Modern-day businesses have never depended more on cloud platforms to operate at scale securely.
Both operational and critical apps are increasingly running on the cloud where you, as executives, need to be always sure of who has access to what. That means Identity and access management (IAM) has become even more crucial.
Entra ID plays a key role in managing user access. It ensures only the right individuals can enter specific systems.
However, no identity management system is security perfect, and Entra ID is no exception. There will always be a security risk that makes your business vulnerable despite the powerful presence of Entra ID’s security features.
This blog post will cover the most typical security risks with Entra ID. You’ll learn why businesses have to protect their Entra ID environments on their own. They need to adopt solid strategies to protect their apps from the latest threats.
Read on…
The Growing Threat Landscape
Modern attackers increasingly use sophisticated, automated methods to exploit vulnerabilities in cloud like IAM systems that contain valuable data. Enterprises are adopting Entra ID (previously Azure Active Directory) from Microsoft to use as their identity management tool.
This has really expanded the attack surface for hackers. Poor configurations or overlooked risks can also create serious gaps in protection. With these risks left unmitigated, your business may end up vulnerable to massive data breaches.
These challenges can also spiral into significant security risks with substantial potential damage in the long term.
Common Security Risks in Entra ID
1۔ Misconfigurations
Any cloud platform is prone to misconfigurations which are still regarded as one of their most common security issues, and Entra ID is no exception.
Research has found that over 80% of cloud security incidents result from simple misconfigurations ranging from incorrect permissions to weak password policies or even failing to disable unused accounts.
For example, an insufficiently configured account could inadvertently allow full undeterred access to an unprivileged user, exposing your core business data.
IBM’s 2023 Cost of a Data Breach Report puts the average data breach cost of misconfigurations at $4.45 million.
READ: Implementing Zero-trust across your endpoints
2۔ Phishing & Credential Theft
Phishing attacks are still the bread and butter of many credential theft cybercriminals.
A credible Data Breach Investigations Report shows Phishing was the cause of more than 44% of data breach cases.
All it takes is several well-placed phishing campaigns to the right targets, and suddenly, a cloud service like Entra ID can become a gateway for malicious actors’ entry.
Scammers can try to impersonate some trusted online entity in emails and can steal your employees’ Entra ID login credentials. And, such compromised credentials without multi-factor authentication may allow attackers to access critical systems and move laterally across the network.
3۔ API Vulnerabilities
APIs (Application Programming Interfaces) enable services and platforms to communicate with each other. However, they can be an attack vector if not secured properly.
In recent years, we have seen API attacks starting to explode, with many reports finding a significant rise in cybersecurity vulnerabilities tied to APIs – a whopping 400% increase in 2024.
With such a ridiculous percentage of growth, it is obvious that everything related to web application security will also be relevant to APIs.
Since Entra ID relies on APIs to interact with various apps, misconfigurations in APIs can expose sensitive data. It can also expose personally identifiable information (PII) and authentication tokens, which might be a serious risk.
A real-life example of this occurred recently when a misconfigured API in Microsoft Power Apps left millions of records open to being accessed, including personal data, demonstrating why it is so important that cloud service providers are vigilant about keeping their APIs secure.
READ: Endpoint privilege management with Microsoft Intune
4۔ Social Engineering
Social engineering attacks do not rely on technical vulnerabilities but rather human behavior.
Adversaries take advantage of employees who can provide access to valuable data and then control these employees, strong-arm them, or trick them into revealing hidden info like passwords, MFA tokens, etc. Almost 17% of data breaches already involved social engineering techniques in 2024.
Entra ID, as a gateway to business-critical apps, allows an attacker who gains user credentials from social engineering methods to violate different security layers and make their way upstream until they have the whole system compromised.
5۔ Cloud Misconfigurations
Enterprise customers are struggling to enforce the same security policies across both on-prem and cloud giving rise to an ever-increasing threat surface, with badly configured rules being a top cause.
Several high-profile breaches over the years have resulted from public cloud misconfigurations, such as leaving storage buckets open to the Internet.
In 2022, one such bucket (Microsoft Azure Blob Storage) misconfiguration exposed almost 2.4 TB of sensitive data to the public – including personal details (PII), business documents, and communication logs.
Now, as even more organizations are using Entra ID as the gatekeeper to cloud assets, it is essential to establish well-ordered settings to prevent exposing your vital assets to the risk of theft.
Impact of Security Failures
Failing to properly secure your Entra ID environment can have grave consequences. As we just learned, improperly configured Entra ID can cause stolen credentials which can then lead to data breaches and security incidents that can be punishable with hefty legal penalties and, worst of all, loss of client confidence.
