You Manage Entra Permissions, Watch This Before Deploying Agents - https://entra.news/p/if-you-manage-entra-permissions-watch* From Windows Core to Leading Agent ID: Vince Smith’s Microsoft Story - https://entra.news/p/from-windows-core-to-leading-agent* Attackers Are Targeting the AI Ecosystem You Cannot See - https://entra.news/p/attackers-are-targeting-the-ai-ecosystemChapters00:00 Intro01:12 Katie’s Three-Part Agent ID Research 05:40 Agent ID Objects Under the Hood 06:24 One Blueprint, Many Agent Identities 08:43 The Multitenant Trust Boundary 17:33 Cross-Tenant Compromise Walkthrough 28:29 First-Party and Third-Party Blueprints 36:56 Stop Using Client Secrets 38:40 Workload Identity Federation 46:24 Permissions and Privilege Boundaries 49:33 Detecting and Responding to Agent Abuse 51:29 What Comes Next for Agent IDPodcast AppsApple Podcast - https://entra.chat/appleYouTube - https://entra.chat/youtubeSpotify - https://entra.chat/spotifyOvercast - https://entra.chat/overcastPocketcast - https://entra.chat/pocketcastOthers - https://entra.chat/rssMerill’s socialsYouTube - youtube.com/@merillxLinkedIn - linkedin.com/in/merillTwitter - twitter.com/merillTikTok - tiktok.com/@merillfBluesky - bsky.app/profile/merill.netMastodon - infosec.exchange/@merillThreads - threads.net/@merillfGitHub - github.com/merill Get full access to Entra.News - Your weekly dose of Microsoft Entra at entra.news/subscribe

AI agent security is not just about attackers using AI.It is also about attackers targeting the agent ecosystem most organizations cannot see clearly yet: MCP servers, agent skills, packages, API keys, prompts, tools, and the identity layer underneath all of it.In this episode, I sit down with Thomas Roccia, founder of Security Break and a former Microsoft threat researcher, to look at AI agents from the threat-intelligence side. Thomas explains why the easiest path for attackers may not be futuristic autonomous hacking. It may be the boring weak spots that already exist: malicious packages, untrusted MCP servers, hostile agent skills, leaked API keys, and AI-generated code that chooses the fastest path instead of the safest one.For Entra admins and security teams, this is where Agent ID, non-human identity, workload identity, logging, sponsorship, and governance start to matter. Entra Agent ID gives teams a way to identify and govern agents, but identity is only one part of the picture. You still need to understand what agents can discover, what tools they can call, what context they consume, and whether you can replay what they actually did.Thomas also breaks down his practical AI threat-intelligence work, including how teams can use agents for CTI, how adversarial prompts and context flooding change the risk model, and why defenders need to understand the attacker side of agent security before these systems become invisible production infrastructure.Sponsored bySecure BYOD Wi‑Fi Without MDM enrollmentKeytos Connect is a new mobile and desktop app that makes it easy for users to connect personal and BYOD devices to enterprise and campus Wi‑Fi without shared passwords, manual certificate installs, or traditional MDM enrollment. Users simply download the app, sign in with their work or school account, and Keytos handles the rest. It also works alongside Intune, allowing organizations to continue managing corporate-owned devices while simplifying connectivity for personal devices.* Connect in minutes: users download the app, sign in, and get securely onboarded to Wi‑Fi* No MDM required: enable secure access for personal devices without giving IT full control of them* Works alongside Intune: keep your existing management workflows for corporate devices while enabling secure BYOD access* Automatic certificate management: certificate issuance and renewal happen behind the scenes* Secure by default: EAP-TLS authentication eliminates shared Wi‑Fi passwords and provides unique credentials for every user* Multi-OS: Available across iOS, Android, Windows, and macOS devices* Included at no additional cost with existing EZRADIUS and EZCA subscriptionsLearn more about Keytos Connect and see how easy secure BYOD connectivity can be.About Thomas RocciaThomas Roccia is a threat researcher and founder of SecurityBreak, focused on AI threat intelligence, malware analysis, and AI agent security. He previously worked in incident response, malware analysis, threat intelligence, Microsoft Defender, and AI threat research. He is also the author of Visual Threat Intelligence and teaches practical AI for threat intelligence and agentic workflows.LinkedIn - https://au.linkedin.com/in/thomas-rocciaSubscribe with your favorite podcast player or watch on YouTube 👇Related Links* Thomas Roccia on LinkedIn - https://au.linkedin.com/in/thomas-roccia* SecurityBreak - https://securitybreak.io/* Practical AI for Threat Intelligence training - https://securitybreak.io/training-genai* SHIELD.md: A Security Standard for OpenClaw and AI Agents - https://blog.securitybreak.io/shield-md-a-security-standard-for-openclaw-and-ai-agents-b38637031460* Microsoft Entra Agent ID - https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/entra/agent-id/what-is-microsoft-entra-agent-id* Microsoft Entra Agent ID key concepts - https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/entra/agent-id/key-concepts* Agentic Resource Discovery specification - https://agenticresourcediscovery.org/* GitHub Agent Finder - https://github.blog/changelog/2026-06-17-agent-finder-for-github-copilot-now-available/Chapters00:00 Intro00:33 Meet Thomas Roccia01:48 From Malware Analysis to AI Threat Intel03:30 Why AI Security Is Moving So Fast05:49 Agentic Resource Discovery and New Standards09:25 Attackers Are Already Using AI Agents11:47 The AI Ecosystem Is The Target15:26 Prompt Injection, MCP, Skills, and API Keys20:28 Vibe Coding vs Production Security23:47 Agent ID and Identity for AI Agents32:30 Practical AI for Threat Intelligence39:13 Monitoring Agents Like Threat Actors Do42:28 Context Flooding and What’s NextPodcast AppsApple Podcast - https://entra.chat/appleYouTube - https://entra.chat/youtubeSpotify - https://entra.chat/spotifyOvercast - https://entra.chat/overcastPocketcast - https://entra.chat/pocketcastOthers - https://entra.chat/rssMerill’s socialsYouTube - youtube.com/@merillxLinkedIn - linkedin.com/in/merillTwitter - twitter.com/merillTikTok - tiktok.com/@merillfBluesky - bsky.app/profile/merill.netMastodon - infosec.exchange/@merillThreads - threads.net/@merillfGitHub - github.com/merill Get full access to Entra.News - Your weekly dose of Microsoft Entra at entra.news/subscribe

Folks, every big thing in identity started as somebody’s late-night side quest and Vince Smith has been in the room for a lot of them. In this episode of Entra Chat, Vince (the PM lead driving Microsoft Entra Agent ID) walks us back through a 25-year run at Microsoft: shipping beta products off a machine wired straight to the internet under a neighbor’s desk, owning the early RBAC and custom roles work that shaped Entra, surviving a couple of security incidents he mostly can’t talk about, and finally landing on the team building identity for AI agents. Along the way he owns up to the one feature name he’d take back if he could, and shares the dead-simple trick he used as a junior dev to get senior engineers to answer his questions every single time.But this isn’t just a war-stories episode. Vince breaks down why agents needed a brand-new kind of identity in the first place. An agent is a strange beast ‘as clumsy and unpredictable as a human, and as fast as a machine’ which means traditional anomaly detection looks at one and basically can’t tell if it’s a user or a workload gone rogue. His answer is the blueprint-and-instance model: one blueprint (think app registration) spinning up many scoped, least-privilege instances, instead of a bazillion app registrations or one over-permissioned service principal that can read everyone’s mailbox. And if you’re wondering why this matters now, Vince makes the case that as users move to passkeys, attackers just slide to the other end of the balloon: non-human identities and workloads. That’s the new frontier.So what should you actually do Monday morning? His advice is refreshingly un-precious: don’t wait for the perfect plan. Start green, set a standard for every new agent so you stop the bleeding from shadow AI, then stay green and slowly get green by cleaning up the mess behind you. Even just stamping a unique identifier on your agents today buys you the observability you’ll desperately want later. Be the river that flows around the rocks. There’s a lot more in the full conversation including how Agent ID and Agent 365 actually fit together, and how Vince came up to speed on a space that’s moving too fast to write a book about. Give it a watch.Subscribe with your favorite podcast player or watch on YouTube 👇About Vince SmithVince Smith is the PM Lead for Agent ID at Microsoft. A self-described computer nerd and Gen Xer, Vince has been with Microsoft since late 1999, working on everything from Windows Core and GDPR to multi-tenant collaboration and identity protection.LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/vincecsmith/🔗 Related Links* Entra Agent ID - https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/entra/agent-id/what-is-microsoft-entra-agent-id* Agent 365 - https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-agent-365📗 Chapters06:23 Provisioning vs. Federation10:25 The Need for Agent ID17:28 Blueprints and Multi-Instancing23:55 Demystifying Agent 36526:56 The Threat of Non-Human Identities (NHI)33:08 Planning Your Enterprise AI Strategy36:14 Defining a “Start Green” AI Plan40:45 The Best Way to Learn Complex Tech45:13 The Wild World of CIAMPodcast Apps🎙️ Entra.Chat - https://entra.chat🎧 Apple Podcast → https://entra.chat/apple📺 YouTube → https://entra.chat/youtube📺 Spotify → https://entra.chat/spotify🎧 Overcast → https://entra.chat/overcast🎧 Pocketcast → https://entra.chat/pocketcast🎧 Others → https://entra.chat/rssMerill’s socials📺 YouTube → youtube.com/@merillx👔 LinkedIn → linkedin.com/in/merill🐤 Twitter → twitter.com/merill🕺 TikTok → tiktok.com/@merillf🦋 Bluesky → bsky.app/profile/merill.net🐘 Mastodon → infosec.exchange/@merill🧵 Threads → threads.net/@merillf🤖 GitHub → github.com/merill Get full access to Entra.News - Your weekly dose of Microsoft Entra at entra.news/subscribe

Not every admin in your tenant is a person. Service principals, app registrations, and the new wave of agent identities can quietly hold permissions powerful enough to own your entire environment and most orgs can’t even see them. In this episode of Entra Chat, we sits down again with Erika Zellig to expose the “shadow admins” hiding in your Entra tenant, and what to do about them.What we get into:* Application vs. delegated API permissions and why both can be shadow admins* The most dangerous permissions to hunt for: Files.ReadWrite.All, Sites.FullControl.All and more.* How Midnight Blizzard turned secrets buried in email into full tenant compromise* Credential and secret sprawl why you should vault everything and move to managed identities* Agent identities explained, and why a “sponsor” is safer than an “owner”* App ownership as an attack path: lateral movement and privilege escalation* Locking down workload identities with conditional access* Deadlines that bite: EWS retirement and the ID CRL protocol retirement* Managed devices, and going from Zero Trust to “hero trust” without burying your help deskSubscribe with your favorite podcast player or watch on YouTube 👇Sponsored by:Avoiding Entra Credential Outages & Security Risks June 24 | Live Webinar | RegisterAn expired client secret or certificate can break SSO, automation, integrations, and business-critical applications without warning.Do you know:✔️ Which credentials have already expired?✔️ Which applications depend on them?✔️Which credentials will expire next? ✔️Who owns those applications, and are they still used?Which applications should use Managed Identities instead of secrets?As organizations deploy more apps, automations, and AI-powered services, credential sprawl continues to grow across Entra. Join MVPs Alistair Pugin and Nicolas Blank as they walk through real-world credential failures, hidden risks, and practical strategies for identifying and remediating Entra credential issues before they lead to outages, security exposures, or audit findings.About Erika ZelicErika Zelic is a well-known voice in the Microsoft security and identity community, bringing years of offensive security experience to help admins secure their cloud infrastructure.With roots in offensive security and consulting, she now works on remediating configuration-based vulnerabilities and is known for sharing practical, no-nonsense security insights with the Entra community.LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/erica-z-b4169598/🔗 Related Links• MS Identity Tools - https://aka.ms/msid 📗 Chapters* 02:05 The High Cost of DIY AI & Small Language Models* 06:17 Why AI is Forcing Everyone to Harden Their Infrastructure* 14:12 The Hidden Dangers of API Permissions* 20:59 How Midnight Blizzard Exploited App Secrets* 27:21 The Magic of Managed Identities & Azure Arc* 33:38 The Nightmare of Multiple App Owners* 43:32 Sneaky API Permissions You Need to Monitor* 51:48 Crucial Protocol Retirements: EWS & ID CRL* 55:24 Zero Trust: Why You MUST Enforce Managed DevicesPodcast Apps🎙️ Entra.Chat - https://entra.chat🎧 Apple Podcast → https://entra.chat/apple📺 YouTube → https://entra.chat/youtube📺 Spotify → https://entra.chat/spotify🎧 Overcast → https://entra.chat/overcast🎧 Pocketcast → https://entra.chat/pocketcast🎧 Others → https://entra.chat/rssMerill’s socials📺 YouTube → youtube.com/@merillx👔 LinkedIn → linkedin.com/in/merill🐤 Twitter → twitter.com/merill🕺 TikTok → tiktok.com/@merillf🦋 Bluesky → bsky.app/profile/merill.net🐘 Mastodon → infosec.exchange/@merill🧵 Threads → threads.net/@merillf🤖 GitHub → github.com/merill Get full access to Entra.News - Your weekly dose of Microsoft Entra at entra.news/subscribe

AI agents can make decisions and act faster than any human — which means your old identity security playbook no longer holds. In this episode of Entra Chat, [host name] sits down with Nikhil, a 10+ year Microsoft identity veteran from the Authentication Stack and Identity Protection team, to break down how Microsoft Entra, Conditional Access, Defender, and Purview are evolving to secure agentic AI.We get into why “security = MFA” is dead, why the only recommended Conditional Access control for agents today is block (and why that’s actually good for your users), the missing “challenge” state in agent access, indirect prompt injection, and the unified risk model spanning identity, endpoint, and data layers. If you manage Microsoft Entra ID, run Zero Trust, or are figuring out how to govern AI agents in your tenant, this one’s for you.🔎 What you’ll learn:* Why agents are the new insider threat and why latency no longer protects you* How Conditional Access now targets agentic users and agents* Why “block” is the default control for agents (allow / block / challenge explained)* How unified risk works across Entra, Microsoft Defender & Microsoft Purview* Continuous Access Evaluation interrupting in-motion agent sessions* Why LLMs recommend insecure defaults (the device code flow problem)* The Conditional Access optimization agent, report-only mode & phased rollout* The #1 thing Entra admins and CISOs should do in the next 3–6 monthsSubscribe with your favorite podcast player or watch on YouTube 👇About NikhilNikhil Boreddy has spent over a decade at Microsoft, from the early Authentication Stack and Identity Protection team to the birth of Conditional Access. Today he works across Entra and Microsoft Security on one of the toughest challenges in the field: securing AI agents in the enterprise.LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/nikhilboreddy/🔗 Related Links* Microsoft Entra - https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/entra/id-protection/concept-risky-agents* Microsoft Zero Trust - https://aka.ms/ztworkshop📗 Chapters00:01:49 The Shift from MFA to Zero Trust00:02:43 The Rise of AI Agents in Enterprise Security00:04:40 Vulnerabilities in AI Workflows00:08:09 Microsoft Security and Agent ID00:10:41 Using the Conditional Access Optimization Agent00:11:44 Breaking Silos: Entra, Purview, and Defender00:20:01 Expanding Conditional Access for Agentic Users00:26:36 Why Block is the Recommended Control for Agents00:33:38 The Power of the Microsoft Security Stack00:38:31 Advice for CISOs: Embracing AI in SecurityPodcast Apps🎙️ Entra.Chat - https://entra.chat🎧 Apple Podcast → https://entra.chat/apple📺 YouTube → https://entra.chat/youtube📺 Spotify → https://entra.chat/spotify🎧 Overcast → https://entra.chat/overcast🎧 Pocketcast → https://entra.chat/pocketcast🎧 Others → https://entra.chat/rssMerill’s socials📺 YouTube → youtube.com/@merillx👔 LinkedIn → linkedin.com/in/merill🐤 Twitter → twitter.com/merill🕺 TikTok → tiktok.com/@merillf🦋 Bluesky → bsky.app/profile/merill.net🐘 Mastodon → infosec.exchange/@merill🧵 Threads → threads.net/@merillf🤖 GitHub → github.com/merill Get full access to Entra.News - Your weekly dose of Microsoft Entra at entra.news/subscribe

In this episode of Entra Chat, we sit down with Christina Morillo, the Senior Director of Information Security for the New York Football Giants, to explore her inspiring transition from an identity specialist to a top-tier security leader. Christina shares her “ground floor” start at a technical help desk and her progression through network administration and specialized identity roles at Microsoft. Her story is a powerful testament to the “learn-it-all” mindset, illustrating how a deep baseline in Active Directory and a genuine curiosity about the broader security landscape paved the way for her current leadership role in a high-profile organization.The conversation dives deep into the essential skills required to grow from a niche technical role into a broader Director or CISO position. Christina emphasizes that while technical proficiency is the foundation, “soft skills” such as storytelling and the ability to pitch security solutions as business value are what truly allow a leader to secure executive buy-in. She encourages professionals not to restrict themselves to one domain but to embrace both breadth and depth, leveraging community engagement to understand the shared struggles across different security verticals.Subscribe with your favorite podcast player or watch on YouTube 👇Sponsored by:Entra ID Credential Gaps That Cause OutagesIn Microsoft Entra ID, outages often start small: an expired client secret, or a lapsed certificate quietly breaks an integration. Traditional controls don’t easily track credential expiry, so issues surface only after something fails. Teams are left asking:* Which app secrets are expiring and when?* Which certificates are at risk?* How many integrations are we managing?Unanswered, these questions lead to avoidable outages, spikes in service desk tickets, and users losing access and bringing projects to a halt. ENow AppGov Credential Monitor continuously tracks expiring secrets and certificates across your Entra ID apps, alerting your team before credentials expire and integrations fail. Get a 7-day free trial to see how it can help you stay ahead.About Christina MorilloChristina Morillo is a seasoned cybersecurity and technology executive with over two decades of cross-domain experience leading enterprise security, cloud architecture, and identity programs. As an Information Security Officer and trusted advisor, and in her current role as Senior Director of Information Security at The New York Football Giants, she blends technical depth with strategic leadership to drive resilience, regulatory alignment, and business impact. Her career spans diverse industries, including financial services, big tech, and professional sports, bringing a unique perspective to every challenge. Christina is also a published O’Reilly author (Zero Trust Networks: Second Edition & 97 Things Every Information Security Professional Should Know) and is passionate about making security and technology accessible, relatable, and actionable for all.LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/christinamorillo/📗 Chapters00:00 Intro Chat 00:21 Meet Christina Murillo 01:38 From Helpdesk to Identity 05:40 Discovering the World of Security 07:26 Transitioning to a Broader Security Role 11:47 The Power of Curiosity and Collaboration 19:31 Embracing AI and New Technologies 22:01 Storytelling and Pitching to Executives 28:24 Adapting to Constant Industry Change 32:41 Tailoring Career Advice for Today’s WorldPodcast Apps🎙️ Entra.Chat - https://entra.chat🎧 Apple Podcast → https://entra.chat/apple📺 YouTube → https://entra.chat/youtube📺 Spotify → https://entra.chat/spotify🎧 Overcast → https://entra.chat/overcast🎧 Pocketcast → https://entra.chat/pocketcast🎧 Others → https://entra.chat/rssMerill’s socials📺 YouTube → youtube.com/@merillx👔 LinkedIn → linkedin.com/in/merill🐤 Twitter → twitter.com/merill🕺 TikTok → tiktok.com/@merillf🦋 Bluesky → bsky.app/profile/merill.net🐘 Mastodon → infosec.exchange/@merill🧵 Threads → threads.net/@merillf🤖 GitHub → github.com/merill Get full access to Entra.News - Your weekly dose of Microsoft Entra at entra.news/subscribe

