Conditional Access and Microsoft 365

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• Conditional access can help an organization establish a secure perimeter by vetting user accounts, devices, and applications.
• Deploying conditional access requires the correct subscription licensing of multiple Microsoft 365 services. 
• Knowing which capabilities require which specific services is challenging, and the lack of license enforcement is a compliance risk.

Entra ID conditional access is a process that uses multiple Microsoft-hosted services to ensure that users, devices, and end-user applications meet an organization’s security and governance standards before they connect to applications like Office 365 that integrate with Entra ID. The conditional access capabilities promoted by Microsoft are described as a feature of Entra ID P1 and Intune Plan 1. Conditional access generally requires licensing both services at a minimum, but can easily require other licenses, depending on the conditional access policy that is deployed.

Enforcing Organization Standards

Conditional access can limit access by users with compromised or at-risk credentials, or devices with unsupported platforms, configurations, or applications. Conditional access can help prevent data or system compromise; for example, by introducing malware, or data loss by allowing unauthorized access to Microsoft 365 and other cloud applications.