For example, fines for GDPR violations due to poor cloud security can go up to €20 million per infraction or 4% of an organization’s worldwide turnover as the greater.
Moreover, insider-related incidents cost companies an average of $15.38 million per year in 2024 and a majority of these were caused by weak access controls.
That said, data breaches can lead to downtime that halts operations, with such an outage costing enterprises a whopping $300,000 per hour on average, according to Gartner.
Strategic Solutions for Entra ID Security
Given the growing complexities involved in protecting Entra ID security and safety, a multi-layered approach will be critical for organizations to continue providing sustainable defense-in-depth with operational agility.
Adaptive security solutions will use automation, continuous monitoring, and advanced threat intelligence to combat new risks.
The following are the main strategies that should become the pillars for a broader security framework surrounding the Entra ID environment.
1. Stronger Authentication Mechanisms
One key area where Entra ID solutions can potentially be vulnerable is poor authentication practices. This is an attacker’s first port of call, almost always.
Multi-factor authentication (MFA) is still one of the best ways to reduce unauthorized login access. Though Microsoft keeps reiterating that enforcing MFA can eliminate 99.9% of identity attacks, some advanced man-in-the-middle (MITM) or phishing attacks can still get past MFA.
Passwords are becoming obsolete and more sophisticated forms of authentication, like Passwordless Authentication, continue to rise, especially using solutions like FIDO2 and Windows Hello for Business.
2. Automated Patching and Updates
Unpatched vulnerabilities are a leading cause of security breaches. And, hackers are quick to exploit the known ones. In fact, more than 57% of data breaches in 2024 were because of unpatched vulnerabilities.
So, with the rate at which new issues crop up, a manual approach to patch management won’t exactly cut it. Automation is the key to ensuring timely updates. Microsoft Endpoint Manager or Azure Automation helps automate the deployment of security patches throughout Entra ID-secured environments.
Automated patching of operating systems, applications, and security configurations helps identify additional vulnerabilities exploitable by cyber adversaries.
Along with automated patching, regular vulnerability scanning is essential. This ensures that new security gaps are identified early.
3. Advanced Threat Detection and Response
Today’s sophisticated cloud companies necessitate top-level vigilance to identify and act promptly against threats. Entra ID environments can use AI-based threat analysis systems that continuously monitor user behavior and flag anomalies that may lead to breaches.
For example, Microsoft’s or blocking suspicious IPs.
4. Hardened Security Configurations
The default configuration of many cloud systems, including Entra ID, often prioritizes ease of use over security. So, hardening the security settings should be a priority for any organization.
This model implies a Zero Trust posture, assuming each user and device is part of the threat surface and they all must authenticated before they get access to the organization’s assets or data.
One of the basic principles for hardening security is Least Privileged Access. This means setting up Entra ID permissions to limit access for users and applications so as to allow everyone only what is absolutely necessary, according to their roles.
Additionally, security defaults must be enforced i.e. Legacy authentication methods should be discontinued. Attackers frequently target legacy authentication protocols, as these methods do not provide the same degree of protection as MFA.
Moreover, advanced conditional access rules configured to look for threats and enforce security policies such as device compliance or session timeout will provide multiple levels of protection that can offset an attack if one layer fails.
5. User Education and Training
Human error remains the biggest secu training ways as they help organizations determine how prepared their employees are against phishing attacks and which areas require improvement. Such drills allow organizations to create a security-aware workforce and thus assert that cybersecurity is the responsibility of each one.
That said, instead of being more aggressive and focusing too much on your counter strategies, you should have highly effective training programs in place with a minimum agenda covering how end-users can spot malicious emails.
They get to learn what risks are associated with clicking an odd link and where they are likely targets for attempts by human adversaries using tactics like phishing.
Also, apart from general security awareness training, you should provide employees using Entra ID and cloud services with relevant training on these systems.
A classic way would be to train developers and administrators on how secure API management works or the best approach for configuring cloud security settings.
Conclusion: Why Choose WME for Entra ID Security?
WME recognizes the unique challenges of securing Entra ID environments. Our experienced security experts coordinate with your organization to create a customized security plan that meets your specific challenges without disturbing your operations.
We bring experienced security capabilities, state-of-the-art threat detection, and intelligence-driven mitigation strategies custom to the risks you face in your Entra ID environment. This way, we help you focus on business growth and secure your digital assets!
Next Steps
To learn more about how WME can help you protect your Entra ID environment۔
Let’s work together to secure your applications.
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