Passkeys are one of those technologies that sound simple on paper.Turn them on.Users register them.Passwords go away.Everyone is more secure.But in the real world, passkey rollouts are not just an authentication setting. They are a product rollout, a user experience change, a support change, and an operational change all at once.In this episode, I spoke with Vincent Delitz from Corbado, who has worked on large-scale passkey deployments in customer identity scenarios, including public-sector and consumer environments with millions of users. While the examples come from the CIAM world, many of the lessons apply directly to workforce identity and Microsoft Entra deployments as well.Sponsored by:Cloud RADIUS built for Entra + Intune environmentsEZRADIUS was designed and built by ex-Microsoft engineers with deep Entra and Intune experience. It integrates seamlessly into the Microsoft ecosystem, making it easy to migrate from your on-prem NPS server to a modern, zero-trust network with full support for cloud-first and hybrid environments.* Deploy in minutes: no on-prem servers, no Windows updates* Certificate-based auth: EAP-TLS support for Microsoft Cloud PKI or any CA* Intune compliance checks for zero-trust Wi-Fi and VPN access* Built for teams of 10 to 10,000: no minimums, no enterprise gatekeeping* Pay only for users that connect with usage-based pricingStart your 30-day trial (no credit card required) or book a demo to see how “EZ” it is.Here are five practical lessons from the conversation.1. Know why you are rolling out passkeysBefore you start the rollout, be clear on the reason.Most organisations adopt passkeys for one or more of these reasons:SecurityPasskeys are phishing-resistant and remove many of the risks that come with passwords, SMS OTP, and other phishable methods.User experienceSigning in with Face ID, Touch ID, Windows Hello, or a security key can be faster and easier than typing passwords and completing MFA prompts.Cost reductionIn customer identity scenarios, passkeys can reduce SMS OTP costs. In workforce scenarios, they can reduce password reset and sign-in related help desk calls.The key lesson is this: your rollout strategy should match your goal.If your goal is security, you need to think about when and how to retire phishable methods.If your goal is adoption, you need to make passkeys the easiest path.If your goal is cost reduction, you need to measure whether users are actually moving away from the older methods.Simply enabling passkeys is not the same as achieving the outcome.2. Use a staged rollout, not a big bangOne of the biggest mistakes is assuming you can turn on passkeys and immediately remove passwords.That sounds clean from a security perspective, but in reality it can create confusion, support tickets, and failed sign-ins.A better model is a staged rollout:Stage 1: Offer passkeys as an optionStart by making passkeys available. Let users register and begin using them without taking away existing methods immediately.Stage 2: Nudge adoptionDo not leave passkeys buried as “just another sign-in method.” Make them visible. Make them the preferred option where possible. Help users understand why they should use them.Stage 3: Gradually retire phishable methodsOnce you can see that a user or group has been successfully using passkeys for a period of time, then you can start reducing reliance on passwords, SMS, or other weaker methods.Stage 4: Fix recoveryThis is the part many teams forget.Once passkeys become the primary sign-in method, account recovery becomes the new weak point. If recovery still relies on phishable methods or manual help desk processes, attackers will target that path instead.A passkey rollout is not complete until recovery is also secure.3. Passkeys move complexity from the backend to the user’s deviceWith passwords, SMS OTP, or push notifications, a lot of the complexity sits in the backend.With passkeys, much more happens on the client side.That means success depends on things like:The user’s device.The browser version.The operating system.The credential manager.Whether Bluetooth is enabled.Whether the passkey is synced.Whether the user is on a managed device or BYOD.Whether a password manager has changed the sign-in experience.This is a big mindset shift.For example, cross-device passkey sign-in often relies on Bluetooth proximity checks. That is great when it works. But what happens if Bluetooth is disabled on a kiosk, blocked by policy, or unavailable on a shared device?In the episode, we discussed a real-world example where a rollout assumed passkeys would work for retail staff using shared kiosks, only to discover later that Bluetooth was disabled in that environment.That is the sort of issue you want to find before go-live, not after a three-month project.The practical takeaway: test the real environments your users will sign in from. Not just your own managed test devices.4. Your backend logs may not tell the full storyThis was one of the most important lessons from the episode.Passkey success rates can look great in backend logs, but still miss a large part of the user experience.Why?Because many failures happen before the backend sees anything useful.A user may not have the passkey on the current device.The credential manager may not appear.The browser may have a bug.The user may cancel the Face ID or Touch ID prompt.The passkey may have been deleted locally.The device may try to use the wrong credential manager.The user may think registration worked, even though the backend blocked it.From the backend, you might only see the successful challenges. That can make your success rate look much better than the lived experience.This is why observability matters.For customer identity platforms, you may be able to add frontend telemetry and track where users get stuck. In workforce scenarios, you may not be able to instrument the Entra sign-in page directly, but you can still look for signals elsewhere:Which users are passkey-capable?Which devices and browsers are being used?Which users registered passkeys but are not using them?Which support tickets map to specific OS, browser, or credential manager combinations?Which groups are still falling back to passwords or SMS?The lesson: do not rely on a single “success rate” number. It may hide the real rollout problems.5. Support multiple passkeys and explain the mental modelA common mistake is limiting users to one passkey.That may sound tidy, but it does not match how people actually work.A user may have a Windows laptop, a Mac, an iPhone, an Android phone, a password manager, and a physical security key. Some passkeys sync. Some do not. Some are device-bound. Some are stored in iCloud Keychain, Google Password Manager, Bitwarden, 1Password, Windows Hello, or on a physical key.If users can only register one passkey, they may be locked out when they move to another device.A better approach is to allow multiple passkeys and make it clear what each one is for.For example:One passkey in iCloud Keychain.One in Google Password Manager.One in an enterprise password manager.One physical security key.One backup key for critical accounts.This also means communication matters.Users do not always understand terms like “FIDO2,” “WebAuthn,” “AAGUID,” “attestation,” or even “passkey.” They understand things like:Sign in with your face.Sign in with your fingerprint.Use your security key.Use the passkey saved on this device.The more technical your language, the more likely users are to get confused.This applies internally as well. Even project teams need a shared vocabulary. Are you talking about synced passkeys? Device-bound passkeys? Security keys? Windows Hello for Business? Platform credentials? Roaming authenticators?If the project team is confused, the users definitely will be.Bonus lesson: Attestation matters, but not for every userWe also discussed attestation, which is one of those topics that can get confusing quickly.In simple terms, attestation lets an authenticator prove what type of device or security key it is. This is useful when you want to control exactly which authenticators are allowed.For example, for privileged admins, you may want to require specific physical security keys issued by the organisation. In that case, attestation can help you enforce that only approved keys are used.But synced passkeys are different.If a passkey is stored in iCloud Keychain, Google Password Manager, Bitwarden, or another synced credential manager, it can move across devices. That breaks the model where you can prove it belongs to one specific physical authenticator.So the practical model may be:Use stricter device-bound passkeys and attestation for privileged users.Allow synced passkeys for broader user populations where usability and adoption matter more.Be clear about the trade-off.Synced passkeys may not give you the same level of device control as a hardware key, but they are still a huge improvement over passwords and many phishable MFA methods.Final thoughtsThe big takeaway from this episode is that passkey success is not just about enabling the feature.You need to plan for adoption, device readiness, recovery, support, telemetry, and user education.Passkeys can absolutely improve security and user experience, but only if the rollout is treated as a real change program.The teams that succeed will be the ones that ask the hard questions early:Why are we rolling this out?Which users are ready?Which devices are not?What will break on day two?How will users recover access?How will we know whether adoption is actually happening?Passkeys are the future of authentication, but the rollout still needs careful planning.Subscribe with your favorite podcast player or watch on YouTube 👇About Vincent DelitzVincent Delitz is the Co-founder and Managing Director at Corbado, the passkey intelligence platform designed specifically for enterprise CIAM teams. Based in Munich, Vincent is a software engineer turned founder who has been deeply focused on the technology since the term “passkeys” first emerged in 2022.Through Corbado, he helps large-scale B2C enterprises understand why passkey adoption might be flat, identify what’s breaking logins, and successfully scale passkeys alongside their existing IDPs (including Entra, Okta, Auth0, Ping, ForgeRock, or in-house solutions). Corbado is trusted by major organizations like VicRoads (supporting 5 million users), as well as leaders in financial services and e-commerce. As a speaker, Vincent frequently shares his expertise on passkey adoption and the often-overlooked “Day 2” passkey problems that don’t appear in standard vendor documentation.LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/vincent-delitz/🔗 Related Links* How to enable passkeys (FIDO2) in Microsoft Entra ID - https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/entra/identity/authentication/how-to-authentication-passkeys-fido2* Enterprise Passkey Deployment Challenges - https://www.corbado.com/blog/enterprise-passkey-deployment-challenges* Corbado - https://www.corbado.com/📗 Chapters04:10 The Consumer vs. Workforce Scale 07:49 Uncovering the True Motivations for Passkeys 11:06 The Four Stages of Going Passwordless 12:51 Day 2 Problems and Implementation Hurdles 17:02 Real-World Device and Network Limitations 22:53 Why Passkey Success Rates Are Misleading 27:20 Best Practices for Large-Scale Deployments 32:16 Demystifying Passkey Attestation and AGUIDs 38:48 Handling Support Tickets and Adoption StrategiesPodcast Apps🎙️ Entra.Chat - https://entra.chat🎧 Apple Podcast → https://entra.chat/apple📺 YouTube → https://entra.chat/youtube📺 Spotify → https://entra.chat/spotify🎧 Overcast → https://entra.chat/overcast🎧 Pocketcast → https://entra.chat/pocketcast🎧 Others → https://entra.chat/rssMerill’s socials📺 YouTube → youtube.com/@merillx👔 LinkedIn → linkedin.com/in/merill🐤 Twitter → twitter.com/merill🕺 TikTok → tiktok.com/@merillf🦋 Bluesky → bsky.app/profile/merill.net🐘 Mastodon → infosec.exchange/@merill🧵 Threads → threads.net/@merillf🤖 GitHub → github.com/merill Get full access to Entra.News - Your weekly dose of Microsoft Entra at entra.news/subscribe

Microsoft had 7 million internal tenants and almost lost control of their environment and your org might be facing the same problem at a smaller scale. In this episode, we sit down with Jeff Staiman, PM Area Lead for Tenant Governance at Microsoft, to break down the feature born from the Midnight Blizzard attack. We cover discovery, drift detection, governance relationships, secure tenant creation, licensing, and exactly where admins should start.What Can Your AI Applications Access?Organizations are investing heavily in AI-powered applications and agents, but many are discovering they lack the operational visibility and governance discipline needed to scale AI confidently and securely.With continuous visibility into Entra ID applications, permissions, OAuth access, secrets, certificates, and application ownership, ENow App Governance Accelerator can:* Reduce uncertainty around what SaaS apps can access* Accelerate application reviews and approval processes* Strengthen operational trust across security and leadership teams* Prevent unmanaged application growth from becoming operational risk* Enable lean IT teams to support AI expansion at scale* Demonstrate governance maturity required for enterprise AI adoptionWhile most admins focus on securing their primary production environment, many organizations are sitting on hundreds of “test” or “shadow” tenants that were created by users with a simple Azure subscription. These unmanaged environments often lack proper security bars and can become entry points for sophisticated attackers.The Wake-Up Call: Midnight BlizzardThe urgency for these new features was fueled by the 2024 Midnight Blizzard attack. In that instance, attackers compromised a legacy test tenant and used its old access rights to move laterally into Microsoft’s core environment. This highlighted a critical gap: securing one tenant isn’t enough if you don’t even know how many other tenants are connected to your organization.Three Things You’ll Learn in This Episode:* Automatic Discovery of the “Unknown”: Jeff explains how the Related Tenants feature uses signals like B2B sign-in logs, multi-tenant app consents, and billing relationships to automatically find every tenant connected to your corporate identity.* Configuration Drift Monitoring: You can now define a “Golden Configuration” for your tenants. The service monitors over 200 resource types across Entra, Intune, Teams, and Exchange every six hours, alerting you the moment a security setting is weakened.* The “Three-Step” Handshake: To prevent accidental or malicious takeovers, Microsoft has implemented a rigorous trust process. If two tenants don’t share a billing relationship, the governed tenant must explicitly invite the governing tenant before any control can be established.A New Approach to LicensingSomething many admins will find surprising is the licensing model. Unlike many Entra features that require a license for every user, Tenant Governance is licensed based on the number of admins interacting with the features. This makes it far more accessible for organizations trying to secure a massive multi-tenant estate without a massive budget.Why you should listen: Jeff dives deep into how Microsoft managed its own 7 million internal tenants and shares the roadmap for future discovery signals, including using Global Secure Access network telemetry to find tenants being accessed from corporate devices.Whether you are managing a merger or just trying to clean up years of “test” environments, this episode provides the blueprint for moving from manual, one-tenant-at-a-time management to a deterministic, automated security posture.Subscribe with your favorite podcast player or watch on YouTube 👇About Jeff StaimanJeff Stammen is the PM Area Lead for Tenant Governance within the Identity and Access Management (IAM) team at Microsoft. A true company veteran of 31 years, Jeff originally joined Microsoft managing engineering compensation and famously architected Microsoft's core engineering leveling framework (Levels 59–61) directly from requirements delivered by Steve Ballmer. Today, he leads engineering and product efforts to secure multi-tenant cloud ecosystems at massive scale.LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeffstaiman/🔗 Related Links* Microsoft Entra Tenant Governance - https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/entra/id-governance/tenant-governance/overview📗 Chapters00:00 Intro00:18 Introducing Jeff Stammen00:41 Jeff’s 31-Year Journey at Microsoft01:25 The Midnight Blizzard Hack That Started It All05:07 Tenant Governance: What It Is and Why It Exists07:12 Where Should Admins Start?09:57 Configuration Snapshots and Baselines13:02 The M365 DSC Connection15:18 What Resources Should You Monitor?17:07 How Drift Detection Works19:49 Multi-Tenant Monitoring Strategy20:02 Related Tenants: Discovering Your Unknown Exposure20:39 Licensing: Basic vs Premium Explained22:48 Quotas and Resource Limits24:27 Governance Relationships and Cross-Tenant Role Assignments28:26 Two-Step vs Three-Step Governance Flow31:15 Discovery Signals and Blind Spots35:17 Tenant Restrictions: A Related Feature Worth Knowing36:40 Secure Tenant Creation38:10 Governance Policy Templates40:01 Licensing Across Multiple Tenants43:43 Final Recommendations: Where to Start Today47:54 Wrap UpPodcast Apps🎙️ Entra.Chat - https://entra.chat🎧 Apple Podcast → https://entra.chat/apple📺 YouTube → https://entra.chat/youtube📺 Spotify → https://entra.chat/spotify🎧 Overcast → https://entra.chat/overcast🎧 Pocketcast → https://entra.chat/pocketcast🎧 Others → https://entra.chat/rssMerill’s socials📺 YouTube → youtube.com/@merillx👔 LinkedIn → linkedin.com/in/merill🐤 Twitter → twitter.com/merill🕺 TikTok → tiktok.com/@merillf🦋 Bluesky → bsky.app/profile/merill.net🐘 Mastodon → infosec.exchange/@merill🧵 Threads → threads.net/@merillf🤖 GitHub → github.com/merill Get full access to Entra.News - Your weekly dose of Microsoft Entra at entra.news/subscribe

Fabian and Thomas join the podcast to share their extensive experience and unpack the massive wave of updates coming to Microsoft Entra.We talk about the massive shift toward Passkeys and registration campaigns, the impending migration from Entra Connect Sync to Cloud Sync, and the rapidly evolving world of Agent IDs and AI workloads. We also cover how Entra admins can leverage new Defender XDR features and Security Copilot agents to secure their environments.Subscribe with your favorite podcast player or watch on YouTube 👇About Fabian and ThomasFabian Bader is a Microsoft MVP and Cybersecurity Architect at glueckkanja, based in Hamburg, Germany. He is a well-known researcher in the Microsoft identity space, creator of the Cloud Brothers blog, and creator of the Maester and Token Tactics V2 tools. His work focuses on Microsoft Entra and the Defender suite, helping customers secure their cloud environments.Thomas Naunheim is a Microsoft MVP and a Cybersecurity Architect at glueckkanja. He specializes in Microsoft Entra, identity and access management, and cloud security posture.* Thomas LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/thomasnaunheim/* Fabian LinkedIn- https://www.linkedin.com/in/fabianbader/🔗 Related Links* What’s New in Microsoft Entra: May 2026 - https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/blog/microsoft-entra-blog/whats-new-in-microsoft-entra-may-2026/4517884* Claude API Docs - https://platform.claude.com/docs/en/manage-claude/wif-providers/azure* Microsoft Graph - https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/graph/api/resources/agentid-platform-overview?view=graph-rest-1.0📗 Chapters00:00 Intro 01:18 The Year of Passkeys & Registration Campaigns 08:49 Windows Hello & Passkey Syncing 16:37 Migrating to Entra Cloud Sync 22:27 The Rise of Agent IDs & AI Workloads 28:21 Defender XDR Updates for Entra Admins 38:32 Security Copilot & Conditional Access Agent 45:48 Access Packages & New AI Admin RolesPodcast Apps🎙️ Entra.Chat - https://entra.chat🎧 Apple Podcast → https://entra.chat/apple📺 YouTube → https://entra.chat/youtube📺 Spotify → https://entra.chat/spotify🎧 Overcast → https://entra.chat/overcast🎧 Pocketcast → https://entra.chat/pocketcast🎧 Others → https://entra.chat/rssMerill’s socials📺 YouTube → youtube.com/@merillx👔 LinkedIn → linkedin.com/in/merill🐤 Twitter → twitter.com/merill🕺 TikTok → tiktok.com/@merillf🦋 Bluesky → bsky.app/profile/merill.net🐘 Mastodon → infosec.exchange/@merill🧵 Threads → threads.net/@merillf🤖 GitHub → github.com/merill Get full access to Entra.News - Your weekly dose of Microsoft Entra at entra.news/subscribe

Microsoft Entra Agent ID Just Went GA Here’s What You Need to Know About Agent PermissionsIf you’ve been waiting for the dust to settle on Microsoft Entra Agent ID before diving in, the wait is over. Agent ID hit General Availability on May 1st, and in this episode of Entra Chat, Erin Greenlee, a PM in the the Entra AuthN team joins to break down one of the trickiest parts of the new model: how permissions actually work.The three-tier model you need to understandThe biggest mental shift with Agent ID is moving from the familiar single app registration model to a three-tier hierarchy. Here’s the short version:* Agent Blueprint → the template for your agent. Think of it as a souped-up app registration that lives in one tenant and defines how the agent behaves. Every agent needs one, even if you’re only ever creating a single instance.* Blueprint Principle → the identity that represents the blueprint inside each tenant it’s deployed to. This is the middle tier, and it has a superpower: permissions granted here cascade down to all current and future agent identity instances automatically.* Agent Identity → the actual running instance of the agent. This is what authenticates, what shows up in your tenant logs, and what can hold its own individual permissions on top of whatever it inherits.Required Resource Access is a hint, not a grantOne thing that trips people up early: adding permissions to the blueprint’s Required Resource Access (RRA) doesn’t actually grant anything. It’s a signal to admins adopting your agent. A polite list of “here’s what this agent will need to function.” The real grant happens later, either upfront during adoption or dynamically as the agent needs it. Expect agents to lean more on dynamic consent than traditional apps have, since agents evolve and request new permissions as tasks change.Inheritance only works if you set it upPermissions granted on the Blueprint Principle will only cascade down to agent identities if the resource app (e.g. Microsoft Graph) is explicitly marked as an inheritable resource on the blueprint. It’s an easy thing to miss, and if you skip it, your Blueprint Principle grants won’t flow through to your instances.A free tool to visualise all of thisErin built an interactive web app — using GitHub Copilot, no less — that makes all of the above click visually. It has a no-sign-in tutorial that walks you through the object relationships, a permission matrix view, and even generates the PowerShell or Graph API scripts to apply your configuration in real life. No changes are made to your tenant unless you explicitly ask it to. The source code is being open-sourced too, so you can fork and customise it if you want.Watch the full episode to see Erin walk through the tool live, including how permission inheritance works in practice and a real-world debugging scenario that inspired the whole thing.Subscribe with your favorite podcast player or watch on YouTube 👇About Erin GreenleeErin is a member of the Entra AuthN team working on AI and Agent ID at Microsoft. She previously joined Entra Chat to discuss app permissions and consent, and she loves building tools that make complex identity concepts easier to understand.LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/eringreenlee/Sponsored by:Find App Access Gaps Before They Break WorkflowsIn Microsoft Entra ID, small visibility gaps lead to outages and delays. Expired secrets break integrations, while unclear ownership and excessive permissions slow access decisions. Teams still struggle to answer:* Which apps access Microsoft 365 data?* Is that access still justified?* Who owns it?AppGov Score helps you quickly identify these gaps. ENow App Governance Accelerator then exposes app-specific credential risks, permission issues, and ownership gaps before they disrupt operations.Start with your AppGov Score, then upgrade to a 7-day free trial to take action.🔗 Related Links* https://aka.ms/erins-agent-helper📗 Chapters01:11 Agent ID General Availability 04:14 The Agent ID Visualizer Tool 05:35 Defining the Agent Blueprint 08:06 Understanding the Blueprint Principle 10:57 Agent Identity Instances Explained 13:37 Required Resource Access (RRA) 24:07 Inheritable Permissions and Cascading 30:18 Applying Changes with ScriptsPodcast Apps🎙️ Entra.Chat - https://entra.chat🎧 Apple Podcast → https://entra.chat/apple📺 YouTube → https://entra.chat/youtube📺 Spotify → https://entra.chat/spotify🎧 Overcast → https://entra.chat/overcast🎧 Pocketcast → https://entra.chat/pocketcast🎧 Others → https://entra.chat/rssMerill’s socials📺 YouTube → youtube.com/@merillx👔 LinkedIn → linkedin.com/in/merill🐤 Twitter → twitter.com/merill🕺 TikTok → tiktok.com/@merillf🦋 Bluesky → bsky.app/profile/merill.net🐘 Mastodon → infosec.exchange/@merill🧵 Threads → threads.net/@merillf🤖 GitHub → github.com/merill Get full access to Entra.News - Your weekly dose of Microsoft Entra at entra.news/subscribe

