Organizations spend thousands on security tools but implement them halfway, leaving their attack surface exposed. Microsoft Secure Score can fix this, but only if you understand what it actually measures and how to use it systematically.

What Is Microsoft Secure Score?

Microsoft Secure Score measures your Microsoft 365 configuration and security posture based on policy state and service telemetry.

It's not a security rating or compliance score.

It evaluates how your Microsoft 365 configuration aligns with Microsoft-recommended best practices.

Think of it as a home inspection for your security configuration. It checks if your Microsoft 365 configurations follow security best practices, generating recommendations when it finds gaps.

Why Microsoft Secure Score Matters

Your attack surface is the total number of ways attackers could compromise your systems. Every misconfiguration expands this surface. Microsoft Secure Score identifies these configuration gaps and provides a roadmap to close them.

For example:

• External email forwarding unrestricted: Attackers can intercept all future emails if they compromise an account
• Admin accounts without MFA: Attackers with credentials gain immediate administrative access
• Overly permissive file sharing: Sensitive data becomes accessible to unauthorized users

Understanding Microsoft Secure Score Components

The Three Main Sections

Your Overall Score: Represents your current configuration posture. Updates within 24-48 hours of policy changes.

Benchmark Data: Shows how your Microsoft Secure Score compares to similar organizations. This reveals whether you're outperforming or lagging behind peers.

Recommended Actions: Prioritized configuration changes ranked by impact and implementation difficulty. Microsoft's algorithm balances security benefit against practical deployability.

What Microsoft Secure Score Evaluates

Identity and Access Controls: MFA for privileged accounts, app permissions, access policies, and lifecycle management.

Email and Communication Security: External forwarding policies, phishing protections, malware defenses, and dangerous email behaviors.

Data Protection: File sharing policies, data loss prevention, retention policies, and access controls.

Device Management: Compliance policies, operating system currency, and security configurations.

Application Security: OAuth permissions, dangerous application blocks, and security settings in Teams and SharePoint.

The Five Critical Attack Surfaces

1. Identity & Access Control

Admins leave, but accounts remain active. Employees change roles, but permissions accumulate. Contractors finish projects, but group memberships persist. These gaps create high-value attack targets.

Microsoft Secure Score recommendations: Implement MFA for administrative roles, review application permissions, implement lifecycle management, configure conditional access policies.

2. Email & External Communication

Email is the #1 attack vector. Unrestricted forwarding, misconfigured phishing protections, and inadequate malware defenses create persistent vulnerabilities.

Microsoft Secure Score recommendations: Restrict external email forwarding, enable Microsoft Defender for Office 365 (Safe Links, Safe Attachments, anti-phishing), implement mail flow rules, enable encryption.

3. File Sharing & Data Protection

The biggest data exposures aren't sophisticated exploits. They're misconfigured sharing policies and overly permissive access. SharePoint sites shared organization-wide, OneDrive folders shared anonymously, and missing retention policies create unnecessary risk.

Microsoft Secure Score recommendations: Restrict external sharing by default, configure data loss prevention, implement retention policies, audit resource access regularly.

4. Cloud Apps & OAuth Permissions

Every third-party application that integrates via OAuth represents potential risk. Employees grant permissions without reading details. Applications get compromised. Organizations discover 500+ OAuth apps, many forgotten.

Microsoft Secure Score recommendations: Review and restrict OAuth permissions, require admin approval for sensitive scopes, disable unnecessary applications.

5. Device & Endpoint Management

Compromised devices bypass perfect email security. Device-level access reaches everything the user can access.

Microsoft Secure Score recommendations: Enforce device compliance policies, enable Defender for Endpoint configurations, keep operating systems current, configure security baselines.

How to Improve Your Microsoft Secure Score: 5-Step Plan

Step 1: Assess Your Current Position (10 Minutes)

1. Go to https://security.microsoft.com/securescore
2. Document your current Microsoft Secure Score
3. Review the breakdown by category to identify weakest areas

Step 2: Identify Quick Wins (30 Minutes)

Look for recommendations with:

• Meaningful security impact
• Low implementation difficulty
• Minimal user impact

Top quick wins:

• Enable MFA for administrative roles (5-30 minutes)
• Restrict external email forwarding (under 1 hour)
• Enable Microsoft Defender for Office 365 (1-2 hours)
• Disable legacy authentication (2-4 hours with testing)

Pick 3-5 for immediate implementation.

