Microsoft Secure Score: What is it and how does it work?

What is a Microsoft secure score?

Microsoft secure score is a measurement tool that compares an organisation's security stance against industry benchmarks and Microsoft's security recommendations. A higher score means better security and helps measure progress over time. Secure Score provides personalised recommendations to improve an organisation's security score and prevent cyber threats. This tool encourages users to adopt best practices and implement recommended security features, such as enabling multi-factor authentication and updating software regularly. It also alerts users of potential risks and provides guidance on how to resolve those risks.

Why do you need to understand your Microsoft secure score?

Your organisation’s security posture is measured by your Microsoft security score, which is designed to assess and improve the security of Azure & Microsoft 365 environments. It provides a numerical score that reflects the overall security posture of your organisations environment based on  configurations, services, and design. As a rule of thumb a score of 65% or higher is recommended as a minimum benchmark score.  

A lower security score indicates an increased risk of cyber attack on your cloud environment. Examples of the type of attack that can take place include crypto mining and/or spinning up virtual machines in the cloud which could result in massive cloud consumption bills. . 

What's is involved in accessing your secure score?

You can either access the tool directly to calculate your score or you can reach out to an Azure partner like Codec to assist you in retrieving your score as well as providing you with recommended next steps. As well as understanding your overall security score, you will be able to view the breakdown of the security score by viewing your performance in several areas of your environment and thus pinpoint where you need to focus your improvements on as well as choosing the appropriate course of action. 

Understanding your organisations secure score will ensure that you identify any potential security gaps and weaknesses before a breach occurs, and get guidance on how to address and mitigate these missing security gaps. You will be able to: 

1. Report on the current state of the organisation's security posture.
2. Improve security posture and compliance by providing discoverability, visibility, guidance, and control.
3. Reduce the risk of security breaches
4. Improve security flaws to help ensure compliance with information security regulations & policies
5. Compare against industry benchmarks & establish key performance indicators (KPIs).
6. Get expert advice on improving your security posture. 

What are my next steps?

To clearly understand your organisations secure score and take action to address any potential threats or vulnerabilities, we suggest you set up a security assessment with Codec whereby we will undertake a security review on your cloud environment and make key recommendations. 

To set up an initial call with our security experts, click here. 

View our on-demand webinar:  Microsoft secure score: What is it and how does it work? View the webinar here