Maester is back with one of its biggest release since launch. In this episode, we are joined by Sam Erde, Architect at Patriot Consulting and one of Maester’s core maintainers, to walk through everything that’s landed in Maester 2.1.Since the December release, the community has shipped 540 new commits, grown the test suite from 128 to 168 tests, and added coverage across entirely new product areas. Here’s a taste of what’s covered:🤖 Securing Your AI Agents (Copilot Studio) With Microsoft’s Agent 365 going GA and organisations rapidly deploying Copilot Studio agents, Maester now includes tests based directly on Microsoft’s own recommendations for securing agents. Think orphaned agents with no owner, missing authentication on MCP connections, dormant agents, risky HTTP configurations, and agents shared too broadly. If you’re deploying agents in your tenant, these tests should be running.🔧 AI That Writes Its Own Security Tests One of the most exciting developments in this release isn’t a test, it’s a custom AI skill that writes Maester tests for you. Sam built a GitHub Copilot agent skill that understands Maester’s structure, coding conventions, and contributor guide. You describe a security check in plain English, and within minutes you get a properly structured test, helpers, and documentation. No VS Code required! You can do it straight from GitHub’s Agents tab or even the mobile app. The barrier to contributing to Maester just got a lot lower.🛡️ Defender for Endpoint Coverage Maester now includes 24 community-contributed MDE tests covering antivirus configuration, endpoint policy posture, cloud protection, behaviour monitoring, and PUA protection. Getting these tests into shape required the new AI skill to refactor months of pending work and it delivered.🔑 Azure DevOps Security (37+ New Tests) With AI-generated code accelerating supply chain risks, securing your DevOps pipeline has never been more critical. Maester 2.1 ships with 37+ new Azure DevOps tests, checking OAuth config, PAT token policies, external guest access, collection admin hygiene, and more.🔗 Linked Identity Checks for Privileged Accounts A new test surfaces a common blind spot: privileged admin accounts that remain active after their linked standard user account is disabled. If someone leaves your organisation and their cloud admin account stays enabled, Maester will now catch it.📋 CIS Benchmark Refresh & Conditional Access Improvements Community contributor Morten has refreshed the CIS benchmark tests to reflect the latest changes, plus improved the logic behind several conditional access policy checks — including automated tracking of Entra ID roles used in XSPM and commercial access quality checks.There’s a lot more covered in the full episode, including multi-tenant reporting updates, the new dev container for contributors, a surprisingly entertaining story about two AI models dissing each other’s code reviews, and a teaser for what’s coming in the next release.👉 Listen to the full episode for the deep dives, the war stories behind getting community PRs across the line, and Merill and Sam’s take on where AI fits into the future of security testing.Subscribe with your favorite podcast player or watch on YouTube 👇About Sam ErdeSam is an Architect at Patriot Consulting who focuses on performing security assessments, securing and deploying Microsoft 365, and writing PowerShell. He has been a critical pillar for the Maester community over the last year, helping heavily refactor the codebase and streamlining community contributions.LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/samerde/Sponsored by:Would you bet your reputation on your current Microsoft 365 security posture?Sure, you’ve checked Purview. Maybe tightened Conditional Access. We all do that.But it’s usually the quiet stuff that bites... permissions that expanded, policies that drifted, exceptions nobody revisited.You could assume it’s fine.Or you could run the Microsoft 365 Security Posture Check.It’s free.It runs locally.And no, it doesn’t send your tenant data back to us.We’ll even help you set it up.🔗 Related Links* What’s new in Maester 2.1.0 - https://maester.dev/blog/whats-new-since-maester-2-0📗 Chapters00:00 Intro05:49 Securing Copilot Studio & AI Agents08:53 The Challenge with Defender for Endpoint Tests013:39 Using AI to Automate Writing Security Tests22:30 Dev Containers for Easy Contributions24:58 New Azure DevOps Security Checks31:02 Multi-Tenant Reporting & Xbox’s Secret37:00 Active Directory Tests & The Future of Hybrid43:00 The Long-Term Vision for Maester54:48 CIS Benchmarks & Linked Identity TestsPodcast Apps🎙️ Entra.Chat - https://entra.chat🎧 Apple Podcast → https://entra.chat/apple📺 YouTube → https://entra.chat/youtube📺 Spotify → https://entra.chat/spotify🎧 Overcast → https://entra.chat/overcast🎧 Pocketcast → https://entra.chat/pocketcast🎧 Others → https://entra.chat/rssMerill’s socials📺 YouTube → youtube.com/@merillx👔 LinkedIn → linkedin.com/in/merill🐤 Twitter → twitter.com/merill🕺 TikTok → tiktok.com/@merillf🦋 Bluesky → bsky.app/profile/merill.net🐘 Mastodon → infosec.exchange/@merill🧵 Threads → threads.net/@merillf🤖 GitHub → github.com/merill Get full access to Entra.News - Your weekly dose of Microsoft Entra at entra.news/subscribe

Identity Governance is often treated as a “nice-to-have” compliance checkbox, but as ID Governance expert Sandra Saluti reveals, it is actually the foundation of a secure, scalable environment. In this technical deep dive, we move past the marketing slides to discuss some of the common real-world “gotchas” that break Entra ID deployments.In this episode, you will learn:* The Golden Rule of Automation: Why you must stop using “presentation data” (like UPNs or Email addresses) as your anchor. We explain why the Object ID is the only immutable truth for your automation.* The “Marriage Bug”: A cautionary tale of how a simple name change can break hybrid joins and lead to accidental laptop wipes and how to prevent it.* The “Unsexy” Side of Governance: Why the most important part of your job isn’t writing PowerShell, but interviewing HR and stakeholders to map out process flow diagrams before you ever touch the portal.* Closing the “Rehire Gap”: How to solve the common crisis where contractors lose access for 48 hours during a renewal because of lifecycle synchronization delays.* Directory Extensions vs. Exchange Attributes: Technical advice on where to store your identity metadata for the most reliable governance.Sponsored by:Entra ID Gaps That Cause OutagesIn Microsoft Entra ID, outages often start small: an expired client secret, a lapsed certificate, or a suddenly failing integration. Traditional controls don’t track credential expiry or enforce application ownership, so issues appear only after something breaks.Teams are left asking:* Which applications can access Microsoft 365 data?* Is that access still appropriate?* Who owns the app?Unclear answers stall reviews, weaken accountability, and slow delivery.ENow App Governance Accelerator closes these gaps by highlighting expiring credentials, surfacing permission risks, and identifying ownership gaps before they disrupt operations. New Standard Tier pricing makes it accessible for organizations under 10,000 users, typically $3,500–$9,500 annually.Subscribe with your favorite podcast player or watch on YouTube 👇About Sandra SalutiSandra Saluti is a consultant at Epical working with Microsoft Entra ID and identity governance. She helps organisations design secure and practical identity solutions with a focus on governance, access management, and Zero Trust.LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/sandra-saluti-6866a686/🔗 Related Links* Sandra’s Blog - https://agderinthe.cloud/author/sandra/ 📗 Chapters00:00 Welcome to Entra Chat 03:18 Explaining Identity Governance 08:51 Handling Late Hires and Rehires 11:25 Using Directory Extensions Effectively 18:50 Stop Targeting UPNs for Automation 25:18 Managing Chaos with Guest Access Reviews 30:56 Deciding Who Approves App Access 33:51 Replacing Nested Groups with Access Packages 39:29 Closing Thoughts and CommunityPodcast Apps🎙️ Entra.Chat - https://entra.chat🎧 Apple Podcast → https://entra.chat/apple📺 YouTube → https://entra.chat/youtube📺 Spotify → https://entra.chat/spotify🎧 Overcast → https://entra.chat/overcast🎧 Pocketcast → https://entra.chat/pocketcast🎧 Others → https://entra.chat/rssMerill’s socials📺 YouTube → youtube.com/@merillx👔 LinkedIn → linkedin.com/in/merill🐤 Twitter → twitter.com/merill🕺 TikTok → tiktok.com/@merillf🦋 Bluesky → bsky.app/profile/merill.net🐘 Mastodon → infosec.exchange/@merill🧵 Threads → threads.net/@merillf🤖 GitHub → github.com/merill Get full access to Entra.News - Your weekly dose of Microsoft Entra at entra.news/subscribe

Microsoft Entra security is evolving and the way organizations think about identity protection needs to evolve with it. In this episode, I’m joined by Sean Metcalf, one of the foremost identity security experts in the industry, whose work has helped shape how many organizations approach securing both Active Directory and Microsoft Entra.Sean shares the hardening steps many teams still overlook, and why advances in AI are making it easier for both defenders and attackers to work faster than ever before. From MFA and application controls to protecting privileged accounts and reducing unnecessary exposure, this conversation offers a practical look at where strong identity security starts and why getting the fundamentals right matters more than ever.Subscribe with your favorite podcast player or watch on YouTube 👇About Sean MetcalfSean Metcalf is the Identity Security Architect at TrustedSec and a renowned expert in Microsoft identity security. He holds the rare Certified Master in Active Directory certification and has spoken at major security conferences including Black Hat, DEF CON, and BlueHat on how to defend cloud and hybrid environments.LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/seanmmetcalf/🔗 Related Links* Securing Entra ID Administration: Tier 0 - https://trustedsec.com/blog/securing-entra-id-administration-tier-0* Managing Privileged Roles in Microsoft Entra ID: A Pragmatic Approach - https://trustedsec.com/blog/managing-privileged-roles-in-microsoft-entra-id-a-pragmatic-approach* Improve Entra ID Security More Quickly - https://adsecurity.org/?p=4825* Microsoft Graph Skill - https://graph.pm📗 Chapters00:04:05 AI and the Evolution of Attacks00:06:42 The Importance of Hardening Fundamentals00:12:03 Securing Entra ID Quickly00:16:24 Protecting Tokens with VBS and TPM00:19:58 Restricting Consent and Guest Users00:23:40 Managing Rogue Tenants00:27:36 Cloud Admin Workstation Strategies00:34:14 Delegated Admin Privileges00:44:32 The Danger of Application Permissions00:57:06 Artemis Mission TriviaPodcast Apps🎙️ Entra.Chat - https://entra.chat🎧 Apple Podcast → https://entra.chat/apple📺 YouTube → https://entra.chat/youtube📺 Spotify → https://entra.chat/spotify🎧 Overcast → https://entra.chat/overcast🎧 Pocketcast → https://entra.chat/pocketcast🎧 Others → https://entra.chat/rssMerill’s socials📺 YouTube → youtube.com/@merillx👔 LinkedIn → linkedin.com/in/merill🐤 Twitter → twitter.com/merill🕺 TikTok → tiktok.com/@merillf🦋 Bluesky → bsky.app/profile/merill.net🐘 Mastodon → infosec.exchange/@merill🧵 Threads → threads.net/@merillf🤖 GitHub → github.com/merill Get full access to Entra.News - Your weekly dose of Microsoft Entra at entra.news/subscribe

If you can’t immediately name your break glass accounts and the last time you tested them → you’re already at risk.In this episode of Entra Chat, Microsoft MVP Per Torben walks through the conditional access mistakes he sees even large enterprises making, and the practical framework he actually uses with customers.You’ll learn how to set up emergency access accounts the right way, why your CA policies should be built more like a firewall than a checklist, and the one naming convention that makes managing dozens of policies actually manageable.🎧 Hit play, your tenant will thank you.Sponsored by:Entra ID Gaps That Cause OutagesIn Microsoft Entra ID, outages often start small: an expired client secret, a lapsed certificate, or a suddenly failing integration. Traditional controls don’t track credential expiry or enforce application ownership, so issues appear only after something breaks.Teams are left asking:* Which applications can access Microsoft 365 data?* Is that access still appropriate?* Who owns the app?Unclear answers stall reviews, weaken accountability, and slow delivery.ENow App Governance Accelerator closes these gaps by highlighting expiring credentials, surfacing permission risks, and identifying ownership gaps before they disrupt operations. New Standard Tier pricing makes it accessible for organizations under 10,000 users, typically $3,500–$9,500 annually.Subscribe with your favorite podcast player or watch on YouTube 👇About Per TorbenPer Torben is a Senior Architect at Crayon and a Microsoft MVP for Identity and Access. Based in Norway, he frequently writes highly-read posts featured on Entra.News and runs the collaborative tech blog “Agder in the Cloud”.LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/pertorbensorensen/🔗 Related Links* Agder in the Cloud - https://agderinthe.cloud* I.D.E.A. for creating/configuring break-glass accounts* GitHub - https://github.com/Per-Torben/I.D.E.A.* Blog - https://agderinthe.cloud/2026/01/06/introducing-i-d-e-a-and-i-d-e-a-001/* Protected actions: https://agderinthe.cloud/2025/02/12/protected-actions-adding-extra-guards-to-your-entra-id-gate/* Conditional Access hardeing (series): https://agderinthe.cloud/2024/12/05/how-to-fix-the-fundamental-flaw-in-conditional-access-part-1-introduction-and-coverage-gapsCA geo filter (series): https://agderinthe.cloud/2025/11/06/diving-into-geo-filter-with-entra-conditional-access-part-1* Entra Backup - https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/entra/identity/role-based-access-control/backup-restore📗 Chapters06:22 The importance of Break Glass accounts09:02 Securing emergency access with FIDO2 and RMAUs18:10 Configuring Conditional Access: The “Block by Default” strategy27:26 Managing scope and preventing accidental lockouts29:31 Persona-based naming conventions for CA policies35:38 Grouping settings and avoiding bloated policies41:54 Handling exceptions and travel access with Access Packages44:55 The flaw in Protected Actions for Conditional Access53:38 Using the new Entra Backup feature for quick restoresPodcast Apps🎙️ Entra.Chat - https://entra.chat🎧 Apple Podcast → https://entra.chat/apple📺 YouTube → https://entra.chat/youtube📺 Spotify → https://entra.chat/spotify🎧 Overcast → https://entra.chat/overcast🎧 Pocketcast → https://entra.chat/pocketcast🎧 Others → https://entra.chat/rssMerill’s socials📺 YouTube → youtube.com/@merillx👔 LinkedIn → linkedin.com/in/merill🐤 Twitter → twitter.com/merill🕺 TikTok → tiktok.com/@merillf🦋 Bluesky → bsky.app/profile/merill.net🐘 Mastodon → infosec.exchange/@merill🧵 Threads → threads.net/@merillf🤖 GitHub → github.com/merill Get full access to Entra.News - Your weekly dose of Microsoft Entra at entra.news/subscribe

Microsoft just dropped a massive wave of features for Entra, and the rules of Tenant Governance have officially changed. Join us as we talk to three world-class MVPs about their hands-on experience with the new Entra Backup and Recovery and Tenant Governance features.Our Microsoft MVP guests Nathan McNulty, Ru Campbell, and Thomas Naunheim break down the most exciting new features in Microsoft Entra.In this episode, we explore:* The “Shadow Tenant” Problem: One org found 700+ Entra tenants they didn’t know they had.* Version Control for Admins: Why “Difference Reports” are a total game-changer for troubleshooting.* Recovery Safeguards: How to protect your tenant from accidental deletions and “sneaky” background changes.* Backup & Recovery: The truth about Entra Backup vs. Third-Party ISV tools.Subscribe with your favorite podcast player or watch on YouTube 👇About The GuestsNathan, Ru, and Thomas are highly experienced MVPs specializing in identity security, governance, and Microsoft Entra.Nathan McNulty - LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/nathanmcnulty/Ru Campbell - LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/rlcam/Thomas Naunheim LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/thomasnaunheim/🔗 Related Links* Microsoft Entra Backup and Recovery Documentation - https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/entra/backup/overview* Microsoft Entra Tenant Governance - https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/entra/id-governance/tenant-governance/overview* Synced Passkeys - https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/entra/identity/authentication/how-to-authentication-passkeys-fido2* Microsoft Work IQ CLI (Public Preview) - https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/copilot/extensibility/workiq-overview* Playwright https://playwright.dev/* Entra Auth Tracer (Chrome Extension) - https://github.com/darrenjrobinson/EntraAuthTracer* Unified Risk Score - https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/defender-xdr/investigate-users#risk-score-tab-preview📗 Chapters00:00 Intro to New Entra Features02:04 Entra Backup and Recovery Deep Dive10:41 Difference Reports Explained15:54 Intro to Tenant Governance23:34 Managing Multi-Tenant Organizations33:31 Conditional Access Optimization Agent36:55 The Great Passkey Debate47:22 Retirements: SP-less Auth & ACS for SharePoint48:46 Unified Risk Score in Defender52:38 MVP Tips of the WeekPodcast Apps🎙️ Entra.Chat - https://entra.chat🎧 Apple Podcast → https://entra.chat/apple📺 YouTube → https://entra.chat/youtube📺 Spotify → https://entra.chat/spotify🎧 Overcast → https://entra.chat/overcast🎧 Pocketcast → https://entra.chat/pocketcast🎧 Others → https://entra.chat/rssMerill’s socials📺 YouTube → youtube.com/@merillx👔 LinkedIn → linkedin.com/in/merill🐤 Twitter → twitter.com/merill🕺 TikTok → tiktok.com/@merillf🦋 Bluesky → bsky.app/profile/merill.net🐘 Mastodon → infosec.exchange/@merill🧵 Threads → threads.net/@merillf🤖 GitHub → github.com/merill Get full access to Entra.News - Your weekly dose of Microsoft Entra at entra.news/subscribe

