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Microsoft 365 Security Assessment

Most Microsoft 365 tenants were set up to get email working, not to stop attackers. Years later they carry legacy authentication, too many admins, permissive app consent and logging nobody checks - exactly what business email compromise exploits. We review your tenant end to end and tell you what to fix first.

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Why HIFENCE?

2,000+
vulnerabilities identified and fixed
0
breaches across active HIFENCE clients
50+
professional certifications on the team
15
years of industry experience
OSCEOSEDOSCE3OSWPOSCPCompTIA CNVPCEH Master
SABSAPalo Alto PCNSEFortinet NSE 4CISSP-ISSAPCISSPCheck Point CCSECisco CCNP Security

The assessment is run by specialists also certified in offensive security - we look at your tenant the way an attacker would, then fix it the way an administrator can live with.

What we review

Identity and access (Entra ID)

MFA coverage and strength, Conditional Access policies and their exclusions, legacy authentication still enabled, number of Global Admins, standing vs. just-in-time access (PIM), break-glass accounts, guest users, and user consent to third-party apps.

Exchange Online security

External and mailbox forwarding, risky inbox rules across all mailboxes, mailbox auditing and delegated access, SPF/DKIM/DMARC enforcement, and transport rules that quietly bypass filtering.

Defender and threat protection

Anti-phishing and impersonation policies, Safe Links and Safe Attachments (where licensed), alert policies - and whether anyone actually receives the alerts.

Data sharing

SharePoint and OneDrive external sharing, anonymous links and their expiry, Teams external access and guest settings, sensitivity labels and DLP where your licences include them.

Logging and readiness

Is the unified audit log on, and how long is it kept? Could you reconstruct a business email compromise from today's logs? What Secure Score says - and what it misses.

Benchmarks

Findings are mapped to the CIS Microsoft 365 Foundations Benchmark and CISA SCuBA baselines, plus the controls your frameworks expect - SOC 2, HIPAA, ISO 27001, CMMC.

Read-only access, no downtime. Nothing changes in your tenant without your approval.

Schedule a call

Office 365 security audit: what you get

  • Executive summary - the five risks that matter most in your tenant, in plain language.
  • Prioritized findings - each with the risk, the evidence, and the exact setting to change.
  • Quick wins you can apply this week without breaking anything.
  • Roadmap for the bigger changes: Conditional Access redesign, PIM, licence decisions.
  • Walkthrough call with your IT team or MSP. Fixes can be done by them or by us - the report does not tie you to future services.

When to book an assessment

  • After a phishing incident or a business email compromise
  • Before a cyber insurance renewal or a SOC 2 / HIPAA audit
  • When you have inherited a tenant from a previous IT provider
  • After a merger, an acquisition or a big licence change
  • If nobody can say for sure who your Global Admins are

Office 365 security best practices: the short list

If you do nothing else this month:

  1. Enforce MFA for everyone - phishing-resistant MFA for admins and finance
  2. Block legacy authentication (POP, IMAP, SMTP AUTH)
  3. Keep Global Admins to a handful of named accounts plus break-glass
  4. Disable user consent to unverified apps
  5. Block automatic forwarding to external addresses
  6. Move DMARC to quarantine, then reject
  7. Confirm the unified audit log is on and retained long enough to investigate an incident

Need the wider program around it? See email security, cloud security and compliance advisory.

Frequently asked questions

What is a Microsoft 365 security assessment?
A review of your Microsoft 365 / Office 365 tenant configuration from the inside - identity, Conditional Access, Exchange Online, Defender, sharing and logging - benchmarked against recognized baselines and turned into a prioritized list of fixes. It is often called an Office 365 security audit.
Is Microsoft Secure Score enough?
It is a useful starting point, but it scores settings, not context. It will not tell you that a Conditional Access exclusion covers your CFO, that an OAuth app can read every mailbox, or that a forwarding rule has been sending invoices outside the company for months.
What access do you need?
Read-only roles such as Global Reader and Security Reader. We do not change anything in your tenant without your approval.
Do we need E5 to be secure?
No. Business Premium or E3 can be secured well. We show what your current licences already allow, and only recommend an upgrade where it closes a real gap.
How is this different from a penetration test?
A penetration test tries to break in from the outside; a Microsoft 365 security assessment reviews configuration from the inside. Many companies do both - see penetration testing.
We think an account is already compromised. Should we start here?
No - start with business email compromise response and our first-hour checklist. The assessment comes once the attacker is out.
How much does a Microsoft 365 security assessment cost?
It depends on tenant size and licences - after a 30-minute call you receive a proposal with a fixed quote, scoped to your environment.

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