Practical Microsoft 365 security notes for UK SMEs: Cyber Essentials Plus evidence, Entra ID MFA, Conditional Access, Intune, Defender, external sharing, mail security and audit cleanup.
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These notes are written for teams fixing real Microsoft 365 control drift: weak MFA coverage, messy Conditional Access, unmanaged endpoints, risky mail rules, overshared SharePoint data and Cyber Essentials Plus evidence gaps. Start with the guide that matches the failure mode, then follow the related notes.
05 May 2026 · 4 min
This is the readiness guide I would want before booking a Cyber Essentials Plus assessment for a Microsoft 365-heavy environment: scope first, MFA proof, device evidence, patch records, mail controls and a dry run before assessment week.
05 May 2026 · 6 min
Most Microsoft 365 tenants do not need a new product first. They need old admin access removed, MFA gaps closed, risky mail routes checked, sharing defaults tightened and evidence collected before an audit or incident forces the issue.
05 Jan 2026 · 4 min
A decent first Microsoft 365 security review does not need to be dramatic. It needs to show which controls are weak, who owns them, what evidence exists and which fixes reduce tenant risk first.
05 May 2026 · 3 min
Endpoint control is not proved by a busy Intune portal. It is proved by managed device coverage, Defender onboarding, compliance enforcement, patch evidence, local admin control and a remediation path for exceptions.
40 field notes. Sorted newest first.
08 May 2026 · 4 min
Former Head of IT here. I have seen perfectly theoretical security policies crumble on day one. Here is why external consulting usually misses the mark, and how to fix it.
05 May 2026 · 4 min
This is the readiness guide I would want before booking a Cyber Essentials Plus assessment for a Microsoft 365-heavy environment: scope first, MFA proof, device evidence, patch records, mail controls and a dry run before assessment week.
05 May 2026 · 3 min
Endpoint control is not proved by a busy Intune portal. It is proved by managed device coverage, Defender onboarding, compliance enforcement, patch evidence, local admin control and a remediation path for exceptions.
05 May 2026 · 3 min
A backlog is useful when it reflects operational reality, not product marketing. This one is built around the problems smaller Microsoft 365 tenants keep tripping over.
05 May 2026 · 6 min
Most Microsoft 365 tenants do not need a new product first. They need old admin access removed, MFA gaps closed, risky mail routes checked, sharing defaults tightened and evidence collected before an audit or incident forces the issue.
04 May 2026 · 3 min
The assessor does not care about your best three laptops. They care whether an ordinary sample of business devices reflects the controls you say are in place.
30 Apr 2026 · 3 min
The latest UK breaches survey is not a reason to panic. It is a reason to tighten the day-to-day Microsoft 365 controls that often get treated as background admin.
27 Apr 2026 · 3 min
The new patching conversation is not just about whether you patch. It is about proving supported software, timely updates, and controlled exceptions across the endpoint estate.
23 Apr 2026 · 3 min
Cyber Essentials v3.3 is blunt on MFA. In-scope cloud service access must use it, and Microsoft 365 teams need to prove policy enforcement across users, admins, guests, exclusions and emergency accounts.
20 Apr 2026 · 3 min
Cyber Essentials v3.3 removes a lot of wiggle room around cloud scope. For Microsoft 365 teams, that matters more than most people first think.
16 Apr 2026 · 3 min
What Endpoint DLP really needs before it becomes useful, and why unmanaged or poorly managed devices make the whole story weaker.
13 Apr 2026 · 3 min
Copilot readiness is usually not an AI settings question first. It is a data posture question with a lot of old permissions and neglected workspaces hiding inside it.
09 Apr 2026 · 3 min
How to give each Intune control family a proper home, instead of layering settings until nobody trusts the result.
06 Apr 2026 · 3 min
A practical look at passkeys on mobile, what Intune can protect, and where phone access still weakens Microsoft 365 control.
02 Apr 2026 · 3 min
What Microsoft-managed Conditional Access policies actually do, where they help, and why they still need local ownership before anyone treats them as finished security work.