Emilien Socchi, Cloud Security Research Engineer at Storebrand, joins us to discuss CA Insight and AZTier.Two open-source tools Emilien built to find gaps in Conditional Access policies and categorize Azure/Entra roles based on attack paths. Learn how CA Insight evaluates 250 million sign-in combinations offline in minutes instead of days, why the What If API doesn't scale, and how AZTier helps defenders and pen testers understand privilege escalation risks across Entra ID, Azure, and Microsoft Graph.Together, these projects help security teams move from reactive log monitoring to a proactive defense strategy.What’s Breaking and Slowing Your Entra ID Environment?In Microsoft Entra ID, the same visibility gaps cause two problems:* Things break* Work slows downExpired client secrets disrupt integrations. Certificates lapse and authentication fails. New apps appear with excessive permissions and no clear ownership. At the same time, teams struggle to answer basic questions, which applications have access to Microsoft 365 data, whether that access is still required, and who is responsible for it.When answers are not immediate, reviews stall and projects slow down.ENow App Governance Accelerator Credential Guard helps identify expiring credentials and expose permission and ownership gaps.For organizations under 10,000 users, pricing ranges from $3,500 to $9,500 annually through March 31, 2026.Subscribe with your favorite podcast player or watch on YouTube 👇About Emilien SocchiEmilien Socchi is a Cloud Security Research Engineer at Storebrand (Oslo, Norway) focusing on the proactive discovery of security issues. With an extensive background in application and cloud penetration testing, Emilien has published practical research and tooling used by defenders. He also maintains several open‑source projects, including Azure administrative tiering models and Entra ID role‑monitoring utilities.LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/emilien-socchi🔗 Related Links* CA Insight- https://github.com/emiliensocchi/entra-ca-insight* Azure Administrative Tiering (AzTier) - https://aztier.com* AzTier Source: https://github.com/emiliensocchi/azure-tiering* AzTier Deployer - https://github.com/emiliensocchi/aztier-deployer📗 Chapters00:00 The Story Behind CA Insights16:52 Why the ‘What If’ API Doesn’t Scale 21:09 Building an Offline Evaluation Engine 45:22 Deep Dive into AZTier: A Red Team Perspective Podcast Apps🎙️ Entra.Chat - https://entra.chat🎧 Apple Podcast → https://entra.chat/apple📺 YouTube → https://entra.chat/youtube📺 Spotify → https://entra.chat/spotify🎧 Overcast → https://entra.chat/overcast🎧 Pocketcast → https://entra.chat/pocketcast🎧 Others → https://entra.chat/rssMerill’s socials📺 YouTube → youtube.com/@merillx👔 LinkedIn → linkedin.com/in/merill🐤 Twitter → twitter.com/merill🕺 TikTok → tiktok.com/@merillf🦋 Bluesky → bsky.app/profile/merill.net🐘 Mastodon → infosec.exchange/@merill🧵 Threads → threads.net/@merillf🤖 GitHub → github.com/merill Get full access to Entra.News - Your weekly dose of Microsoft Entra at entra.news/subscribe

Darren Robinson, Identity and Zero Trust Strategy and Architecture Capability Lead at Increment, shares his extensive experience in identity governance and administration.In this episode Merill sits down with Darren “Doc” Robinson – Microsoft MVP since 2017, former SailPoint Ambassador and one of Australia’s most experienced identity architects.Darren takes us on a 25+ year journey from Novell networks to modern Microsoft Entra ID, reveals why he’s building custom ECMA2 connectors, and shares the exact PowerShell tools he just open-sourced (Granfeldt uplift, ECMA2 Host Tools, Provision On-Demand module).We also compare Entra ID Governance vs SailPoint and dive into his latest obsession: MCPs for Entra News and personal AI agents.Whether you’re migrating legacy apps or levelling up your IGA strategy, this episode is pure gold.Sponsored by CoreView:Would you bet your reputation on your current Microsoft 365 security posture?Sure, you’ve checked Purview. Maybe tightened Conditional Access. We all do that.But it’s usually the quiet stuff that bites... permissions that expanded, policies that drifted, exceptions nobody revisited.You could assume it’s fine.Or you could run the Microsoft 365 Security Posture Check.It’s free.It runs locally.And no, it doesn’t send your tenant data back to us.We’ll even help you set it up.Subscribe with your favorite podcast player or watch on YouTube 👇About Darren RobinsonDarren is highly accomplished in digital identity and cybersecurity specialising in Identity & Access Management for over three decades. Darren is renowned for driving Digital Identity innovation, building global offerings, and leading high-impact teams to deliver cutting-edge solutions that enhance security posture, operational efficiency, and business value.🔗 Related Links* Blog: https://blog.darrenjrobinson.com* GitHub: https://github.com/darrenjrobinson* LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/darrenjrobinson/In this episode…1. Understanding the “Metaverse”The foundation of Microsoft’s identity strategy dates back to the acquisition of Zoomit in 2000. This introduced the Metaverse—not a VR world, but a “hologram” or central representation of a user that exists across multiple systems like SQL databases and LDAP directories. By correlating these identities into one object, organizations can maintain consistency across a fragmented environment.2. The Modern Bridge: ECMA and SCIMAs organizations move to the cloud, the “heavy” sync engines like MIM (Microsoft Identity Manager) are being replaced by Entra Cloud Sync. The modern approach uses:* A Light Shim: A small on-premises component that acts as a member of the domain.* SCIM Instructions: The Entra provisioning service sends instructions via the SCIM protocol to this shim.* ECMA Connectors: The Extensible Connector Management Agent (ECMA) translates these cloud instructions into a language legacy on-prem apps can understand, such as SQL or Oracle updates.3. Scaling with PowerShell 7One of the biggest hurdles in legacy identity management was performance. Darren Robinson recently uplifted the popular Granfeldt PowerShell Management Agent to support PowerShell 7. This update allows for:* 64-bit Processing: Handling larger datasets with ease.* Parallelism: Sending multiple identity updates in parallel rather than waiting for individual “gets,” significantly speeding up sync times.4. Managing the “Cache”A common pain point for administrators is the lack of visibility into the ECMA host cache. To solve this, Darren developed a new module that allows practitioners to programmatically query the cache, back up configurations, and document every connector and parameter in the system.Key Takeaway: Whether you are migrating from legacy solutions like Novell or managing a complex hybrid Entra environment, the goal remains the same: automated, secure, and visible identity lifecycles.📗 Chapters00:00 Intro02:22 The Evolution of Directory Services and Synchronization08:05 Understanding Sync Engines and the Metaverse14:45 Modern Identity Provisioning with Entra17:39 Developing Custom PowerShell ECMA Connectors20:53 Automating Provisioning with New PowerShell Modules28:53 The Current Landscape of Identity Governance31:37 Solving the Disconnected Apps Challenge35:46 Exploring Model Context Protocol (MCP)45:34 Leveraging Local AI and LLMs for Identity TasksPodcast Apps🎙️ Entra.Chat - https://entra.chat🎧 Apple Podcast → https://entra.chat/apple📺 YouTube → https://entra.chat/youtube📺 Spotify → https://entra.chat/spotify🎧 Overcast → https://entra.chat/overcast🎧 Pocketcast → https://entra.chat/pocketcast🎧 Others → https://entra.chat/rssMerill’s socials📺 YouTube → youtube.com/@merillx👔 LinkedIn → linkedin.com/in/merill🐤 Twitter → twitter.com/merill🕺 TikTok → tiktok.com/@merillf🦋 Bluesky → bsky.app/profile/merill.net🐘 Mastodon → infosec.exchange/@merill🧵 Threads → threads.net/@merillf🤖 GitHub → github.com/merill Get full access to Entra.News - Your weekly dose of Microsoft Entra at entra.news/subscribe

Richard Hicks wrote the book on DirectAccess. Then he wrote the one on Always On VPN. Now he’s here to tell you it’s time to move on from both (and other legacy VPNs). Over the last two years, Richard has helped numerous enterprise customers navigate the shift from legacy VPN to Microsoft Entra Private Access, and he’s collected some hard-learnt lessons along the way that most migration guides won’t tell you.In this episode, Richard - enterprise security consultant and early Entra Private Access insider - breaks down why traditional VPN is fundamentally broken for today’s threat landscape, how Entra Private Access works under the hood, and the exact crawl-walk-run playbook he uses to migrate enterprise customers without disruption. Plus: his hot take on the Microsoft E7 announcement and why it just changed the pricing conversation forever.In this episode you’ll learn:* Why your VPN tunnel is a security liability — and how a single compromised device can expose your entire corporate network* How Entra Private Access works differently to traditional VPN, and why that architectural shift matters for security* The “Quick Access” migration strategy that lets you get off legacy VPN fast, without locking everything down on day one* How to deploy the Global Secure Access client alongside your existing VPN — so you can migrate field-based workers without a single disconnection* What most teams get wrong about the Entra Private Network Connector — and the scaling pitfalls that catch enterprises off guard* Why Conditional Access knowledge, not connectivity, is the real key to a successful zero trust migration* The current limitations of Entra Private Access and how to plan around them* We also discuss the new ‘E7’ which includes Entra Private AccessSubscribe with your favorite podcast player or watch on YouTube 👇About Richard HicksRichard Hicks is the founder and principal consultant at Richard M. Hicks Consulting, Inc. A Microsoft Most Valuable Professional (MVP) with more than 30 years of experience implementing secure remote access and public key infrastructure (PKI) solutions, he is a widely recognized enterprise mobility and security infrastructure expert sought after by organizations worldwide. His mission is to help companies provide visibility, control, and assurance for their field-based users and devices, ensuring the highest level of security and productivity for today’s highly mobile workforce.LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/richardhicks/🔗 Related Links* Richard’s Blog - https://directaccess.richardhicks.com/* Richard M. Hicks Consulting, Inc - https://www.richardhicks.com/* https://directaccess.richardhicks.com/always-on-vpn-vs-entra-private-access/📗 Chapters00:00 Intro 01:10 The History of Direct Access and Always On VPN 05:59 Transitioning to Zero Trust and Entra Private Access 11:34 Seamless Side-by-Side VPN Migration 17:37 Using Quick Access to Kickstart Zero Trust 23:43 Changing Mindsets: Identity over IP Addresses 27:55 The New Zero Trust Network Assessment Tool 29:17 Avoiding Pitfalls with the Entra Private Network Connector 33:11 Feature Wishlist: IPv6 and Process Binding 38:46 Hot Takes on the New Entra E7 SuitePodcast Apps🎙️ Entra.Chat - https://entra.chat🎧 Apple Podcast → https://entra.chat/apple📺 YouTube → https://entra.chat/youtube📺 Spotify → https://entra.chat/spotify🎧 Overcast → https://entra.chat/overcast🎧 Pocketcast → https://entra.chat/pocketcast🎧 Others → https://entra.chat/rssMerill’s socials📺 YouTube → youtube.com/@merillx👔 LinkedIn → linkedin.com/in/merill🐤 Twitter → twitter.com/merill🕺 TikTok → tiktok.com/@merillf🦋 Bluesky → bsky.app/profile/merill.net🐘 Mastodon → infosec.exchange/@merill🧵 Threads → threads.net/@merillf🤖 GitHub → github.com/merill Get full access to Entra.News - Your weekly dose of Microsoft Entra at entra.news/subscribe

I am back home in Melbourne today, and joining me are Nathan McNulty from Alaska and Daniel Bradley from the UK as we dive into all the massive Entra updates that dropped last month. We are breaking down the controversial shift to syncable passkeys , why your Conditional Access policies might suddenly start blocking apps , and the absolute necessity of moving privileged accounts away from on-prem AD. We’re also geeking out over some incredible new Global Secure Access (GSA) features and how AI is completely transforming the way we work with Graph API. You won’t want to miss the under-the-radar changes that could impact your tenant’s security architecture overnight.Here’s a quick overview of all the topics we covered in this episode (links below).Sponsored by:Scan, Score, and Secure Your Applications in EntraApplication identities represent one of the largest attack surfaces in Entra and are often among the least consistently governed. AppGov Score helps IT and Security teams understand where risk exists. The 24-check assessment evaluates Entra ID application integrations against Microsoft-recommended governance practices, analyzing:* App registrations and enterprise apps for excessive permissions* Expired or unmanaged secrets* Ownerless apps* Risky consent grants, and* Privileged service principalsResults are delivered as a clear, defensible risk score with actionable findings. No scripts. No manual inventory. Just a fast, read-only scan that reveals app sprawl, identity misconfigurations, and blast radius so you can prioritize remediation and strengthen your security posture with confidence.Subscribe with your favorite podcast player or watch on YouTube 👇About Nathan McNultySenior Security Solutions Architect at Patriot Consulting and Microsoft MVP in security. Nathan is the practice lead for identity and has extensive experience with endpoint deployments and everything Entra.LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/nathanmcnulty/About Daniel BradleySenior Solution Architect for CDW down in the UK and an MVP in Identity Security and M365 for Graph API. Daniel specializes in pre-sales, mergers, acquisitions, and the highly technical migration space.LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/danielbradley2/🔗 Related Links* Entra What's New - https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/entra/fundamentals/whats-new* Upcoming Conditional Access change: Improved enforcement for policies with resource exclusions - https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/blog/microsoft-entra-blog/upcoming-conditional-access-change-improved-enforcement-for-policies-with-resour/4488925* XDRInternals - https://github.com/MSCloudInternals/XDRInternals* Passkey Login - https://github.com/nathanmcnulty/nathanmcnulty/blob/main/Entra/passkeys/PasskeyLogin.ps1* Graph PM - https://graph.pm📗 Chapters03:01 Syncable Passkeys & Registration Changes18:10 Conditional Access Policy Updates26:35 Blocking Hard Match for Privileged Roles35:42 External Authentication Methods GA43:04 Lifecycle Workflows & Admin Units48:01 Global Secure Access (GSA) BYOD Preview53:06 New My Account Portal & Authenticator Updates58:43 AI Skills & Automating Graph APIPodcast Apps🎙️ Entra.Chat - https://entra.chat🎧 Apple Podcast → https://entra.chat/apple📺 YouTube → https://entra.chat/youtube📺 Spotify → https://entra.chat/spotify🎧 Overcast → https://entra.chat/overcast🎧 Pocketcast → https://entra.chat/pocketcast🎧 Others → https://entra.chat/rssMerill’s socials📺 YouTube → youtube.com/@merillx👔 LinkedIn → linkedin.com/in/merill🐤 Twitter → twitter.com/merill🕺 TikTok → tiktok.com/@merillf🦋 Bluesky → bsky.app/profile/merill.net🐘 Mastodon → infosec.exchange/@merill🧵 Threads → threads.net/@merillf🤖 GitHub → github.com/merill Get full access to Entra.News - Your weekly dose of Microsoft Entra at entra.news/subscribe

Hey folks, I have to start with a massive shout-out to Morten Knudsen and his entire team at Experts Live Denmark where I’m just returning from. Organizing an event for over 1,200+ attendees is no small feat, and they pulled it off with incredible energy and precision. It was easily one of the most impressive community gatherings I’ve been a part of.Amidst that massive crowd, I had the privilege of co-leading a deep-dive Identity Masterclass alongside four exceptional Microsoft MVPs: Jan Vidar Elven, Pim Jacobs, Thomas Naunheim, and Klaus Bierschenk.We weren’t sure what to expect, but the response was overwhelming. We had over 120 dedicated attendees who stayed with us for the full 7-hour session - diving deep into the weeds of Entra ID, governance, privileged access, Agent ID and more. Instead of theory-heavy slides, we built a practical, end-to-end governance story.Because we believe this knowledge should be accessible, we are now giving away the labs for free so everyone can skill up, learn, and implement these patterns in their own environments.Here’s the core of what we covered, and what you will learn in this podcast walk through of the labs and what you can try out yourself today!Links to GitHub repo and YouTube video below.Sponsored by:If you’re a systems administrator, you already know – patching is painful. It’s time-consuming, risky, and one small mistake can mean downtime. So, it gets postponed. Again. And again. What if patching was just… Easy?Introducing Action1, a cloud-native patch management platform for Windows, macOS, Linux, and third-party apps. You’ll be up and running in five minutes. No infrastructure to maintain. No complexity.And here’s the best part: you can use Action1 on your first 200 endpoints for free. Forever. No feature limits. No credit card. No hidden tricks. Seriously, It’s NOT a disguised free trial. Too good to be true? Too good and actually true! Check for yourself, go to: on.action1.com/entrachatSo, if you’re looking for an easy-to-use patching tool that would help you save weeks, if not months of your time, go to on.action1.com/entrachat and sign up for “Patching That Just Works”.1️⃣ Inbound Provisioning: Start with a Source of TruthMost identity problems start with one issue:There is no clean, authoritative identity source.We demonstrated how to use Inbound Provisioning in Entra to:* Accept identity payloads via Microsoft Graph* Create users in a disabled state* Capture attributes like hire date, leave date, department* Treat HR (or another system) as the lifecycle authorityWhy this mattersIf identities are manually created:* Joiners are inconsistent* Leavers are missed* Privileged accounts become orphanedInbound provisioning allows you to:* Standardize creation* Attach lifecycle automation immediately* Reduce manual admin overheadKey concept:Provision first. Enable later. Automate everything in between.2️⃣ Lifecycle Workflows: Automate Joiner / Mover / LeaverOnce a user is provisioned, lifecycle workflows take over.We implemented:* Pre-hire workflow* Day-one onboarding workflow* Post-onboarding actionsTriggers included:* Employee hire date* Creation time* Group membership* Attribute changesReal-world onboarding pattern* Account is created disabled* Workflow enables the account at the correct time* Temporary Access Pass (TAP) is generated* TAP is sent securely* Access is assigned automaticallyThis reduces:* Manual enablement* Helpdesk load* Security gapsDesign principle:Automation should enforce timing — not people.3️⃣ Privileged Account Design: Separate the IdentitiesWe had a strong opinion in the session:Admin accounts should be separate and cloud-only.Why?* Syncing privileged accounts from on-prem introduces risk* HR systems should not directly control privileged identities* Governance features work best with cloud-native identitiesWe explored three creation patterns:* Inbound provisioning for privileged accounts* Access Packages (with auto-assignment or request model)* Lifecycle workflows + custom Logic AppsEach has trade-offs.What matters most:Privileged identities must be:* Separately authenticated* Phishing-resistant (FIDO2 or passkeys)* Independently governed* Linked for offboarding4️⃣ Linking Identities for InvestigationOne challenge in Entra:There’s no native “this person owns these 3 accounts” view.We explored identity linking in Microsoft Defender XDR, where:* Multiple accounts can be associated to one identity* Incident investigations become clearer* Privileged activity can be correlated with user contextThis becomes critical during:* Compromise investigations* Insider threat analysis* Lateral movement trackingSecurity takeaway:If you can’t correlate identities, you can’t fully investigate them.5️⃣ Backup & Restore: The Truth About EntraThere is no traditional backup system in Entra.Instead, you have:* Soft-delete (with recycle bin)* Hard-delete (irreversible)* API-based recovery* Configuration export strategiesWe discussed:* Protecting deleted items with Protected Actions* Using Conditional Access to restrict destructive operations* Exporting configuration JSON regularly* Monitoring configuration driftReality:If you aren’t exporting your tenant configuration, recovery becomes manual and painful.Governance is not just about creation — it’s about resilience.6️⃣ Protected Actions + Conditional AccessA powerful but underused feature:Protected Actions.You can require Conditional Access enforcement before allowing:* Hard deletes* Sensitive configuration changesExample:* Only allow permanent deletion from a compliant device* Only allow from a trusted location* Require phishing-resistant authenticationEven Global Admins must pass policy.Security mindset shift:Admin role ≠ unlimited ability.7️⃣ Agent ID & Blueprints: The Future of Identity for AIWe also explored Agent ID — one of the newer capabilities in Entra.Why not just use a service principal?Because agents:* Need stronger guardrails* Must support per-user instances* Require conditional access enforcement* Must be auditable at scaleBlueprints allow:* A parent definition of permissions* Individual agent instances per user* Centralized governance over many agentsAs AI agents scale, identity must scale securely with them.Forward-looking insight:Agent governance will soon be as important as user governance.8️⃣ Design Philosophy Behind the LabThe entire masterclass was built around one principle:Identity is a lifecycle, not a login.We covered:Provision → Enable → Assign → Elevate → Monitor → Protect → Offboard → RecoverIf any step is manual, inconsistent, or undocumented — risk increases.The labs give you a complete pattern you can implement in your own tenant.🎯 What You Should Do Next* Watch/listen to the full podcast where we walk you through the labs.* Go try out the labs at github.com/IdentityMan/MasterclassELDK26 in your own tenant.Subscribe with your favorite podcast player or watch on YouTube 👇About us* Jan Vidar Elven, Security MVP - https://www.linkedin.com/in/janvidarelven* Pim Jacobs, Security MVP - https://www.linkedin.com/in/pimjacobs89* Thomas Naunheim, Security MVP - https://www.linkedin.com/in/thomasnaunheim* Klaus Bierschenk, Security MVP - https://www.linkedin.com/in/klabier🔗 Related Links* https://github.com/IdentityMan/MasterclassELDK26* https://discord.entra.news* https://on.action1.com/entrachat📗 Chapters00:00 Intro 00:50 Open Sourcing the Entra Lab 03:42 Entra ID Inbound Provisioning 08:05 Lifecycle Workflows and Governance 10:57 Securing Privileged Admin Accounts 16:21 Offboarding and Linked Identities 19:51 Sponsor: ActionOne 21:02 Entra ID Backup, Restore & Protected Actions 26:08 Exploring Agent ID and Blueprints 30:28 How to Access the Open Source LabPodcast Apps🎙️ Entra.Chat - https://entra.chat🎧 Apple Podcast → https://entra.chat/apple📺 YouTube → https://entra.chat/youtube📺 Spotify → https://entra.chat/spotify🎧 Overcast → https://entra.chat/overcast🎧 Pocketcast → https://entra.chat/pocketcast🎧 Others → https://entra.chat/rssMerill’s socials📺 YouTube → youtube.com/@merillx👔 LinkedIn → linkedin.com/in/merill🐤 Twitter → twitter.com/merill🕺 TikTok → tiktok.com/@merillf🦋 Bluesky → bsky.app/profile/merill.net🐘 Mastodon → infosec.exchange/@merill🧵 Threads → threads.net/@merillf🤖 GitHub → github.com/merill Get full access to Entra.News - Your weekly dose of Microsoft Entra at entra.news/subscribe

