Your Microsoft 365 Security — You're Probably Not Using Half of It

Here's something we see all the time: a business is paying for Microsoft 365 Business Premium or E3/E5, and they're using about 20% of the security features included in their licence. They've got Outlook and Teams sorted, maybe OneDrive. But the security tools? Sitting there untouched.

You're already paying for this stuff. You just need to turn it on.

What's actually included?

Depending on your licence, you probably have access to some or all of these:

Microsoft Defender for Office 365

Scans your emails for phishing, malicious links, and dodgy attachments before they hit your inbox. Not just basic spam filtering — proper threat protection. Most businesses have this available and haven't configured it beyond the defaults.

Intune (Endpoint Manager)

Lets you manage every device that connects to your business data. Laptops, phones, tablets. You can enforce encryption, require PINs, remotely wipe a lost device, and make sure only compliant devices can access company data. If your team works remotely at all, this is essential.

Entra ID Conditional Access

This is where you set the rules. Only allow access from certain countries. Block sign-ins from unmanaged devices. Require MFA for admin accounts. Force re-authentication after a set period. These policies are how you actually control who gets in and from where.

Microsoft Purview

Data classification, sensitivity labels, and data loss prevention (DLP). You can label documents as confidential and control who can share them. Set policies that stop people emailing sensitive data outside the organisation. If you deal with any kind of regulated data, this is how you protect it without making everyone's life difficult.

Secure Score

Microsoft gives your environment a security score out of 100. It tells you exactly what you've turned on, what you haven't, and what to do next. It's a free audit built right into the admin centre.

Where most businesses sit

We typically see businesses sitting at a Secure Score of 30-40 out of 100 when we first look. Not because they don't care about security — they just didn't know these tools existed or didn't have time to configure them.

Getting to 60-70 is usually straightforward and doesn't cost anything extra. It's just configuration work.

What we do

We run through your M365 environment and look at what's turned on, what's half-configured, and what's been ignored. Then we give you a prioritised list — what to fix first based on risk, not just what's easiest.

We handle the configuration, test it, and make sure it doesn't break anything for your team. No new products to buy. No third-party tools. Just using what you've already got.

If you want to know your Secure Score and what you're missing, reach out. Takes about an hour to give you a clear picture.