Security News > 2021 > January > These Microsoft tools help you reduce, remove or lock down admin access to improve security

Just because an admin needs access to one system setting, database or network doesn't mean they need access to all of them; applying role-based security permissions to your IT team makes as much sense as not giving receptionists access to the build tree for your internal applications.

While having privileged admin access is convenient, if there's a data leak, a database admin would much rather be able to say that the contents of the database are encrypted so they can't have seen anything than to try and prove they didn't copy data they didn't need to have access to in the first place.

The impact of the SolarWinds attack means that organizations can't afford to postpone auditing which accounts have admin and access privileges, applying the principles of least privilege and shifting to just-in-time audited admin access rather than permanent unmonitored privileges on high-value systems.

If you use Azure AD, create recurring Azure AD access reviews to check who has admin access, how many of those are Global Administrators or have Azure resource roles like User Access Administrator, and if any external guests or partners who were given temporary admin access still have it months later.

Make sure you have no on-premises accounts with administrative privileges in Office 365 or Microsoft 365, and isolate the Microsoft 365 admin accounts.

If you have a commercial Microsoft 365 subscription, there are tools in the Microsoft 365 Admin Center to help with privileges account management for Office 365.

News URL

https://www.techrepublic.com/article/these-microsoft-tools-help-you-reduce-remove-or-lock-down-admin-access-to-improve-security/#ftag=RSS56d97e7