What does it take to migrate 40,000 devices to a cloud-native environment in a massive, complex enterprise? For most IT leaders, the prospect of moving away from 20 years of legacy infrastructure is enough to cause a sleepless night.In our latest episode of Entra Chat, we sat down with enterprise veterans Michael Brunker and Prem Kothandapani to deconstruct their recent, massive rollout. They successfully converted nearly 40,000 devices from on-premises Active Directory to Entra Joined in just nine to ten months—all with a lean team of 10–15 people.Here are the high-stakes lessons they learned from the trenches of modern management.The “Nuclear Option”: Cleaning Up 20 Years of GPO DebtOne of the most controversial decisions the team made was what they called the “nuclear option” regarding Group Policy Objects (GPOs). Instead of porting over decades of legacy policies that no one fully understood, they chose to start from scratch.By building a new security baseline from the ground up in Intune, they ensured the new environment was clean, modern, and free from the “stale” configurations that often plague legacy estates.Killing the “VPN Tax”For the end user, the primary driver for this migration was a radically improved experience. In a cloud-native world, the dependency on legacy VPN technology disappears.* Work from Anywhere: Users can sign on and get access without the friction of starting a VPN or worrying about office cabling.* Security at the Edge: Moving to Entra ID shrinks the attack surface by removing devices as a direct entry point to your core on-prem Active Directory.Sponsored by:If you’re a systems administrator, you already know – patching is painful. It’s time-consuming, risky, and one small mistake can mean downtime. So, it gets postponed. Again. And again. What if patching was just… Easy?Introducing Action1, a cloud-native patch management platform for Windows, macOS, Linux, and third-party apps. You’ll be up and running in five minutes. No infrastructure to maintain. No complexity.And here’s the best part: you can use Action1 on your first 200 endpoints for free. Forever. No feature limits. No credit card. No hidden tricks. Seriously, It’s NOT a disguised free trial. Too good to be true? Too good and actually true! Check for yourself, go to: on.action1.com/entrachatSo, if you’re looking for an easy-to-use patching tool that would help you save weeks, if not months of your time, go to on.action1.com/entrachat and sign up for “Patching That Just Works”.The “Gnarly” Problems: What Breaks First?Success wasn’t just about the big picture; it was about mastering the “fundamental basic building blocks”. Michael and Prem highlighted several technical hurdles that can derail a migration if not handled early:* The Proxy Trap: Many organizations fail to update their proxy server allow-lists with the specific Microsoft URLs required for cloud authentication.* App Authentication: Moving from Kerberos-based device auth to OAuth and modern cloud flows requires rigorous testing across different “personas,” such as front line workers versus corporate office users.The Secret to Scaling: Small Teams, Big StrategyPerhaps the most surprising takeaway was that a project of this scale didn’t require an army. By focusing on a “small team” of highly skilled engineers and dedicated communications experts, they maintained momentum and avoided “stop-start” migration fatigue.Want to hear the full technical breakdown, including how they handled zero-downtime requirements for front line workers?Subscribe with your favorite podcast player or watch on YouTube 👇About Michael BrunkerMichael Brunker has approaching 40 years in the IT industry and has operated as an enterprise architect across major organizations like BP, Woodside, and Telstra. LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaelbrunker/About Prem KothandapaniPrem Kothandapani is an EndPoint Architect with over 14 years of experience in endpoint computing and major migrations, having worked at NBN, Australian Unity, and Telstra.LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/premnath-kothandapani-41744153/📗 Chapters00:00 Cloud-Native Device Management 02:58 The True Cost of Legacy Infrastructure 07:47 Moving to Modern Management 11:13 The Blueprint for a 40,000 Device Migration 20:07 Handling Complex App Dependencies 28:07 Crafting a Seamless User Migration Experience 33:28 Automating with Graph API and Autopilot 43:09 Avoiding the Co-Management Trap 55:01 The New Starter Experience 57:24 Migration Velocity and Lessons LearnedPodcast Apps🎙️ Entra.Chat - https://entra.chat 🎧 Apple Podcast → https://entra.chat/apple 📺 YouTube → https://entra.chat/youtube 📺 Spotify → https://entra.chat/spotify 🎧 Overcast → https://entra.chat/overcast 🎧 Pocketcast → https://entra.chat/pocketcast 🎧 Others → https://entra.chat/rssMerill’s socials📺 YouTube → youtube.com/@merillx 👔 LinkedIn → linkedin.com/in/merill 🐤 Twitter → twitter.com/merill 🕺 TikTok → tiktok.com/@merillf 🦋 Bluesky → bsky.app/profile/merill.net 🐘 Mastodon → infosec.exchange/@merill 🧵 Threads → threads.net/@merillf 🤖 GitHub → github.com/merill Get full access to Entra.News - Your weekly dose of Microsoft Entra at entra.news/subscribe

March 2026 is shaping up to be one of the most important months for Microsoft Entra ID administrators in recent memory.Microsoft is automatically enabling passkey profiles in Entra ID, and if you don’t configure them yourself, your tenant will be migrated with default settings.In this episode of Entra Chat, I sat down with Microsoft Security MVPs Daniel Bradley and Ewelina Paskowska to break down what this really means for Microsoft 365 administrators.But passkeys aren’t the only story this month.1️⃣ Passkey Profiles Are Becoming the DefaultStarting March 2026:* Passkey profiles will be auto-enabled* Tenants that haven’t configured profiles will be migrated* Registration campaigns will shift from Authenticator-first to passkey-firstThis is a major shift toward phishing-resistant authentication.You’ll now be able to:* Separate hardware-backed vs synced passkeys* Apply granular group-based controls* Enforce stronger authentication for privileged users2️⃣ Source of Authority Conversion Is Finally GAFor years, admins used messy delete-and-restore hacks to convert synced users to cloud-only.Now it’s officially supported.You can convert individual users from on-premises authority to cloud-managed — without breaking hybrid entirely.Why this matters:* Easier M&A transitions* Full access to Entra ID Governance features* Cleaner lifecycle management* Reduced dependency on legacy infrastructureFor hybrid environments moving toward cloud-first identity, this is huge.Sponsored by:If you are a systems administrator managing endpoints every day, you’ve probably postponed patching at least once — not because you forgot… But because you didn’t feel like gambling with uptime. Meanwhile, the backlog grows, vulnerabilities pile up, and patching stays stuck in manual mode.Action1  fixes that.Action1 is a cloud-native patch management platform for Windows, macOS, Linux, and third-party apps — all from one place, no VPN needed. Curious how easy it is to start? You can use it on your first 200 endpoints, for free, forever, with no functional limits. It’s not a disguised free trial. No credit card required, no hidden limits, no tricks.All you have to do is visit on.action1.com/entrachat and get started today.So, if you’re looking to automate patching at scale and get weeks— even months—of your time back, go to on.action1.com/entrachat and sign up for patching—that—just—works.3️⃣ App Registration Deactivation (A Quietly Powerful Feature)Microsoft added the ability to deactivate app registrations.Instead of deleting an app (and losing configuration), you can now:* Immediately stop token issuance* Preserve metadata and permissions* Investigate safely* Re-enable without rebuildingFor incident response scenarios — especially in multi-tenant or MSP environments — this is a big step forward.4️⃣ Conditional Access Behavior ChangesThere’s also a change impacting tenants with Conditional Access policies targeting “All resources” but excluding certain apps.Previously, certain minimal-scope apps could bypass enforcement under specific conditions.That loophole is closing.Admins should:* Review message center notifications* Audit legacy apps* Validate MFA handling before rolloutAs always with identity changes: being proactive is critical.5️⃣ Sync Security Hardening (Hard Match Protection)Microsoft is adding additional validation to protect against malicious hard matching scenarios in hybrid environments.This reduces the risk of identity takeover via manipulated on-prem objects.It’s automatic — but important to understand if you manage hybrid identity or MSP transitions.Watch the full episode for the deep technical breakdown and real-world implications.Subscribe with your favorite podcast player or watch on YouTube 👇About Daniel BradleyDaniel is a Senior Solution Architect for CDW and Microsoft MVP in Identity & Graph API. He is a avid writer who enjoys investigating new features and building practical tools to share with the community through his blog. He also is one of the moderators for the r/entra subreddit.* Website: https://ourcloudnetwork.com* LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/danielbradley2* X: https://x.com/DanielatOCNAbout Ewelina PaczkowskaEwelina is a Solution Architect at Theatscape and a Microsoft Security MVP. She is a content creator and speaker who enjoys breaking down complex solutions into clear, practical guidance. Ewelina is also an organiser of the Microsoft 365 Security & Compliance user group and the creator behind Welka’s World, where she shares insights and real-world knowledge around Microsoft security and compliance.* Website: https://welkasworld.com* LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ewelinapaczkowska* X: https://x.com/WelkasWorld🔗 Related Links* MC1221452 - Microsoft Entra ID: Auto-enabling passkey profiles - https://mc.merill.net/message/MC1221452* Ability to convert Source of Authority of synced on-prem AD users to cloud users is now available - https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/entra/identity/hybrid/user-source-of-authority-overview* Service Principal creation audit logs for alerting & monitoring - https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/entra/identity/monitoring-health/understand-service-principal-creation-with-new-audit-log-properties* Deactivate an app registration - https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/entra/identity/enterprise-apps/deactivate-app-registration* MC1223829 - Upcoming Conditional Access change: Improved enforcement for policies with resource exclusions - https://mc.merill.net/message/MC1223829* Microsoft Entra Connect security hardening to prevent user account takeover - https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/entra/fundamentals/whats-new#general-availability---microsoft-entra-connect-security-hardening-to-prevent-user-account-takeover📗 Chapters06:16 Converting Source of Authority to Cloud 15:37 Auto-Enabling Passkey Profiles 24:33 Deactivating App Registrations 31:56 Conditional Access for Excluded Apps 38:48 Sync Jacking Protection 41:45 Unified Tenant Configuration Management 46:31 Service Principal Creation LogsPodcast Apps🎙️ Entra.Chat → https://entra.chat🎧 Apple Podcast → https://entra.chat/apple📺 YouTube → https://entra.chat/youtube📺 Spotify → https://entra.chat/spotify🎧 Overcast → https://entra.chat/overcast🎧 Pocketcast → https://entra.chat/pocketcast🎧 Others → https://entra.chat/rssMerill’s socials📺 YouTube → youtube.com/@merillx👔 LinkedIn → linkedin.com/in/merill🐤 Twitter → twitter.com/merill🕺 TikTok → tiktok.com/@merillf🦋 Bluesky → bsky.app/profile/merill.net🐘 Mastodon → infosec.exchange/@merill🧵 Threads → threads.net/@merillf🤖 GitHub → github.com/merill Get full access to Entra.News - Your weekly dose of Microsoft Entra at entra.news/subscribe

Governance in Microsoft 365 has always been hard. Not because the tools didn’t exist, but because scale, complexity, and change made consistency almost impossible. As tenants grow, so do the challenges of configuration drift, manual admin changes, and inconsistent environments.For years, admins have relied on scripts, tribal knowledge, and community-led solutions like Microsoft 365 Desired State Configuration (M365DSC) to manage this “policy sprawl”. While M365DSC was a groundbreaking open-source effort, it often faced a steep learning curve and lacked official Microsoft support.Until now.In this episode of Entra Chat, we sit down with Nik Charlebois, Principal Program Manager at Microsoft and the original visionary behind M365DSC. Nik now leads the charge for one of the most significant platform shifts in Microsoft 365 administration: Tenant Configuration Management (TCM).Shadow IT and SaaS sprawl are outpacing IT teamsIt can feel impossible to tackle these app governance challenges:📦 Entra ID isn’t secure by default💥 SaaS adoption & sprawl isn’t slowing down⌨️ Citizen Development keeps rising (hello, Copilot Studio!)🗑️ Vendors often don’t remove apps after uninstall🔃 Offboarding is inconsistent or doesn’t happen at all🥔 App governance is passed around like a hot potatoENow AppGov Score shines a light on lurking risks, providing a free App Governance Benchmark Report for your Entra tenant. Reclaim control and protect against breach & disruptions. Free upgrade to Standard Tier for 7 days once you get your score.What is Tenant Configuration Management?TCM is Microsoft’s official “Config as Code” platform for M365. Built directly on top of the Microsoft Graph, it represents a new operating model for how tenants are governed.Key features discussed in this episode include:* Official Support: Moving beyond best-effort community maintenance to a fully supported Microsoft solution.* Simplified Experience: Transitioning from cryptic MOF files to human-readable JSON templates, significantly lowering the learning curve for admins.* Snapshot & Drift Detection: The ability to capture “snapshots” of your tenant’s current state and monitor for unauthorized changes.* Automatic Remediation: Automatically reverting detected configuration drifts back to your defined “gold standard” state.* Broad Coverage: Support for core workloads including Entra ID, Exchange, Intune, Purview, Defender, and Teams with more to come.This isn’t just a new feature; it’s the evolution of tenant governance into a native, API-driven platform. Tune in to hear Nik explain how TCM is bridging the gap between community innovation and official enterprise-grade management.Listen to the full episode now to learn how to start your journey with the TCM public preview!Subscribe with your favorite podcast player or watch on YouTube 👇About Nik CharleboisNik is a Principal Program Manager at Microsoft leading the Microsoft 365 configuration-as-code efforts. Ex-MVP, speaker, blogger, and author, he leads the configuration-as-code efforts for Microsoft 365.LinkedIn - https://linkedin.com/in/nikcharlebois🔗 Related Links* Nik’s Blog - https://nikcharlebois.com/* Overview of the unified tenant configuration management APIs - https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/graph/unified-tenant-configuration-management-concept-overview📗 Chapters00:00 Intro 03:44 Origin of M365DSC 07:51 Introducing Tenant Config Management 09:24 Supported Workloads 11:15 Control Plane vs Data Plane 14:26 DSC vs TCM Architecture 15:22 Snapshots and Monitors 18:56 Managing Drift Across Environments 28:03 Licensing and Limits 32:48 Authentication and Permissions 37:53 Getting StartedPodcast Apps🎙️ Entra.Chat - https://entra.chat🎧 Apple Podcast → https://entra.chat/apple📺 YouTube → https://entra.chat/youtube📺 Spotify → https://entra.chat/spotify🎧 Overcast → https://entra.chat/overcast🎧 Pocketcast → https://entra.chat/pocketcast🎧 Others → https://entra.chat/rssMerill’s socials📺 YouTube → youtube.com/@merillx👔 LinkedIn → linkedin.com/in/merill🐤 Twitter → twitter.com/merill🕺 TikTok → tiktok.com/@merillf🦋 Bluesky → bsky.app/profile/merill.net🐘 Mastodon → infosec.exchange/@merill🧵 Threads → threads.net/@merillf🤖 GitHub → github.com/merill Get full access to Entra.News - Your weekly dose of Microsoft Entra at entra.news/subscribe

In this episode, we sit down with Eric Woodruff, Chief Identity Architect at Semperis, to discuss the reality of achieving a 100% phishing-resistant environment. Over the course of just three months, Eric led a 600-person organization through a complete rollout of passkeys, Windows Hello for Business, and Platform SSO. This conversation moves beyond the technical “knobs and dials” to explore why organizational change management and C-suite buy-in are the true foundations of a successful identity modernization project.Eric shares the creative strategies his team used to drive adoption, including a custom self-enrollment portal built with Power Platform that allowed early adopters to “dogfood” the technology. We dive into the “voluntold” phase of the rollout, where voluntary participation transitioned into mandatory policy, and how they used Power BI to track progress and identify “stragglers”. The episode also provides a transparent look at the technical hurdles encountered, from legacy application exclusions to troubleshooting older Android devices and niche browsers.Looking ahead, we discuss the critical importance of protecting against “downgrade attacks,” where sophisticated phishing attempts try to bypass modern security by tricking users into traditional password entries. Eric emphasizes that the final mile of this journey—removing passwords entirely—is as much about supporting your helpdesk and documenting processes as it is about the technology itself. Whether you are managing a cloud-only tenant or navigating complex hybrid scenarios, this episode offers a practical roadmap for the future of enterprise identity.Subscribe with your favorite podcast player or watch on YouTube 👇About Eric WoodruffThroughout his 25-year career in the IT field, Eric has sought out and held a diverse range of roles. Currently the Chief Identity Architect for Semperis; Eric previously was a member of the Security Research and Product teams. Prior to Semperis, Eric worked as a Security and Identity Architect at Microsoft partners, spent time working at Microsoft as a Sr. Premier Field Engineer, and spent almost 15 years in the public sector, with 10 of them as a technical manager.LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/ericonidentity/🔗 Related Links* Phishing-resistant passwordless authentication deployment in Microsoft Entra ID* Semperis Research Uncovers Ongoing Risk from nOAuth Vulnerability in Microsoft Entra ID, Affecting Enterprise SaaS Applications* ConsentFix: Analysing a browser-native ClickFix-style attack that hijacks OAuth consent grants* Meet Silver SAML: Golden SAML in the Cloud* Manage tokens for Zero Trust📗 Chapters02:50 Rolling Out Passkeys 06:47 Application and Device Issues 09:49 Identifying Password Users 12:15 Lessons Learned for 2026 15:14 Understanding Downgrade Attacks 20:10 The NoAuth Vulnerability 27:08 Silver SAML Explained 32:56 Managing Service Principals 38:15 The Consent Fix AttackPodcast Apps🎙️ Entra.Chat - https://entra.chat🎧 Apple Podcast → https://entra.chat/apple📺 YouTube → https://entra.chat/youtube📺 Spotify → https://entra.chat/spotify🎧 Overcast → https://entra.chat/overcast🎧 Pocketcast → https://entra.chat/pocketcast🎧 Others → https://entra.chat/rssMerill’s socials📺 YouTube → youtube.com/@merillx👔 LinkedIn → linkedin.com/in/merill🐤 Twitter → twitter.com/merill🕺 TikTok → tiktok.com/@merillf🦋 Bluesky → bsky.app/profile/merill.net🐘 Mastodon → infosec.exchange/@merill🧵 Threads → threads.net/@merillf🤖 GitHub → github.com/merill Get full access to Entra.News - Your weekly dose of Microsoft Entra at entra.news/subscribe