30 Mar 2026 · 3 min
Sometimes the real problem is not one badly handled document. It is the workspace around it being too open, too easy to share, or too loose on unmanaged access.
26 Mar 2026 · 3 min
Most label rollouts fail because they are too abstract. People get a list of terms, not a small set of decisions that actually helps them handle data better.
23 Mar 2026 · 3 min
AI does not invent a permissions mess. It tends to find it faster, summarise it faster, and make sloppy data controls harder to ignore.
19 Mar 2026 · 3 min
The Microsoft 365 controls that do the most to raise the cost of password spray attacks, without pretending the answer is one magic setting.
16 Mar 2026 · 4 min
A grounded rollout plan for passkeys in Microsoft Entra ID, including pilot scope, recovery, and the policy choices that matter more than the launch announcement.
12 Mar 2026 · 3 min
Good evidence packs are not glamorous. They are dated, easy to navigate, and strong enough that nobody reconstructs the tenant from memory under pressure.
09 Mar 2026 · 3 min
How to review OAuth app consent in Microsoft 365 properly, including user consent settings, admin workflow, and the apps that quietly end up with far too much access.
05 Mar 2026 · 4 min
Email security does not usually fail because the licence was wrong. It fails because the queue had no owner, exceptions multiplied and the monthly review stopped happening.
02 Mar 2026 · 3 min
A good Microsoft 365 incident plan does not need to be huge. It needs to help a small team make clean decisions in the first hour, while evidence is fresh.
26 Feb 2026 · 3 min
Guest access is usually not risky because it exists. It becomes risky when nobody can explain who still needs it, what they can see, and when it should end.
23 Feb 2026 · 3 min
How to design Microsoft 365 emergency access accounts that actually help in a lockout without turning into permanent unmanaged admin shortcuts.
19 Feb 2026 · 4 min
Password resets are not cleanup. If you have not checked forwarding, inbox rules and transport rules, you may be leaving the quiet part of an email compromise behind.
16 Feb 2026 · 3 min
What Windows 10 end of support really changes for Microsoft 365 teams, and where people overstate or understate the risk.
12 Feb 2026 · 3 min
How to make device compliance matter at the access layer, instead of leaving it as a nice-looking dashboard.
09 Feb 2026 · 3 min
A practical way to think about least privilege in Azure Virtual Desktop, without pretending virtual desktops remove endpoint risk.
05 Feb 2026 · 3 min
A grounded way to use Endpoint Privilege Management, with tighter exception handling and less wishful thinking.
02 Feb 2026 · 4 min
Why Intune conflicts usually come from overlapping ownership, and how to simplify the estate without breaking devices.
29 Jan 2026 · 4 min
Secure Score is useful because it points at work. It becomes less useful when people turn it into a trophy number and stop asking which recommendations reduce real risk.
26 Jan 2026 · 4 min
External sharing in Microsoft 365 is usually not one giant mistake. It is dozens of small permissions that nobody came back to tidy up.
22 Jan 2026 · 5 min
Phishing is still cheap, common and effective when basic follow-up controls are weak. A Microsoft 365 action plan that makes sense for UK teams without turning into theatre.
19 Jan 2026 · 4 min
Standard and Strict are not personality types. They are operating choices. A practical way to decide what goes where and stop phishing tuning becoming a weekly argument.
15 Jan 2026 · 4 min
A practical comparison of Security Defaults, Conditional Access, and per-user MFA, including when each option still makes sense and when it does not.
12 Jan 2026 · 3 min
How to clean up Global Administrator sprawl in Microsoft 365 without turning the exercise into guesswork or politics.
08 Jan 2026 · 4 min
A practical plan for moving Microsoft Entra Conditional Access policies from report-only to enforced, without pretending the hard parts are somebody else's problem.
05 Jan 2026 · 4 min
A decent first Microsoft 365 security review does not need to be dramatic. It needs to show which controls are weak, who owns them, what evidence exists and which fixes reduce tenant risk first.