Step 3: Create a Phased Plan (1 Hour)

Phase 1 (This Week): Quick wins with owners and deadlines

Phase 2 (Next 2-4 Weeks): Medium-difficulty recommendations

Phase 3 (Next 2-6 Months): Complex recommendations requiring planning:

• Zero Trust/Conditional Access implementation
• Comprehensive DLP policies
• Identity governance restructuring

Step 4: Implement With Safeguards

For MFA on Administrative Accounts:

1. Find the recommendation in Microsoft Secure Score
2. Click Manage → Azure portal → Microsoft Entra ID → Security → Conditional Access
3. Create policy: scope to admin roles, require MFA, exclude break-glass accounts
4. Test with non-critical admin first
5. Enable gradually
6. Verify in Microsoft Secure Score after 24-48 hours

For Restricting External Email Forwarding:

1. Find recommendation in Microsoft Secure Score
2. Click Manage → Exchange admin center → Mail flow → Rules
3. Create rule: detect external forwarding, block the rule
4. Test in audit mode first
5. Enable and verify

Critical: Always include break-glass accounts and test before broad rollout.

Step 5: Maintain Ongoing Vigilance

Microsoft Secure Score isn't a one-time project. Review monthly (30 minutes):

• Score changes
• New recommendations
• Implementation blockers
• Configuration drift

For non-applicable recommendations:

• Mark as Covered by Third Party: Mitigating control exists elsewhere
• Accept Risk: Document business-driven risk acceptance
• Escalate: Blocked by external factors

Best Practices for Microsoft Secure Score Success

1. Prioritize Risk Over Points

A 30-point recommendation might have minimal impact. A 5-point recommendation might close critical exposure. Ask: "Does this reduce our actual security exposure?" If yes, implement it. If it just adds points without meaningful risk reduction, deprioritize.

2. Conduct Impact Assessments

Some recommendations disrupt workflows if implemented without planning. For medium-to-high-impact changes:

• Identify affected users and workflows
• Assess what might break
• Plan mitigation strategies
• Pilot with limited groups first

3. Integrate With ITSM Processes

Create Microsoft Secure Score work items in your ticketing system (Jira, ServiceNow). Assign owners, set deadlines, track completion. Treat recommendations as standard security work items.

4. Report to Leadership

Leadership values measurable progress. Use Microsoft Secure Score in monthly reports:

• "Our security posture improved 15% this quarter, now above peer average"
• "Implemented 8 recommendations, reducing identity and email attack vectors"
• "Moved from below-average to above-average in benchmark comparisons"

5. Automate Where Possible

Manual implementation is time-consuming. Organizations that automate common Microsoft Secure Score remediations accelerate improvement 5-10x. Look for tools that can:

• Push policy changes automatically
• Validate implementations
• Provide audit trails
• Monitor for configuration drift

Beyond Microsoft Secure Score: Complete SaaS Security

Microsoft Secure Score addresses 10-20% of most organizations' SaaS footprint. The other 80% (Salesforce, Slack, Zoom, GitHub, Google Workspace) runs with minimal governance.

Common Gaps Outside Microsoft Secure Score:

• Salesforce objects accessible organization-wide
• Slack channels with unlimited retention
• GitHub repositories with overly broad access
• Google Workspace with unrestricted external sharing
• OAuth apps with excessive permissions
• Shadow SaaS without IT awareness
• Offboarded users retaining access

Critical insight: Attackers don't care which platform they compromise. Your actual attack surface spans your entire SaaS ecosystem.

The Two-Part Approach

Part 1: Microsoft Secure Score Excellence: Systematically improve Microsoft 365 security using the plan above.

Part 2: Comprehensive SaaS Security: Extend the same systematic approach to Google Workspace, Salesforce, Slack, and other critical applications.

Organizations combining both approaches:

• Reduce total security exposure across all platforms
• Achieve compliance more efficiently
• Reduce security operations burden
• Demonstrate systematic security management

Start Improving Your Microsoft Secure Score Today

Immediate actions:

1. Open Microsoft Defender XDR and navigate to Microsoft Secure Score
2. Document your current score
3. Identify 2-3 quick wins (MFA for admins, restrict email forwarding, enable threat protections)
4. Implement one this week
5. Create your phased plan with owners and deadlines

What happens next: By week two, your Microsoft Secure Score improves, momentum builds, and the work becomes achievable rather than overwhelming.

Scaling Your Approach

For organizations ready to scale beyond manual implementation, platforms like Perimeters.io provide:

• Automated discovery across Microsoft 365, Google Workspace, and 40+ SaaS platforms
• Continuous monitoring aligned with Microsoft Secure Score recommendations
• Automated remediation for dozens of common security gaps
• Unified governance across your entire SaaS ecosystem
• Comprehensive audit trails for compliance

Organizations using automated approaches typically achieve Microsoft Secure Score improvements 5-10x faster while simultaneously addressing security gaps across their entire SaaS environment.

Your Microsoft Secure Score improves when you implement recommendations strategically.

Your overall security posture strengthens when you extend that approach across your entire SaaS ecosystem.

Book a demo to see the Perimeters difference.