Service principals worked for static apps, but AI agents are different—they make autonomous decisions using LLMs and require a new approach to identity and security.In this episode of Entra Chat, Padma Parthasarathy, Product Manager for Microsoft Entra Agent Registry, explains why Microsoft created Entra Agent Registry and Agent ID, and how they provide identity, governance, and security for AI agents.We cover agent collections, discovery policies, integration with identity protection, and how custom security attributes automate AI agent governance at scale. You’ll also see how agents discover other agents by skills, how global and quarantine collections control visibility, and why these capabilities are critical for enterprise AI security.This is a must-watch (listen) for identity, security, and platform architects preparing for AI at scale.Subscribe with your favorite podcast player or watch on YouTube 👇About PadmaWith close to 20 years of experience in Identity, Security, and enterprise platforms, Padma Prasad Parthasarathy currently leads product and architecture for Security for AI and Agent Identity at Microsoft. He has built and scaled IAM and Zero Trust solutions across some of the world’s largest organizations, bridging deep technical expertise with real-world product impact.LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/padmaprasadp/🔗 Related Links* What is the Microsoft Entra Agent Registry? - https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/entra/agent-id/identity-platform/what-is-agent-registry📗 Chapters00:00 Intro 02:14 The Rise of Digital Workers 07:13 Static Apps vs. AI Agents 12:43 Introducing Entra Agent Registry 17:28 Agent ID vs. Registry 24:08 How Agents Collaborate 30:29 Emerging Agent Standards 35:24 Understanding Agent Collections 42:05 Managing Risky Agents 46:01 Automating Agent SecurityPodcast Apps🎙️ Entra.Chat - https://entra.chat🎧 Apple Podcast → https://entra.chat/apple📺 YouTube → https://entra.chat/youtube📺 Spotify → https://entra.chat/spotify🎧 Overcast → https://entra.chat/overcast🎧 Pocketcast → https://entra.chat/pocketcast🎧 Others → https://entra.chat/rssMerill’s socials📺 YouTube → youtube.com/@merillx👔 LinkedIn → linkedin.com/in/merill🐤 Twitter → twitter.com/merill🕺 TikTok → tiktok.com/@merillf🦋 Bluesky → bsky.app/profile/merill.net🐘 Mastodon → infosec.exchange/@merill🧵 Threads → threads.net/@merillf🤖 GitHub → github.com/merill Get full access to Entra.News - Your weekly dose of Microsoft Entra at entra.news/subscribe

In this episode, I’m joined by Christopher Brumm from glueckkanja to discuss real-world experiences deploying Microsoft Entra Global Secure Access (GSA).We go beyond the docs to talk about actual customer rollouts, scaling challenges, retiring VPNs, and what teams often underestimate when moving to Zero Trust Network Access.Subscribe with your favorite podcast player or watch on YouTube 👇About Christopher BrummChristopher Brumm is a Cyber Security Architect at glueckkanja AG in Germany. With more than 15 years of experience in IT security, Chris brings deep expertise and hands-on knowledge across the Microsoft Security portfolio and beyond. His career journey spans from network and data center technologies to Active Directory and Entra ID, with a strong focus on identity security.As a Microsoft MVP and CISSP, Chris is an active voice in the security community, regularly speaking at events and sharing insights through blog posts on identity and security topics. His latest passion is Global Secure Access, where identity, security, and networking converge to deliver a holistic Zero Trust approach.* LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/christopherbrumm🔗 Related Links* Blog - https://chris-brumm.com📗 Chapters04:46 Proof of Concept vs Pilot 12:19 Deployment Strategy: The Blue Pill Approach 16:03 Solving Performance with Intelligent Local Access 17:49 Navigating Networking Challenges 25:14 The Hardest Part: Shutting Down Legacy VPNs 27:38 Handling External Access and BYOD 32:15 B2B Features and Tenant Switching 46:05 Why You Need the Microsoft 365 Profile 50:49 The Ultimate Admin Workstation SecurityPodcast Apps🎙️ Entra.Chat - https://entra.chat🎧 Apple Podcast → https://entra.chat/apple📺 YouTube → https://entra.chat/youtube📺 Spotify → https://entra.chat/spotify🎧 Overcast → https://entra.chat/overcast🎧 Pocketcast → https://entra.chat/pocketcast🎧 Others → https://entra.chat/rssMerill’s socials📺 YouTube → youtube.com/@merillx👔 LinkedIn → linkedin.com/in/merill🐤 Twitter → twitter.com/merill🕺 TikTok → tiktok.com/@merillf🦋 Bluesky → bsky.app/profile/merill.net🐘 Mastodon → infosec.exchange/@merill🧵 Threads → threads.net/@merillf🤖 GitHub → github.com/merill Get full access to Entra.News - Your weekly dose of Microsoft Entra at entra.news/subscribe

Nicolas Blank, Founder of NBConsult and a 20-year Microsoft MVP, joins the show to dismantle the complexity around Zero Trust.Most Zero Trust conversations fail because they start with technology. Nicolas flips the script by using powerful everyday analogies (locking your car, protecting your newborn) to land the three core principles with executives.Essential watching for anyone implementing Zero Trust, securing Microsoft 365/Entra ID, or needing leadership support in 2026.Subscribe with your favorite podcast player or watch on YouTube 👇About Nicholas BlankNicolas is the founder, as well an architect, author and speaker focused on Office 365 and Azure at NBConsult in South Africa, England and Hong Kong. Nicolas is a Microsoft Certified Master, Dual Microsoft MVP - Microsoft Office Apps and Services, Microsoft Azure since March 2007.​Nicolas has co-authored the Microsoft Zero Trust Adoption Framework https://aka.ms/zero-trust-adopt, published by Microsoft; “Microsoft Exchange Server 2013: Design, Deploy and Deliver an Enterprise Messaging Solution”, published by Sybex and available on Amazon; as well as authoring “Azure Site Recovery: IaaS Migration and Disaster Recovery”, published by Pluralsight.Nicolas can be found on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nicolasblank/Or via his Company Website:​ https://www.nbconsult.co🔗 Related Links* Microsoft Zero Trust Workshop - https://aka.ms/ztworkshop* Zero Trust Adoption Framework - https://aka.ms/zero-trust-adopt* Microsoft Digital Defense Report - http://aka.ms/mddr📗 Chapters01:52 The Why Behind Zero Trust 04:17 The Baby Analogy: Explaining Least Privilege 07:41 Debunking Security Myths 11:43 Assume Breach vs Being Secure 15:28 Getting Stakeholder Buy-in 20:24 The Immune System Approach 21:45 Ruining Attacker ROI 25:50 The 96% Statistic You Can’t Ignore 33:24 Where to Start: Practical Tools 37:54 The Zero Trust Adoption FrameworkPodcast Apps🎙️ Entra.Chat - https://entra.chat🎧 Apple Podcast → https://entra.chat/apple📺 YouTube → https://entra.chat/youtube📺 Spotify → https://entra.chat/spotify🎧 Overcast → https://entra.chat/overcast🎧 Pocketcast → https://entra.chat/pocketcast🎧 Others → https://entra.chat/rssMerill’s socials📺 YouTube → youtube.com/@merillx👔 LinkedIn → linkedin.com/in/merill🐤 Twitter → twitter.com/merill🕺 TikTok → tiktok.com/@merillf🦋 Bluesky → bsky.app/profile/merill.net🐘 Mastodon → infosec.exchange/@merill🧵 Threads → threads.net/@merillf🤖 GitHub → github.com/merill Get full access to Entra.News - Your weekly dose of Microsoft Entra at entra.news/subscribe

Is the traditional VPN dead? In the latest episode of Entra Chat, we dive deep Microsoft Entra Global Secure Access (GSA).Joined by Karen Simmel from the GSA product team and Thomas from the Entra CXE Architecture team, we explore how Microsoft is bridging the gap between identity and network security.The Shift from VPN to SASEThe "good old days" of spinning up firewalls and DMZs are fading. Traditional controls are often too coarse-grained and lack identity awareness. As Thomas explains, the COVID-19 pandemic accelerated the need for change when traditional VPN gateways physically couldn't handle the load of remote workforces.This has paved the way for SASE (Secure Access Service Edge) and SSE (Security Service Edge), which move security controls to the cloud at hyperscale.What is Global Secure Access?The team breaks down the confusing terminology to help you understand the core products:* Microsoft Entra Private Access: This is the ZTNA (Zero Trust Network Access) solution, replacing the classic VPN for accessing on-prem and private resources.* Microsoft Entra Internet Access: This acts as a Secure Web Gateway (SWG), protecting outbound access to SaaS apps and the internet with URL filtering and DLP controls.* Microsoft Entra Suite: A bundle that combines these network capabilities with Verified ID, Identity Governance, and Identity Protection for a comprehensive solution.The "Secret Sauce"Why choose Microsoft's solution? The differentiator is that GSA isn't just integrated with the Identity Provider (IdP)—it *is* part of the IdP.This deep integration allows for near real-time security. For example, if a user's device is compromised, the SOC team can revoke the token, and Entra can immediately terminate the network tunnel or prompt for step-up authentication. It brings the power of Conditional Access directly to network traffic.Better Performance, Better PrivacyContrary to the belief that security slows things down, GSA often improves performance. By leveraging Microsoft's massive global private fiber network, traffic is intelligently routed to the closest point of presence rather than being backhauled to a headquarters.From a privacy standpoint, admins have granular control. You decide what traffic is tunneled and inspected, ensuring you can meet compliance requirements (like those in the EU) without over-monitoring employee activity.Ready to Deploy?Deployment doesn't have to take months. Some customers are getting up and running with a Proof of Concept (PoC) in a single day. Whether you use the client-based agent or need client-less access for contractors, Microsoft provides detailed deployment plans to guide you.Subscribe with your favorite podcast player or watch on YouTube 👇About the GuestsKeren SemelKeren leads visibility and data insights for the Global Secure Access product group. Based in Tel Aviv, she brings deep experience from the SASE/SSE market to Microsoft.LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/keren-semel-4876383/Thomas Detzner Thomas is a lead architect in the Entra CxE team, specializing in Global Secure Access and Zero Trust. A former network engineer based near Munich, he helps organizations bridge the gap between traditional networking and modern identity security.LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/thomasdetzner/🔗 Related Links* Microsoft Global Secure Access Documentation - https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/entra/global-secure-access/ * Zero Trust Workshop - https://aka.ms/ztworkshop📗 Chapters00:00 Intro 05:17 The Limitations of Legacy VPNs 12:49 SASE vs SSE vs ZTNA Explained 21:26 The Identity-Network Secret Sauce 29:42 Unpacking Entra Suite 33:20 Microsoft’s Global Network Architecture 38:19 Client and Clientless Connectivity 41:26 Deployment and POC Process 45:31 Migrating from Zscaler to GSA 47:15 Privacy and Compliance ControlsPodcast Apps🎧 Apple Podcast → https://entra.chat/apple📺 YouTube → https://entra.chat/youtube📺 Spotify → https://entra.chat/spotify🎧 Overcast → https://entra.chat/overcast🎧 Pocketcast → https://entra.chat/pocketcast🎧 Others → https://entra.chat/rssMerill’s socials📺 YouTube → youtube.com/@merillx👔 LinkedIn → linkedin.com/in/merill🐤 Twitter → twitter.com/merill🕺 TikTok → tiktok.com/@merillf🦋 Bluesky → bsky.app/profile/merill.net🐘 Mastodon → infosec.exchange/@merill🧵 Threads → threads.net/@merillf🤖 GitHub → github.com/merill Get full access to Entra.News - Your weekly dose of Microsoft Entra at entra.news/subscribe

Louis Mastelinck, a Microsoft MVP and Security Consultant at Proximus NXT, joins me to discuss the critical journey of moving organizations away from SMS-based MFA.We deep dive into a practical strategy for migrating users to the Authenticator app, starting with “stopping the bleed” and managing user groups. We also explore a significant security blind spot regarding Email OTP for SharePoint guest access and how to resolve it. Finally, we debate the future of authentication with device-bound versus synced Passkeys and how to defend against downgrade attacks.Subscribe with your favorite podcast player or watch on YouTube 👇About Louis MastelinckLouis Mastelinck is a Security Consultant at Proximus NXT and a recognized Microsoft MVP based in Belgium. Specializing in Incident Response and the full Microsoft Security stack (including MDE, MDO, Sentinel, and Identity Management), he is dedicated to neutralizing threats and securing digital environments. A GCFA-certified professional, Louis is known for his deep technical expertise in areas like Conditional Access and authentication methods.LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/louismastelinck/ 🔗 Related Links* Microsoft: Hang up on SMS - http://aka.ms/hangup📗 Chapters00:00 Intro 00:52 Props and PIM 01:41 The Dangers of SMS MFA 04:51 Strategy: Stopping the Bleed 10:06 Migrating Existing Users off SMS 19:20 Impact on Self-Service Password Reset 22:39 The SharePoint Email OTP Security Gap 25:13 Enabling Entra B2B Integration 34:28 Passkeys: Device-Bound vs Synced 44:40 Defending Against MFA Downgrade AttacksPodcast Apps🎙️ Entra.Chat - https://entra.chat🎧 Apple Podcast → https://entra.chat/apple📺 YouTube → https://entra.chat/youtube📺 Spotify → https://entra.chat/spotify🎧 Overcast → https://entra.chat/overcast🎧 Pocketcast → https://entra.chat/pocketcast🎧 Others → https://entra.chat/rssMerill’s socials📺 YouTube → youtube.com/@merillx👔 LinkedIn → linkedin.com/in/merill🐤 Twitter → twitter.com/merill🕺 TikTok → tiktok.com/@merillf🦋 Bluesky → bsky.app/profile/merill.net🐘 Mastodon → infosec.exchange/@merill🧵 Threads → threads.net/@merillf🤖 GitHub → github.com/merill Get full access to Entra.News - Your weekly dose of Microsoft Entra at entra.news/subscribe

In this week’s episode Jan Bakker, Microsoft MVP and solution architect from the Netherlands, joins us for a masterclass in extending Microsoft Entra ID beyond out-of-the-box capabilities. This episode is your complete guide to building custom identity governance and lifecycle management using Power Apps, Logic Apps, and Azure automation.You’ll learn the fundamental building blocks of automation in the Microsoft ecosystem and how to combine them creatively.Jan’s approach: treat Entra as a platform, not just a product.The automation stack he teaches: → Power Automate (everyday workflows)→ Logic Apps (enterprise automation)→ Dynamic Groups (intelligent triggers)→ Graph API (the foundation of everything)→ Event Hub (cost-effective event streaming)Key topics covered:* Understanding Power Automate vs Azure Logic Apps (and when to use each)* Managed identities and least privilege automation* Dynamic groups as automation triggers* Event Hub for cost-effective event-driven workflows* Custom authentication extensions and token augmentation* Real implementation costs ($50/month for enterprise solutions!)From the conversation:* Step-by-step temporary access pass automation* Automatic refresh token revocation on account disable* MFA method change notifications (like Gmail/Twitter)* Guest lifecycle management and approval flows* Conditional access policy monitoringWhether you’re new to automation or an experienced architect, you’ll walk away with actionable ideas and a new way of thinking about identity solutions.Subscribe with your favorite podcast player or watch on YouTube 👇About Jan BakkerJan is a Microsoft MVP and Solution Architect based in the Netherlands. He is known for his ability to make complex DevOps and Entra concepts accessible and publishes extensive guides on his blog about extending Entra capabilities.LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jan-bakker/🔗 Related Links* Send an email on a new MFA method registration - https://janbakker.tech/send-an-email-on-a-new-azure-mfa-method-registration/* How to build a PowerApp – Temporary Access Pass Manager - https://janbakker.tech/category/power-platform/* Trigger Logic App on group membership changes in Entra ID - https://janbakker.tech/trigger-logic-app-on-group-membership-changes-in-entra-id/* Poor man’s IGA: Monitor and clean up stale guest accounts - https://janbakker.tech/poor-mans-iga-monitor-and-clean-up-stale-guest-accounts/* Poor man’s IGA: Generate Temporary Access Pass for joiners - https://janbakker.tech/poor-mans-iga-generate-temporary-access-pass-for-joiners/* Unlocking the Power of employeeHireDate in Entra ID Dynamic Groups - https://janbakker.tech/unlocking-the-power-of-employeehiredate-in-entra-id-dynamic-groups/* Temporary exclusions for Conditional Access using PIM for Groups - https://janbakker.tech/temporary-exclusions-for-conditional-access-using-pim-for-groups/Sponsored by:Shadow IT and SaaS sprawl are outpacing IT teamsIt can feel impossible to tackle these app governance challenges:📦 Entra ID isn’t secure by default💥 SaaS adoption & sprawl isn’t slowing down⌨️ Citizen Development keeps rising (hello, Copilot Studio!)🗑️ Vendors often don’t remove apps after uninstall🔃 Offboarding is inconsistent or doesn’t happen at all🥔 App governance is passed around like a hot potatoENow AppGov Score shines a light on lurking risks, providing a free App Governance Benchmark Report for your Entra tenant. Reclaim control and protect against breach & disruptions. Free upgrade to Standard Tier for 7 days once you get your score.Secure & Govern Entra Apps Now📗 Chapters00:03 The Poor Man’s IGA Concept 00:07 Revoking Refresh Tokens Automatically 00:13 Power Apps for Approval Workflows 00:16 Custom Logic for Managing Guest Access 00:19 Building a Temporary Access Pass Tool 00:25 Power Automate vs. Azure Logic Apps 00:28 Triggering Automation with Event Hubs 00:31 Alerting on Security Changes via Audit Logs 00:41 Self-Service Group Management 00:44 Why You Must Learn Graph APIPodcast Apps🎙️ Entra.Chat - https://entra.chat🎧 Apple Podcast → https://entra.chat/apple📺 YouTube → https://entra.chat/youtube📺 Spotify → https://entra.chat/spotify🎧 Overcast → https://entra.chat/overcast🎧 Pocketcast → https://entra.chat/pocketcast🎧 Others → https://entra.chat/rssMerill’s socials📺 YouTube → youtube.com/@merillx👔 LinkedIn → linkedin.com/in/merill🐤 Twitter → twitter.com/merill🕺 TikTok → tiktok.com/@merillf🦋 Bluesky → bsky.app/profile/merill.net🐘 Mastodon → infosec.exchange/@merill🧵 Threads → threads.net/@merillf🤖 GitHub → github.com/merill Get full access to Entra.News - Your weekly dose of Microsoft Entra at entra.news/subscribe

Khurram, a key member of the internal App Governance assessment team at Microsoft, joins the show to pull back the curtain on how Microsoft manages application security at a massive corporate scale and the rigorous internal security measures Microsoft employs to protect its corporate Entra ID tenant from risky applications.In this deep dive, Khurram reveals Microsoft’s custom-built App Governance blueprint. He details the process for reviewing and consenting to the hundreds of new application requests the organization receives monthly.Key Takeaways* Permission Risk Rating: Learn how Microsoft’s team assesses and assigns a severity rating—Low, Moderate, Important, or Critical—to permissions. This rating is based on the permission’s capability, whether it’s delegated or application, and its potential for PII exposure (e.g., Application permission or a .all scope will score higher).* The Weighting Model: Discover how the Microsoft app assessment team has proactively risk-rated between 3,000 and 3,500 permissions. This approach dictates when an app is automatically approved (for low-risk requests like User.Read) versus when it is flagged for manual, scenario-based review.* Holistic Risk Review: Khurram explains how the app’s overall risk is calculated beyond just permissions. This includes mandatory security controls like banning high-risk reply URLs (e.g., azurewebsites.net and aka.ms) , enforcing the use of certificates over secrets , and requiring multiple owners.* Multi-Team Veto Power: Understand the critical approval workflow where requests for higher-risk permissions are routed to specific organizational data owners (like the DLP, Identity, or Exchange teams). All teams must approve the request as a whole, giving each team a critical veto power over access to their services.Subscribe with your favorite podcast player or watch on YouTube 👇About Khurram ChaudharyKhurram is a Principal Security Assurance Eng on the internal assessment team at Microsoft. He specializes in App Governance and was instrumental in developing the systems and risk-rating methodologies used to manage thousands of application requests within Microsoft’s corporate tenant.🔗 Related Links* Entra Application Management - https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/entra/identity/enterprise-appsSponsored by:Shadow IT and SaaS sprawl are outpacing IT teamsIt can feel impossible to tackle these app governance challenges:📦 Entra ID isn’t secure by default💥 SaaS adoption & sprawl isn’t slowing down⌨️ Citizen Development keeps rising (hello, Copilot Studio!)🗑️ Vendors often don’t remove apps after uninstall🔃 Offboarding is inconsistent or doesn’t happen at all🥔 App governance is passed around like a hot potatoENow AppGov Score shines a light on lurking risks, providing a free App Governance Benchmark Report for your Entra tenant. Reclaim control and protect against breach & disruptions. Free upgrade to Standard Tier for 7 days once you get your score.Secure & Govern Entra Apps Now📗 Chapters01:21 The Shift to Admin Consent 03:38 Factors for Reviewing App Risk 06:35 How We Rate Permission Severity 09:25 Automating Low-Risk Approvals 14:17 The Internal Review Workflow 21:40 The App Governance Scoring System 29:01 The Localhost Redirect Debate 39:35 Handling Stale Apps and Permissions 49:34 Advice for Identity AdminsPodcast Apps🎙️ Entra.Chat → https://entra.chat🎧 Apple Podcast → https://entra.chat/apple📺 YouTube → https://entra.chat/youtube📺 Spotify → https://entra.chat/spotify🎧 Overcast → https://entra.chat/overcast🎧 Pocketcast → https://entra.chat/pocketcast🎧 Others → https://entra.chat/rssMerill’s socials📺 YouTube → youtube.com/@merillx👔 LinkedIn → linkedin.com/in/merill🐤 Twitter → twitter.com/merill🕺 TikTok → tiktok.com/@merillf🦋 Bluesky → bsky.app/profile/merill.net🐘 Mastodon → infosec.exchange/@merill🧵 Threads → threads.net/@merillf🤖 GitHub → github.com/merill Get full access to Entra.News - Your weekly dose of Microsoft Entra at entra.news/subscribe

