In today’s modern landscape, where organisations increasingly rely on cloud-based services, managing access to essential documents and data has become a critical challenge. As businesses migrate their operations to the cloud, it becomes paramount to ensure that only authorised accounts have access to the correct information.
This must be done whilst maintaining a seamless user experience, so individuals can perform their duties effectively. Organisations need to safeguard their assets while providing appropriate access for authorised individuals. To achieve this successfully, implementing conditional access controls is essential.
Conditional access is a security approach designed to address this very challenge. By implementing conditional access controls, organisations can enforce specific policies that determine how and when users can access resources. As a result, businesses can enhance their security posture.
In this blog, we will explore the concept of conditional access, how it works and the benefits it offers modern organisations.
How Does Conditional Access Work?
Conditional access is a set of defined controls which govern who has access to certain resources. These configurations evaluate the trustworthiness of a device/user and, depending on their access controls to the user/device, they either grant or block access.
To determine a device/user’s access, conditional access relies on various signals from different sources to inform the system about the device/user to learn what level of access they should be granted. The signals that determine user/device access include:
- User or group membership: Policies can be tailored towards specific users or groups, providing administrators with detailed control over access.
- IP Location Information: Organisations can create trusted IP address ranges for policy decisions, and administrators can specify entire countries or regions IP ranges to be blocked or to allow traffic from.
- Device: Specific platforms or specific states can be used when enforcing conditional access.
- Application: The requested access of different applications can trigger conditional access policies.
- Risk Detection: Signals, integrated with Microsoft’s Entra ID Protection, identify and remediate risky users.
- Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps: This enables user’s sessions to be monitored and controlled in real-time, increasing visibility and control within the cloud environment
Why Do We Need to Implement Conditional Access?
Organisations require conditional access to increase the security and compliance of their business data. Conditional access provides organisations with the ability to implement a customised set of policies that restrict access to only what the user or device needs. The adoption of conditional access can enhance user experience by allowing users to access resources without undergoing multiple authentication steps.
Microsoft Entra Conditional Access
Microsoft Entra Conditional Access operates by detecting signals, using the signals to make informed decisions, and enforcing the organisational policies. Conditional Access policies in Microsoft Entra are as simple as “if-then” statements, such as if a user wants to access an application, then they must undergo multifactor authentication to be granted access. Administrators with the Conditional Access Administrator role assigned can manage organisational polices.
Conditional Access can be located in the Microsoft admin centre under Protection> Conditional Access. Conditional Access policies on the Policies page can be filtered by administrators based on items such as the actor, target resource, condition, control applied, state, or date. This filtering ability enables administrators to identify specific policies based on their configuration quickly.
To Conclude
In conclusion, as businesses continue to migrate to cloud-based environments, securing access to critical documents and data becomes increasingly crucial. Implementing conditional access controls is a strategic approach to ensure that only authorised users and devices can access the necessary resources, while maintaining a seamless user experience.
Tools like Microsoft Entra Conditional Access empower organisations with the ability to tailor security policies, ensuring that users access resources securely and efficiently. By leveraging these tools, organisations can effectively safeguard their assets and streamline operations, making conditional access not just a necessity but an essential part of modern business.
About CWSI
CWSI are leading European cyber security specialists with over a decade of experience working with some of Europe’s most security conscious organisations. Our mission is to enable organisations to work securely from anywhere on any device.
Explore our ‘Secure Cloud Consultancy’ to learn how CWSI can empower your employees to work from anywhere, safeguarding their identity and access. Furthermore, you can contact us to speak to one of our experts about how we can work together.
References
What is Conditional Access in Microsoft Entra ID? – Microsoft Entra ID | Microsoft Learn
What is Conditional Access and how does it work? (oxfordcomputertraining.com)
