Microsoft Secure Score gives you a view of how many recommended security controls are in place across your Microsoft 365 environment. It can make missing settings visible and help you organise the work needed to improve them.
The number is useful, but it should not become the objective on its own. A higher score is not a guarantee that a business cannot be attacked, and not every Microsoft recommendation will be appropriate for every organisation.
What Microsoft Secure Score tells you
Secure Score reviews parts of Microsoft 365 such as identities, applications, devices and information. It awards points when recommended controls are configured or when an equivalent protection has been recorded.
That gives a business three useful views:
- which recommended controls are already in place;
- which gaps could have the greatest effect on the score; and
- how the position changes as improvements are made.
Why the highest score is not always the right target
Microsoft shows recommendations across the products an organisation uses. Some require additional licensing. Others can change how employees sign in or work. A recommendation may be technically sound but still need to be planned, tested and communicated before it is introduced.
The right question is not simply, “How do we reach 100%?” It is, “Which changes reduce meaningful risk without creating unnecessary cost or disruption?”
A practical way to use Secure Score
- Confirm the starting point. Check that the score reflects the current tenant and the licences actually in use.
- Review the important gaps first. Identity, administrator access, multi-factor authentication and device protection will often deserve early attention.
- Consider the business impact. Establish who will be affected, what licence is required and whether the change needs testing.
- Agree the priority. Record what will be done now, what will follow later and which risk has been accepted.
- Review it again. Microsoft 365 changes over time, so the score should form part of ongoing management rather than a one-off exercise.
Secure Score is a starting point, not the whole review
A useful Microsoft 365 review also considers licensing, administrator access, email protection, sign-in controls and the way employees use the service. It should turn the findings into clear decisions rather than send the business a list of technical recommendations.
baseMSP’s free Microsoft 365 security review shows what is in place, what needs attention and which improvements can reasonably wait.
Further reading
Microsoft explains how the measurement and recommended actions work in its Microsoft Secure Score guidance.