Luca Spolidoro from the Microsoft Entra AI Innovations team joins us to unveil the new Microsoft MCP Server for Enterprise. We discuss how this innovation allows admins and AI agents to interface with their tenant using natural language, bridging the gap between LLMs and the complexity of Microsoft Graph.We also talk about the technical challenges of token limits, the patented “three-tool” solution that optimizes queries, and the roadmap for write operations and PowerShell script generation.Subscribe with your favorite podcast player or watch on YouTube 👇About Luca Spolidoro Luca is a Product Manager on the Entra AI Innovations team at Microsoft. Formerly working on advanced queries for Microsoft Graph, he now focuses on enabling AI agents to interact securely and efficiently with directory objects and tenant data. LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/lucaspolidoro/🔗 Related Links * Microsoft MCP Server for Enterprise - https://aka.ms/mcp/entraSponsored by:Shadow IT and SaaS sprawl are outpacing IT teamsIt can feel impossible to tackle these app governance challenges:📦 Entra ID isn’t secure by default💥 SaaS adoption & sprawl isn’t slowing down⌨️ Citizen Development keeps rising (hello, Copilot Studio!)🗑️ Vendors often don’t remove apps after uninstall🔃 Offboarding is inconsistent or doesn’t happen at all🥔 App governance is passed around like a hot potatoENow AppGov Score shines a light on lurking risks, providing a free App Governance Benchmark Report for your Entra tenant. Reclaim control and protect against breach & disruptions. Free upgrade to Standard Tier for 7 days once you get your score.Secure & Govern Entra Apps Now📗 Chapters 03:36 The Hackathon Origin Story 05:55 What is the Model Context Protocol? 09:22 The Token Limit Problem 15:45 Microsoft’s “Secret Sauce” Solution 19:54 Current Limitations & Future Scope 23:57 Future: Write Operations & Scripts 30:12 Security & Admin Controls 42:43 Security Copilot vs. Standalone MCP 50:21 Getting StartedPodcast Apps 🎙️ Entra.Chat - https://entra.chat🎧 Apple Podcast → https://entra.chat/apple 📺 YouTube → https://entra.chat/youtube 📺 Spotify → https://entra.chat/spotify 🎧 Overcast → https://entra.chat/overcast 🎧 Pocketcast → https://entra.chat/pocketcast 🎧 Others → https://entra.chat/rssMerill’s socials 📺 YouTube → youtube.com/@merillx 👔 LinkedIn → linkedin.com/in/merill 🐤 Twitter → twitter.com/merill 🕺 TikTok → tiktok.com/@merillf 🦋 Bluesky → bsky.app/profile/merill.net 🐘 Mastodon → infosec.exchange/@merill 🧵 Threads → threads.net/@merillf 🤖 GitHub → github.com/merill Get full access to Entra.News - Your weekly dose of Microsoft Entra at entra.news/subscribe

This week, I’m joined by a stellar panel of Nathan McNulty, Ru Campbell, Martin Sandren, and Thomas Naunheim to break down the firehose of news from Microsoft Ignite related to Entra. We dive straight into the hot debate over synced passkeys versus device-bound credentials and why consumer adoption might force our hand in the enterprise. We also explore the new Account Recovery features that could save companies thousands in helpdesk costs and unpack the massive shift toward “Agentic AI” with the launch of Entra Agent ID, a feature that fundamentally changes how we think about non-human identities. If you are feeling overwhelmed by the pace of AI and identity changes, you are not alone. Listen in as we figure this out together.Subscribe with your favorite podcast player or watch on YouTube 👇About our guests* Nathan McNulty: Nathan is a Senior Security Solutions Architect at Patriot Consulting and a Microsoft Security MVP. He has been working with Microsoft cloud identity solutions since the days of Live@edu and Office 365 in 2010.* https://www.linkedin.com/in/nathanmcnulty/* Ru Campbell: Ru is a Microsoft Security MVP who leads Microsoft Security at Threatscape. He describes himself as a “jack of all trades” when it comes to Microsoft 365 security, getting involved in a wide range of security topics.* https://www.linkedin.com/in/rlcam/* Martin Sandren: Martin is the Product Lead for Identity Access at Inter IKEA, where he manages identity solutions across the globe. He offers a unique perspective as a practitioner running identity for a massive enterprise.* https://www.linkedin.com/in/martinsandren/* Thomas Naunheim: Thomas is a Cloud Security Architect at glueckkanja and a Microsoft Security MVP. He specializes in cloud security architecture and actively tracks new features and announcements in the Microsoft ecosystem.Sponsored by:Shadow IT and SaaS sprawl are outpacing IT teamsIt can feel impossible to tackle these app governance challenges:📦 Entra ID isn’t secure by default💥 SaaS adoption & sprawl isn’t slowing down⌨️ Citizen Development keeps rising (hello, Copilot Studio!)🗑️ Vendors often don’t remove apps after uninstall🔃 Offboarding is inconsistent or doesn’t happen at all🥔 App governance is passed around like a hot potatoENow AppGov Score shines a light on lurking risks, providing a free App Governance Benchmark Report for your Entra tenant. Reclaim control and protect against breach & disruptions. Free upgrade to Standard Tier for 7 days once you get your score.🔗 Related Links* Microsoft Entra: What’s New in Secure Access on the AI Frontier* Entra.Chat - Access Review Agent* Entra.Chat - Conditional Access Agent📗 Chapters00:00 Intro04:36 The Debate: Synced vs Device-Bound Passkeys20:47 Entra Account Recovery & Identity Verification30:00 Passwordless Self-Remediation33:01 Security Copilot Comes to E536:47 The Rise of AI Agents in Entra42:49 Understanding Entra Agent ID56:47 MCP Servers & VS Code Integration01:05:20 Global Secure Access & AI Security01:09:14 Microsoft Security BaselinePodcast Apps🎙️ Entra.Chat - https://entra.chat🎧 Apple Podcast → https://entra.chat/apple📺 YouTube → https://entra.chat/youtube📺 Spotify → https://entra.chat/spotify🎧 Overcast → https://entra.chat/overcast🎧 Pocketcast → https://entra.chat/pocketcast🎧 Others → https://entra.chat/rssMerill’s socials📺 YouTube → youtube.com/@merillx👔 LinkedIn → linkedin.com/in/merill🐤 Twitter → twitter.com/merill🕺 TikTok → tiktok.com/@merillf🦋 Bluesky → bsky.app/profile/merill.net🐘 Mastodon → infosec.exchange/@merill🧵 Threads → threads.net/@merillf🤖 GitHub → github.com/merill Get full access to Entra.News - Your weekly dose of Microsoft Entra at entra.news/subscribe

This week, I’m so excited to share the inside story of a project I’ve been working on for over a year: the new Zero Trust assessment. I’m joined by some of the key folks from the team: Tarek, who’s leading the charge; Sarah and John, who are crushing docs; and Ravi, who’s owning Intune.We unpack the wild breach that sparked it all, geek out over those Sankey charts that spotlight sneaky unmanaged devices and privileged access landmines, and tease why even “expired” app creds could be your silent killer. If you’re tired of silos between identity and endpoints, this is your wake-up call—tune in to see how to make Zero Trust practical before the next attack hits.Subscribe with your favorite podcast player or watch on YouTube 👇About Our GuestsSarah LipseySarah Lipsey has been with Microsoft for almost four years and writes about monitoring and health, ID Protection, and Security Copilot in Microsoft Entra. Sarah has worked as a technical writer and instructional designer for around 20 years, and for a university, a telecommunications firm, and a railroad. She lives in the woods with her family where she loves to knit, play video games, hike, and ski. Yes, she spends way too much time trying to close out every dot on a video game map. Still working on the Skellige map for The Witcher 3.LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/sarah-lipsey-b53b746/John FloresJohn is a Senior Content Developer at Microsoft, where he has worked for over eight years. He specializes in creating high-impact technical content for identity security within Microsoft Entra, focusing on areas like Conditional Access, MFA, ID Protection, and device identity. John also leads the documentation efforts for Zero Trust content across Microsoft 365 and Identity teams. He actively collaborates with engineers and PMs to test pre-release features and engages with customers to refine technical guidance.LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/johnbflores/Ravi KalwaniRavi is a Senior Program Manager at Microsoft, based in Sydney, Australia. With over 14 years of IT experience spanning technical training, support, consulting, and program management, his focus for the past five years has been on Enterprise Client and Mobility, specifically Microsoft Configuration Manager and Intune. Ravi is also an experienced public speaker, having presented at numerous technical conferences and delivered a wide range of workshops for both internal teams and enterprise customers.LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/rkalwani/Tarek DawoudTarek Dawoud is a long-time veteran at Microsoft, having been with the company for over 18 years. Tarek currently leads the architecture team within the customer engineering (CXE) organization, where he helps customers deploy Entra, gathers insights for the product group, and works to solve the hardest identity problems.LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/tarekdawoud/🔗 Related Links* aka.ms/zerotrust/assessment → Microsoft Learn docs page for the assessment* aka.ms/zerotrust/demo → Interactive demo of a sample assessment report* aka.ms/zerotrust/feedback → Share your feedback* aka.ms/zerotrust/issues → Logging bugs & issuesZero Trust Assessment - Five minute walkthroughZero Trust Assessment ReportSample report generated by the Zero Trust Assessment tool. Try aka.ms/zerotrust/demo for an interactive demo.📗 Chapters00:00 Intro 01:11 The Origin Story: A Customer Breach 05:59 A New Way to Write Docs 08:55 Bringing Intune into the Story 11:07 How This Compares to Secure Score 14:46 Uncovering Insights with Sankey Charts 21:55 Behind the Scenes: How a Test is Built 36:18 Why We Target Privileged Access (AI Attackers) 39:59 The Myth of “Safe” Expired Credentials 42:35 Final Thoughts: “Please Run It”Podcast Apps🎙️ Entra.Chat - https://entra.chat🎧 Apple Podcast → https://entra.chat/apple📺 YouTube → https://entra.chat/youtube📺 Spotify → https://entra.chat/spotify🎧 Overcast → https://entra.chat/overcast🎧 Pocketcast → https://entra.chat/pocketcast🎧 Others → https://entra.chat/rssMerill’s socials📺 YouTube → youtube.com/@merillx👔 LinkedIn → linkedin.com/in/merill🐤 Twitter → twitter.com/merill🕺 TikTok → tiktok.com/@merillf🦋 Bluesky → bsky.app/profile/merill.net🐘 Mastodon → infosec.exchange/@merill🧵 Threads → threads.net/@merillf🤖 GitHub → github.com/merill Get full access to Entra.News - Your weekly dose of Microsoft Entra at entra.news/subscribe

In this episode, I sit down with security researcher Katie Knowles to unpack the hidden layers of identity systems inside Microsoft Entra. We get into real-world attack paths like backdooring service principals, restricted administrative units that can accidentally create unstoppable accounts, and OAuth phishing in Copilot Studio. Katie also shares how she approaches deep technical research, what defenders often overlook, and why identity security is only becoming more complex. This is one of those conversations where you walk away thinking differently.Subscribe with your favorite podcast player or watch on YouTube 👇About Katie KnowlesKatie Knowles is a Senior Security Researcher at Datadog specializing in Microsoft Azure and Entra ID security. She has extensive experience across security engineering, penetration testing, and incident response. Katie is known for her thorough research that connects complex technical vulnerabilities to practical defensive guidance, publishing regularly on Datadog Security Labs and speaking at major security conferences.LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/kaknowles/🔗 Related Links* Katie’s Datadog security posts - https://securitylabs.datadoghq.com/articles/?author=Katie_Knowles* Katie’s personal blog - https://kknowl.es* Katie’s conference talks - https://kknowl.es/external-content/* Creating immutable users through a bug in Entra ID restricted administrative units - https://securitylabs.datadoghq.com/articles/creating-immutable-users-entra-id-administrative-units/* I SPy: Escalating to Entra ID’s Global Admin with a first-party app - https://securitylabs.datadoghq.com/articles/i-spy-escalating-to-entra-id-global-admin/* CoPhish: Using Microsoft Copilot Studio as a wrapper for OAuth phishing - https://securitylabs.datadoghq.com/articles/cophish-using-microsoft-copilot-studio-as-a-wrapper/📗 Chapters02:08 The Immortal User Bug in Restricted Admin Units04:23 Attacker Impact: The Un-deletable Malicious Account05:59 Hacking First-Party Apps & Bypassing AppLock09:29 How She Found the AppLock Bypass11:16 A Day in the Life of a Security Researcher14:20 Phishing with Copilot Studio & OAuth17:00 Top Tips for App Governance & Security21:45 The Hidden Risk of Azure Key Vault Access Policies28:55 App Registrations vs. Service Principals Explained41:48 The Future: Agent IDs & The New Trust ModelPodcast Apps🎙️ Entra.Chat - https://entra.chat🎧 Apple Podcast → https://entra.chat/apple📺 YouTube → https://entra.chat/youtube📺 Spotify → https://entra.chat/spotify🎧 Overcast → https://entra.chat/overcast🎧 Pocketcast → https://entra.chat/pocketcast🎧 Others → https://entra.chat/rssMerill’s socials📺 YouTube → youtube.com/@merillx👔 LinkedIn → linkedin.com/in/merill🐤 Twitter → twitter.com/merill🕺 TikTok → tiktok.com/@merillf🦋 Bluesky → bsky.app/profile/merill.net🐘 Mastodon → infosec.exchange/@merill🧵 Threads → threads.net/@merillf🤖 GitHub → github.com/merill Get full access to Entra.News - Your weekly dose of Microsoft Entra at entra.news/subscribe

Sami Lamppu and Thomas Naunheim, the creators of the Entra ID Attack and Defense Playbook, join me to discuss their incredible 5-year community project.We talk about the most complex attacks they’ve researched, including the “black box” token and PRT attacks, and their shocking findings related to TPM and device compliance. We also dive deep into their brand-new chapter on the new Microsoft Entra Connect Application Based Authentication model and the critical steps you must take to secure it.Subscribe with your favorite podcast player or watch on YouTube 👇About Sami & ThomasSami Lamppu is a Microsoft Security MVP and a Principal Cloud Security Lead at Elisa with a strong focus on the blue team side, helping organizations proactively prevent attacks.Thomas Naunheim is a Cybersecurity Architect at glueckkanja and a Microsoft Security MVP. He specializes in Microsoft Entra, identity and access management, and cloud security posture.* Sami LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/sami-lamppu/* Thomas LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/thomasnaunheim/🔗 Related Links* Entra ID Attack and Defense Playbook - https://github.com/Cloud-Architekt/AzureAD-Attack-Defense📗 Chapters02:35 Origin Story of the Playbook 07:08 Overview of the Attack Chapters 09:53 Who is the Playbook For? 13:59 The Hardest Chapter to Write: Tokens 21:48 Shocking PRT & TPM Findings 24:43 NEW Chapter: Hacking Entra Connect (ABA) 29:10 How to Secure the New Sync Account 36:53 HSCAR: The Posture Analyzer Tool 45:09 Keeping the Playbook Updated & Community 53:12 What’s Next & Final AdvicePodcast Apps🎙️ Entra.Chat - https://entra.chat🎧 Apple Podcast → https://entra.chat/apple📺 YouTube → https://entra.chat/youtube📺 Spotify → https://entra.chat/spotify🎧 Overcast → https://entra.chat/overcast🎧 Pocketcast → https://entra.chat/pocketcast🎧 Others → https://entra.chat/rssMerill’s socials📺 YouTube → youtube.com/@merillx👔 LinkedIn → linkedin.com/in/merill🐤 Twitter → twitter.com/merill🕺 TikTok → tiktok.com/@merillf🦋 Bluesky → bsky.app/profile/merill.net🐘 Mastodon → infosec.exchange/@merill🧵 Threads → threads.net/@merillf🤖 GitHub → github.com/merill Get full access to Entra.News - Your weekly dose of Microsoft Entra at entra.news/subscribe

In this episode, I chat with Dirk-jan Mollema, the legendary researcher behind some of the most important discoveries in Microsoft identity security. We go deep into how curiosity led him from tinkering with web tools to uncovering one of the biggest Entra ID vulnerabilities ever found. He shares the story behind the CVE that rocked the cloud world, the stress of realizing what he’d uncovered, and the mindset that drives his relentless research. If you’ve ever wondered what it feels like to find a bug that could break the internet—this one’s for you.PS: If you like this episode please leave a review on Apple Podcast or Spotify 🙏Subscribe with your favorite podcast player or watch on YouTube 👇About Dirk-jan MollemaDirk-Jan Mollema is a security researcher and consultant specializing in Microsoft Entra ID (Azure AD) and Active Directory security. He is the creator of popular offensive security tools including ROADtools and ROADrecon. With seven years of Entra research and nearly a decade in AD security, Dirk-Jan has discovered numerous critical vulnerabilities and has played an important role in helping improve Microsoft’s cloud security posture. He provides training and consulting services through his company Outsider Security.Twitter → https://twitter.com/_dirkjanLinkedIn → https://www.linkedin.com/in/dirkjanmContact → https://outsidersecurity.nl🔗 Related Links* One Token to rule them all - obtaining Global Admin in every Entra ID tenant via Actor tokens - https://dirkjanm.io/obtaining-global-admin-in-every-entra-id-tenant-with-actor-tokens* Dirk-Jan’s Blog - https://dirkjanm.io* ROADtools - https://github.com/dirkjanm/ROADtools📗 Chapters00:00 Intro02:11 Guest Journey into Security07:13 Building ROADtools and ROADrecon09:53 Research Tools & Methods14:05 Top Discoveries Ranked17:01 Windows Hello & PRT Deep Dive26:07 The Cross-Tenant Actor Token Bug35:34 Ethical Dilemmas of Big Finds38:24 Disclosure, Impact & Community45:59 Future Research & Intune Tips53:58 Training, Consulting & ClosingPodcast Apps🎙️ Entra.Chat - https://entra.chat🎧 Apple Podcast → https://entra.chat/apple📺 YouTube → https://entra.chat/youtube📺 Spotify → https://entra.chat/spotify🎧 Overcast → https://entra.chat/overcast🎧 Pocketcast → https://entra.chat/pocketcast🎧 Others → https://entra.chat/rssMerill’s socials📺 YouTube → youtube.com/@merillx👔 LinkedIn → linkedin.com/in/merill🐤 Twitter → twitter.com/merill🕺 TikTok → tiktok.com/@merillf🦋 Bluesky → bsky.app/profile/merill.net🐘 Mastodon → infosec.exchange/@merill🧵 Threads → threads.net/@merillf🤖 GitHub → github.com/merill Get full access to Entra.News - Your weekly dose of Microsoft Entra at entra.news/subscribe

