This tool benefits you by ensuring you know all the possible security settings available through your subscriptions. What exactly is analyzed, and how can your organization make the most of it?<\/strong><\/p>\n It aggregates your company\u2019s user behavior, system settings, and other security-related configurations<\/a> and vulnerabilities into one numerical value. The higher your score, the more secure your organization. Below, we break down everything that comes in the results, from the score itself to additional analyses that come along with it.<\/p>\n The score is broken down across different areas so you can determine where your maturity needs to improve. The score within each of those areas is based on all possible options in each particular setting and how those options are actually used within your organization. For example, the action \u201cEnable MFA for all global admins\u201d has a potential score of 50\/50 points. If only half the available global admins have MFA activated, then the score will be 25\/50. The total number of points available for your tenant depends on your licensing.<\/p>\n Each security setting has a category, impact, cost, and score assigned to it. Microsoft calculates the scores daily in the late hours.<\/p>\n Centric Consulting screen shot.<\/p><\/div>\n As you continue to use Microsoft Secure Score, you\u2019ll start to see your score history so you can learn if your security posture<\/a> is improving (or not) over time.<\/strong> Like the score itself, you\u2019ll see a breakdown based on each individual component so you know if some scores have gotten better or if any have gotten worse.<\/p>\n After you receive your score, in the report you can see what additional actions you could take to improve your score. As you improve and implement the actions listed below the score increases and decreases accordingly.<\/p>\n In the example below, one action might be to \u201cBlock Office Communication application from creating child processes.\u201d<\/p>\n Centric Consulting secure score.<\/p><\/div>\n The Secure Score dashboard will even provide you with \u201cTop Improvement Actions,\u201d or actions you need to improve as soon as possible or ones that will be quick to address to help you improve your score quickly. It will even break down each action by how much in percentages it could improve your overall score.<\/p>\n Microsoft also computes the average score across all Microsoft 365<\/a> tenants of similar industries and sizes so you can see how your score compares to other organizations.<\/strong> Even so, keep in mind that all organizations have their own security needs and requirements, so the comparison is only an interesting chart to note and should not be used to gauge your company\u2019s security effectiveness.<\/p>\n Centric Consulting screen shot.<\/p><\/div>\n To access Microsoft 365 Secure Score, you need Microsoft 365<\/a> with Exchange Online, SharePoint Online<\/a>, or OneDrive for Business.<\/p>\n Once your admins are in a global or custom role, they will have access to Secure Score and will be able to share results with any non-admin users. The results are available graphically at the site and are downloadable for manipulation in Excel.<\/p>\n Your IT administrators and security teams can then use the Excel spreadsheet to:<\/strong><\/p>\n Because of the breadth and depth of the Microsoft 365 platform, it is easy to overlook (and even forget) some key security settings. But this tool ensures you do not miss anything. That means your chief information security officer<\/a> (CISO) will forget your name, which is a positive side effect!<\/p>\n This tool, however, is not designed to gauge the likeliness of a security breach in your organization\u2019s tenant, nor should it be used as a single source of truth for your organization\u2019s security practices.<\/p>\nWhat Is Microsoft Secure Score?<\/h2>\n
1. The Score<\/h3>\n
![\"Microsoft](\"https:\/\/centricconsulting.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/M365-Secure-Score-1.png\")
<\/a>2. Score History<\/h3>\n
3. Recommendations and Top Improvement Actions<\/h3>\n
![\"M365](\"https:\/\/centricconsulting.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/M365-Secure-Score-2-1024x591.jpg\")
<\/a>4. Benchmarks<\/h3>\n
![\"Microsoft](\"https:\/\/centricconsulting.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/M365-Secure-Score-3.png\")
<\/a>How to Access and Use Your Score<\/h2>\n
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Microsoft Secure Score: A Guide, not a North Star<\/h3>\n