Hello Reader,

I just returned home from the annual Microsoft MVP Summit and had a great time! Unfortunately, most of what was discussed is under NDA, so I’m not allowed to share it, but I was able to have some good conversations with old friends and new friends, as well as with individuals working on the various products at Microsoft. I’m looking forward to the next several months and what’s coming down the road!

💡A Microsoft 365 Management Tip:

For our Microsoft 365 management tip today, we’re going back once more to Microsoft Entra ID and conditional access. Multifactor Authentication (or MFA) has always been key in securing identities, with Entra ID (or Azure AD) being no exception. However, did you know there are various levels of MFA when it comes to Microsoft Entra ID? There is what I’ll call “standard” MFA, but then there is also the phishing-resistant MFA.

I’ve started recommending that people implement these phishing-resistant MFA prompts, especially when it comes to admin accounts or simply when accessing the various admin portals. This involves requiring Windows Hello for Business, a FIDO2 security key, or Microsoft Entra certificate-based authentication. These methods will help protect against phishing attacks again, especially man-in-the-middle attacks and token stealing.

In fact, Merill Fernando has a great video about this, diving into more details. He also discusses another option: using device compliance to help protect against these phishing attacks.

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Would you like to become the irreplaceable Microsoft 365 resource for your organization? Let me know!​

📝 Intelligink Updates

• Microsoft 365 Q&A - this is an event I’m hosting in my Microsoft 365 Administrators Facebook group. But I’m doing it as a Teams Meeting. I’m offering it up to all of you as well! Just show up and hang out for an hour and ask any Microsoft 365 questions you may have - https://teams.microsoft.com/l/meetup-join/19%3Ameeting_ZGFhM2IwODgtYTY5Yy00OThmLTkxYjUtNjRkODFiMjJlM2Jj%40thread.v2/0?context={“Tid”%3A”78a27d3f-6e2c-41dc-bf31-2a82c47362f2”%2C”Oid”%3A”bba285e7-c67a-4500-889f-9795828fa283”}​
• The Microsoft 365 Conference is happening down in Orlando from April 30 - May 2, and I’m still hoping to make it down for that conference as well - https://m365conf.com/​
• Microsoft Ignite is back in Chicago!!! I can’t wait. This one is on my calendar, and I plan on returning at my first Ignite in 5 years? Registration isn’t available yet, but you can still put the dates on your calendar and sign up to be notified as there are more updates - https://ignite.microsoft.com/​

🗞️ Microsoft 365 news highlights

• Copilot for Security is coming! I’m excited about this one (and curious to see how the pricing works out). Copilot is probably a bit over-hyped right now, but I love this particular use of AI within the Microsoft ecosystem: https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/microsoft-security-copilot-blog/microsoft-copilot-for-security-general-availability-details/ba-p/4079970​
• If you’re a Microsoft Planner person, there are also some updates that were recently announced around Planner and the Public Preview of the updates in the Teams App. Personally, I’m not a Planner person yet, but hoping with some upcoming updates, maybe some of the gaps that exist to prevent me from using it will be filled: https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/planner-blog/the-new-planner-in-teams-is-now-in-public-preview/ba-p/4072525​

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Thank you all, and have a great day!

Ben Stegink

Helping you become a Microsoft 365 Expert!

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