In this episode, I sit down with Alexander Filipin, a Product Manager at Microsoft, to unpack the essentials of identity governance and why access reviews are a game-changer for security and compliance.We explore the pitfalls like rubber stamping that plague traditional methods and tease how the new AI-driven Access Review Agent is stepping in with smart recommendations and context to make decisions easier and more accurate. Plus, we peek into exciting future possibilities where agents could automate access management entirely—tune in to see how this could reshape your org’s approach!Subscribe with your favorite podcast player or watch on YouTube 👇About Alexander FilipinAlexander Filipin is a Product Manager at Microsoft in the Microsoft Entra ID Governance team. With a background in consulting and identity security, he previously contributed to popular community projects like Conditional Access as Code and now leads features in Microsoft Entra, including the newly released Access Review Agent.LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexfilipin/🔗 Related Links* Microsoft Entra Access Review Agent Documentation - https://aka.ms/aragent* Conditional Access Optimization Agent - https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/entra/identity/conditional-access/agent-optimization📗 Chapters00:00 Intro00:48 From Community Code to Microsoft Product Management04:42 The 4 Drivers of Governance: Security, Compliance, & Cost Savings06:45 Why Access Reviews are Critical for Guest and Licensing Cleanup13:46 Licensing: Entra ID P2 vs. Entra Governance Capabilities20:01 The Biggest Problem with Traditional Access Reviews Today20:41 Introducing the Entra Access Review Agent23:18 The Role of AI in Generating Reviewer Context34:04 The Audit Trail and Compliance for AI Decisions44:26 Future Vision: The Next Evolution of Identity GovernancePodcast Apps🎙️ Entra.Chat - https://entra.chat🎧 Apple Podcast → https://entra.chat/apple📺 YouTube → https://entra.chat/youtube📺 Spotify → https://entra.chat/spotify🎧 Overcast → https://entra.chat/overcast🎧 Pocketcast → https://entra.chat/pocketcast🎧 Others → https://entra.chat/rssMerill’s socials📺 YouTube → youtube.com/@merillx👔 LinkedIn → linkedin.com/in/merill🐤 Twitter → twitter.com/merill🕺 TikTok → tiktok.com/@merillf🦋 Bluesky → bsky.app/profile/merill.net🐘 Mastodon → infosec.exchange/@merill🧵 Threads → threads.net/@merillf🤖 GitHub → github.com/merill Get full access to Entra.News - Your weekly dose of Microsoft Entra at entra.news/subscribe

Welcome back to Entra.Chat! In this rapid-fire Q&A, I’m joined by a team of brilliant CXE Identity Architects from Microsoft, and they’re answering the toughest questions on the future of identity. We dive deep into the security challenge posed by agentic AI that can spawn self-replicating identities and how Microsoft is creating tailored behavioral analytics to protect your environment. The team also spills the details on the shift to phishing-resistant MFA through authentication strengths capabilities for Entra ID tenants—you’ll definitely want to listen before your next audit!Subscribe with your favorite podcast player or watch on YouTube 👇About The PanelThis episode features an incredible panel of experts from Microsoft’s Identity team:* Tarek Dawoud: Lead Architect of the Architecture Team, focusing on AI for Security and Entra Resilience → https://www.linkedin.com/in/tarekdawoud/* Tyler Chan: Architect focusing on the Zero Trust Workshop and the healthcare vertical → https://www.linkedin.com/in/chantylert/* Ramiro Calderon: Architect on the team focusing on Identity and Access Management and helping customers move to the cloud → https://www.linkedin.com/in/ramirocalderon/* Jas Suri: Architect for Customer Identity and Access Management (CIAM), including Entra External ID as well as passwordless technologies → https://www.linkedin.com/in/jas-suri-aa644a7b/* Ehud Itshaki: Identity Architect focusing on AI’s impact on identity systems and government customers → https://www.linkedin.com/in/ehudi/* Thomas Detzner: Architect focusing on Global Secure Access (GSA) and the network pillar of Zero Trust. → https://www.linkedin.com/in/thomasdetzner/* Travis Gross: Manager and lead of the overall Identity CxE team at Microsoft → https://www.linkedin.com/in/travis-gross-536b3b9b/* Keith Brewer: Architect for Entra authentication, identity security, and U.S. government customers → https://www.linkedin.com/in/keith-b-145519174/🔗 Related Links* The future of AI agents—and why OAuth must evolve - https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/blog/microsoft-entra-blog/the-future-of-ai-agents%E2%80%94and-why-oauth-must-evolve/3827391* Beyond OAuth: Why SCIM must evolve for the AI agent revolution - https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/blog/microsoft-entra-blog/beyond-oauth-why-scim-must-evolve-for-the-ai-agent-revolution/4433036* Use Kerberos for single sign-on (SSO) to your resources with Microsoft Entra Private Access - https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/entra/global-secure-access/how-to-configure-kerberos-sso* Bulk operations in Microsoft Entra ID (Preview) - https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/entra/fundamentals/bulk-operations* Road to the cloud: AD to Entra ID - aka.ms/AD2AAD* Microsoft Entra security operations guide - Incident Response Playbooks - https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/entra/architecture/security-operations-introduction* Incident response playbooks - https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/security/operations/incident-response-playbooks* Review permissions granted to enterprise applications - https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/entra/identity/enterprise-apps/manage-application-permissions?pivots=portal* Multi-factor unlock - https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/security/identity-protection/hello-for-business/multifactor-unlock?tabs=intune* API-driven Inbound Provisioning - Integration scenarios - https://learn.microsoft.com/en-au/entra/identity/app-provisioning/inbound-provisioning-api-logic-apps#integration-scenario-variations📗 Chapters03:57 The Challenge of Agentic AI and Identity 06:35 Top Identity Security Enhancements You Can Use Today 09:42 Entra External ID: Syncing Tenants and B2C Migration 11:41 Restoring Compromised Tenants15:01 Verifying Real Humans: Identity Assurance Levels (IAL) Explained 17:01 Rethinking App Consent and Granular Admin Roles 18:28 Clearing Up Confusion: Passkeys vs Phishing-Resistant MFA 20:33 Ditching On-Prem: Moving Legacy Apps with Private Access 23:14 How AI Will Change IAM Admins & Permissions Forever 30:31 Is Entra ID Governance the End of MIM?Podcast Apps🎙️ Entra.Chat - https://entra.chat🎧 Apple Podcast → https://entra.chat/apple📺 YouTube → https://entra.chat/youtube📺 Spotify → https://entra.chat/spotify🎧 Overcast → https://entra.chat/overcast🎧 Pocketcast → https://entra.chat/pocketcast🎧 Others → https://entra.chat/rssMerill’s socials📺 YouTube → youtube.com/@merillx👔 LinkedIn → linkedin.com/in/merill🐤 Twitter → twitter.com/merill🕺 TikTok → tiktok.com/@merillf🦋 Bluesky → bsky.app/profile/merill.net🐘 Mastodon → infosec.exchange/@merill🧵 Threads → threads.net/@merillf🤖 GitHub → github.com/merill Get full access to Entra.News - Your weekly dose of Microsoft Entra at entra.news/subscribe

In this episode, I sit down with my longtime friends and colleagues, Jas Suri and Gayan Randeny, at Microsoft’s campus to unpack the biggest Microsoft consumer identity shift in years—Azure AD B2C’s sunset and the rise of Entra External ID. We talk about why B2C is going away, the crazy scale of tenants with 100M+ identities, the migration paths and what the future looks like for customer identity. Plus, stick around until the end because Gayan and Jas share a world premiere on the podcast about a groundbreaking new Just-In-Time migration approach that will make moving millions of users to Entra External ID simpler than you think. You don’t want to miss this scoop!If you want to stay ahead of this massive transition, this is a must-listen.Subscribe with your favorite podcast player or watch on YouTube 👇About Jas SuriJas Suri is the CxE Architect PM for Microsoft Entra External ID and has a wealth of knowledge and experience in helping Microsoft customers deploy Azure AD B2C and Entra External ID. With extensive experience in Azure AD B2C and Entra External ID migrations, Jas has now taken on the CxE architect role for passkeys across both Entra ID and Entra External ID..LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/jas-suri-aa644a7b/About Gayan RandenyGayan Randeny is a seasoned expert in customer identity and access management at Microsoft, with years of experience helping customers deploy Azure AD B2C and now leading efforts to migrate to Entra External ID. In addition to his work on Entra External ID, Gayan is now turning his attention to help enterprise customers deploy Global Secure Access.LinkedIn - https://linkedin.com/in/gyanrandhani🔗 Related Links* Migrating users to Microsoft Entra External ID - https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/entra/external-id/customers/how-to-migrate-users* Microsoft Entra External ID deployment architectures with Microsoft Entra - https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/entra/architecture/external-identity-deployment-architectures* Azure Active Directory B2C: Custom CIAM User Journeys - https://github.com/azure-ad-b2c/samples📗 Chapters00:00 Intro00:57 What is B2C and why it mattered03:44 The insane scale of B2C (100M+ identities)05:02 Why B2C is going away07:20 Converging enterprise and customer identity12:01 Migration differences: B2C vs Entra External ID18:24 Just-in-time and passwordless migration23:09 Hybrid tenant approach explained29:15 Migration strategies and best practices33:29 New features, partners, and what’s next36:44 Closing thoughtsPodcast Apps🎙️ Entra.Chat - https://entra.chat🎧 Apple Podcast → https://entra.chat/apple📺 YouTube → https://entra.chat/youtube📺 Spotify → https://entra.chat/spotify🎧 Overcast → https://entra.chat/overcast🎧 Pocketcast → https://entra.chat/pocketcast🎧 Others → https://entra.chat/rssMerill’s socials📺 YouTube → youtube.com/@merillx👔 LinkedIn → linkedin.com/in/merill🐤 Twitter → twitter.com/merill🕺 TikTok → tiktok.com/@merillf🦋 Bluesky → bsky.app/profile/merill.net🐘 Mastodon → infosec.exchange/@merill🧵 Threads → threads.net/@merillf🤖 GitHub → github.com/merill Get full access to Entra.News - Your weekly dose of Microsoft Entra at entra.news/subscribe

On this episode of Entra Chat, I was thrilled to sit down with Yanyan and Sweta from the Entra UI experience team to dive deep into a feature that many of us have used but is now getting a massive refresh: Bulk Operations. We talked about how they took a critical legacy tool and completely re-engineered it for insane performance and scale, making it more reliable than ever. You’ll hear about some amazing new capabilities, like customizing the columns in your CSV exports and using UPNs instead of just Object IDs to add users, which is a huge time-saver. We even get a behind-the-scenes look at the engineering that makes it possible to export over a million groups in just 10 minutes!Subscribe with your favorite podcast player or watch on YouTube 👇About Yanyan JuYanyan Ju is a Principal Engineer Manager at Microsoft, where she is dedicated to delivering the best administrative experience for Microsoft customers. She focuses on creating value through user-friendly and consistent admin interfaces, shaping the future of AI-powered Entra Admin UX, and leading as part of a UX Engineering Center of Excellence.* LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/yanyan-ju-194545239/About Sweta KumariSweta Kumari is a Product Manager at Microsoft, focusing on identity and access management within Microsoft Entra. Sweta leads initiatives around Entra Admin feature enhancements, Customer feedback integration and Privileged Identity Management (PIM). Her work emphasizes improving user experience, and ensuring secure, compliant access for customers.* LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sweta-kumari-557478127/🔗 Related Links* Bulk operations in Microsoft Entra ID (Preview) - https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/entra/fundamentals/bulk-operations📗 Chapters00:01:20 What is Bulk Operations? 00:03:40 Supported Bulk Operations 00:06:34 Customizing Your Exports 00:08:45 How is it different from PowerShell? 00:11:29 Adding Members in Bulk (The Easy Way) 00:13:56 Bulk Deleting Safely 00:16:12 Why Was The Feature Rebuilt? 00:19:05 The Engineering Overhaul 00:23:02 Insane Performance Gains 00:25:19 How to Share Your FeedbackPodcast Apps🎙️ Entra.Chat - https://entra.chat🎧 Apple Podcast → https://entra.chat/apple📺 YouTube → https://entra.chat/youtube📺 Spotify → https://entra.chat/spotify🎧 Overcast → https://entra.chat/overcast🎧 Pocketcast → https://entra.chat/pocketcast🎧 Others → https://entra.chat/rssMerill’s socials📺 YouTube → youtube.com/@merillx👔 LinkedIn → linkedin.com/in/merill🐤 Twitter → twitter.com/merill🕺 TikTok → tiktok.com/@merillf🦋 Bluesky → bsky.app/profile/merill.net🐘 Mastodon → infosec.exchange/@merill🧵 Threads → threads.net/@merillf🤖 GitHub → github.com/merill Get full access to Entra.News - Your weekly dose of Microsoft Entra at entra.news/subscribe

Cybersecurity expert Erica shares her incredible journey from pharmacist to becoming a professional hacker. She reveals how attackers are bypassing modern security controls like MFA and what you can do to protect your tenant.We talk about the most common configuration vulnerabilities that exist in almost every organization, the dangers of application onboarding, and the top five phishing vectors threat actors are using to gain initial access, including clever abuses of Microsoft Teams.Subscribe with your favorite podcast player or watch on YouTube 👇About EricaErica has an amazing career arc, starting in pharmacy before pivoting to cybersecurity. With a deep, hands-on understanding of offensive security gained from platforms like Hack the Box and real-world penetration testing, she specializes in protecting and defending Microsoft Cloud tenants. Erica is passionate about sharing her knowledge on how to better protect your tenant and what bad guys are looking for.LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/erica-z-b4169598/🔗 Related Links* Blog - https://ericazelic.medium.com/* Hack The Box - https://www.hackthebox.com/* Altered Security - https://www.alteredsecurity.com/📗 Chapters00:00:00 Intro 00:02:14 From Pharmacy to Cybersecurity 00:07:19 Learning to Hack with Hack The Box 00:11:45 The First Cloud Hack: M365 Public Groups 00:17:50 The Hidden Dangers of App Onboarding 00:25:53 The 5 Modern Phishing Attack Vectors 00:30:36 Bypassing MFA with Device Code Phishing 00:34:34 Adversary-in-the-Middle & Auth Downgrade Attacks 00:48:24 The Secret to Mastering Cybersecurity SkillsPodcast Apps🎙️ Entra.Chat - https://entra.chat🎧 Apple Podcast → https://entra.chat/apple📺 YouTube → https://entra.chat/youtube📺 Spotify → https://entra.chat/spotify🎧 Overcast → https://entra.chat/overcast🎧 Pocketcast → https://entra.chat/pocketcast🎧 Others → https://entra.chat/rssMerill's socials📺 YouTube → youtube.com/@merillx👔 LinkedIn → linkedin.com/in/merill🐤 Twitter → twitter.com/merill🕺 TikTok → tiktok.com/@merillf🦋 Bluesky → bsky.app/profile/merill.net🐘 Mastodon → infosec.exchange/@merill🧵 Threads → threads.net/@merillf🤖 GitHub → github.com/merill Get full access to Entra.News - Your weekly dose of Microsoft Entra at entra.news/subscribe

Jeremy Conley, Product Manager on the Identity Governance team at Microsoft, demystifies the world of guest access in Microsoft Entra. We discuss the hidden security risks that accumulate as guests are invited into a tenant and the governance challenges this creates.We also do a deep dive into the different licensing tiers, from P2 to the new Entra ID Governance for Guests license, and explain the recently GA’d , cost-effective MAU-based billing model for guests. Jeremy provides actionable tips for admins to start cleaning up their tenants and implementing a robust governance strategy today.Subscribe with your favorite podcast player or watch on YouTube 👇About Jeremy ConleyJeremy Conley is a Product Manager at Microsoft, focusing on identity governance. His work is centered on Entitlement Management and the governance of guest and external users within Microsoft Entra, helping customers secure their environments and manage user lifecycles effectively.LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeremy-conley-99552379/🔗 Related Links* Microsoft Entra ID Governance licensing for guest users • aka.ms/EntraIDGuestGovernance* PowerShell tool to update guest sponsor info • Update-MsIdInvitedUserSponsorsFromInvitedBy📗 Chapters00:51 What are Guests & External Users? 03:51 The Hidden Security Risk of Guests 07:14 Understanding Licensing for Guest Governance 09:10 P2 Features: Entitlement Management & Access Reviews 15:19 Entra ID Governance: Lifecycle Workflows & Automation 20:33 The "Sponsor" Concept for Guest Accountability 25:49 The NEW Guest Licensing Model Explained28:15 Demystifying the 1:5 Ratio vs. MAU Billing35:18 Common Mistakes Admins Make with Guests 37:22 A Simple First Step to Clean Up Your TenantPodcast Apps🎙️ Entra.Chat - https://entra.chat🎧 Apple Podcast → https://entra.chat/apple📺 YouTube → https://entra.chat/youtube📺 Spotify → https://entra.chat/spotify🎧 Overcast → https://entra.chat/overcast🎧 Pocketcast → https://entra.chat/pocketcast🎧 Others → https://entra.chat/rssMerill's socials📺 YouTube → youtube.com/@merillx👔 LinkedIn → linkedin.com/in/merill🐤 Twitter → twitter.com/merill🕺 TikTok → tiktok.com/@merillf🦋 Bluesky → bsky.app/profile/merill.net🐘 Mastodon → infosec.exchange/@merill🧵 Threads → threads.net/@merillf🤖 GitHub → github.com/merill Get full access to Entra.News - Your weekly dose of Microsoft Entra at entra.news/subscribe

In this episode of Entra.Chat, I dive into the critical world of app governance with experts Jay Gundotra and Sander Berkouwer, who unpack the hidden risks of non-human identities in Microsoft Entra. From shocking real-world breaches like Midnight Blizzard to a hilarious tale of a theme park’s water supply mishap, we explore why securing your cloud apps is more urgent than ever. Tune in to discover practical tips and tools to safeguard your organization without losing your giraffes!Subscribe with your favorite podcast player or watch on YouTube 👇About Jay GundotraJay is the CEO and technical founder of E-Now. He has a long history as an Exchange and Active Directory engineer, which led him to found his company and focus on solving complex identity and application governance challenges for enterprises.LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/jay-gundotra-19079a/About Sander BerkouwerSander Berkouwer is a 17-year Microsoft MVP veteran and an accomplished identity architect. With deep expertise from being "in the trenches," he partners with Jay to educate the community and build solutions for managing non-human identities and service principals.LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/sanderberkouwer/🔗 Related Links* AppGov Community - https://community.appgovscore.com/* How Ownerless Apps in Entra ID Increase Your Attack Surface* Securing Workload Identities in Entra ID: A Practical Guide for IT and Security Teams📗 Chapters00:00 Intro 01:55 What is App Governance? 04:02 The Origin Story of Focusing on App Governance 08:35 Why App Security is Critical Today 14:15 The Dangers of Over-Privileged Apps 20:38 The Giraffe Story: When Cleanup Goes Wrong 24:42 What Should a Successful Organization Do? 30:22 The Full Application Lifecycle: Onboarding to Offboarding 35:38 Building the AppGov Community 45:04 The Importance of Education and AutomationPodcast Apps🎙️ Entra.Chat - https://entra.chat🎧 Apple Podcast → https://entra.chat/apple📺 YouTube → https://entra.chat/youtube📺 Spotify → https://entra.chat/spotify🎧 Overcast → https://entra.chat/overcast🎧 Pocketcast → https://entra.chat/pocketcast🎧 Others → https://entra.chat/rssMerill's socials📺 YouTube → youtube.com/@merillx👔 LinkedIn → linkedin.com/in/merill🐤 Twitter → twitter.com/merill🕺 TikTok → tiktok.com/@merillf🦋 Bluesky → bsky.app/profile/merill.net🐘 Mastodon → infosec.exchange/@merill🧵 Threads → threads.net/@merillf🤖 GitHub → github.com/merill Get full access to Entra.News - Your weekly dose of Microsoft Entra at entra.news/subscribe