The Most Common Cybersecurity Gaps We Find in Microsoft 365
Microsoft 365 has become the center of daily operations for many businesses. Employees use Outlook for email, Teams for communication, SharePoint and OneDrive for files, and Microsoft applications to collaborate from almost anywhere.
That also makes Microsoft 365 an important part of a company’s cybersecurity strategy.
At PivIT Strategy, we work with businesses that rely heavily on Microsoft 365. One thing we regularly see is that simply having Microsoft 365 does not mean the environment is configured as securely as it could be.
Many organizations have security tools and features available to them but have gaps in how those features are configured, monitored, or managed.
When evaluating cybersecurity for Microsoft 365, these are some of the common areas we recommend businesses review.
1. Multi-Factor Authentication Is Not Fully Enforced
Multi-factor authentication, or MFA, is one of the first things we look at when evaluating Microsoft 365 security.
MFA requires another form of verification in addition to a password. This makes it significantly more difficult for an attacker to access an account using stolen credentials alone.
The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency recommends requiring MFA wherever possible, particularly for email, file storage, remote access, administrative accounts, and employees who handle sensitive information. CISA also recommends moving toward phishing-resistant MFA when possible.
You can review CISA’s guidance on requiring multi-factor authentication.
The problem we encounter is not always that a business has no MFA. Sometimes MFA is enabled for most employees but not everyone. Other times, administrators or older accounts may not be protected consistently.
For effective cybersecurity for Microsoft 365, businesses should know exactly which accounts are protected and whether exceptions exist.
2. Too Many Users Have Administrator Privileges
Administrator access is necessary for managing Microsoft 365, but not every employee needs it.
Giving users more access than they need can increase risk if one of those accounts is compromised.
This is particularly important because an administrator account can potentially make changes affecting users, security configurations, applications, and other areas of the Microsoft 365 environment.
A business may have granted administrator access to someone years ago for a specific reason and simply never removed it.
When reviewing a Microsoft 365 environment, businesses should ask:
- Who currently has administrator access?
- Why does each person need it?
- Are administrative accounts separate from everyday user accounts?
- Are former IT providers or employees still listed?
- Is strong MFA protecting privileged accounts?
NIST also recommends limiting access to systems and data to people who need it for their jobs and restricting administrative privileges to appropriate employees.
Reducing unnecessary privileges is an important part of improving cybersecurity for Microsoft 365.
3. Former Employees Still Have Access
Employee offboarding can create another security gap.
When someone leaves a company, disabling their email account may not be the only action required.
Businesses should consider access to Microsoft 365, shared mailboxes, Teams, SharePoint, OneDrive, third-party applications, company devices, and other resources connected to the employee’s identity.
We recommend having a documented IT offboarding process so these steps do not depend on someone remembering them each time an employee leaves.
NIST specifically recommends removing access when employees leave the business or when their access requirements change.
This is where coordination between HR, management, and IT becomes especially important.
IT should know when someone is leaving, when their access should end, and what company information needs to be transferred or retained.
4. Businesses Rely Too Heavily on Passwords
A strong password policy is important, but passwords should not be the only thing protecting important business information.
Employees reuse passwords. Credentials can be exposed through phishing attacks, credential theft, or compromises involving other services.
That is one reason MFA is so important.
NIST notes that passwords alone are not sufficient for protecting sensitive business assets and recommends enabling MFA on accounts that offer it, with phishing-resistant authentication particularly valuable for sensitive applications and privileged users.
Good cybersecurity for Microsoft 365 should therefore focus on identity security as a whole rather than simply requiring employees to create increasingly complicated passwords.
5. Email Security Is Not Getting Enough Attention
Email remains one of the most important areas to protect because employees interact with it constantly.
Phishing messages may impersonate executives, vendors, Microsoft, financial institutions, coworkers, or other trusted organizations. The goal may be to steal credentials, convince an employee to send money, or get someone to open a malicious attachment.
A Microsoft 365 security strategy should consider more than spam filtering.
Depending on the organization, protections may include stronger email security controls, malicious link and attachment protection, impersonation protection, domain authentication, employee awareness training, and processes for reporting suspicious messages.
Technology can reduce risk, but employees also need to understand what suspicious activity looks like.
6. Security Alerts Are Generated, but Nobody Is Watching Them
Security tools are only useful when someone is paying attention to what they are telling you.
Microsoft 365 environments can generate information about suspicious logins, account activity, security recommendations, and other events.
The question is: Who is reviewing it?
This can become a major gap for businesses without dedicated cybersecurity personnel.
An organization might own security technology that can identify suspicious activity, but if nobody is responsible for reviewing and responding to alerts, the practical benefit of that technology may be limited.
NIST describes cybersecurity as a continuous process and emphasizes that cybersecurity risk management should improve as businesses, technologies, and threats change.
You can explore those recommendations through the NIST Cybersecurity Basics guide.
For businesses, the takeaway is simple: buying cybersecurity tools is not the same thing as managing cybersecurity.
7. Microsoft 365 Security Settings Are Treated as “Set It and Forget It”
Another problem we see is businesses assuming that because Microsoft 365 was configured several years ago, everything is still configured appropriately today.
Businesses change.
Employees join and leave. New applications are adopted. Companies grow. People begin working remotely. Vendors gain access to systems. Microsoft introduces new functionality. Cybersecurity threats evolve.
Security configurations need to evolve with those changes.
NIST’s Cybersecurity Framework 2.0 organizes cybersecurity risk management around six functions: Govern, Identify, Protect, Detect, Respond, and Recover. Its Small Business Quick-Start Guide is specifically designed to help smaller organizations establish and improve their cybersecurity risk management strategy.
That continuous approach should apply to Microsoft 365 as well.
8. Businesses Do Not Know Their Microsoft Secure Score
One useful starting point when reviewing cybersecurity for Microsoft 365 is Microsoft Secure Score.
Secure Score can help organizations evaluate their current security posture and identify recommended actions within their Microsoft environment.
The important thing is not simply chasing a perfect score.
Businesses should use security recommendations in the context of their users, applications, operations, risk profile, and Microsoft licensing.
A recommendation that makes sense for one company may require a different implementation strategy for another.
The bigger concern is when nobody within the organization is reviewing these settings at all.
Cybersecurity for Microsoft 365 Requires Ongoing Management
The biggest Microsoft 365 security gap is often not a single setting.
It is a lack of ownership.
Someone needs to be responsible for reviewing accounts, managing access, configuring security controls, monitoring suspicious activity, handling employee onboarding and offboarding, and adjusting the environment as the business changes.
For companies without a dedicated cybersecurity team, those responsibilities can easily become scattered between employees, outside vendors, and whoever originally configured Microsoft 365.
That creates opportunities for security gaps to develop over time.
How Secure Is Your Microsoft 365 Environment?
If you are not sure how your Microsoft 365 environment is configured, that is a good reason to review it.
PivIT Strategy helps businesses evaluate and manage Microsoft 365 environments as part of a broader cybersecurity and IT strategy.
Effective cybersecurity for Microsoft 365 is not about turning on one security feature and assuming the job is finished. It requires understanding how your environment is configured today, identifying where risk exists, and continuing to improve your security as your business changes.
If you want to understand where your Microsoft 365 security currently stands, contact PivIT Strategy to schedule a review of your environment.
