👋 Hi, Merill and Joshua here with this week’s roundup of Microsoft Entra news from around the globe 🌍.
This week: the ConnectWise Cloud Backup breach and what it teaches us about app permissions, a big wave of posts on agent identity blueprints, cleaning up risky apps and secrets, and plenty on passkeys and Conditional Access.
🎙️ This week on Entra.Chat: Jeff Sakowicz from the Microsoft Entra application platform team shares the order that actually works for cleaning up risky apps, secrets and consent. Watch the episode the learn more.
Stop the Bleeding: Cleaning Up Apps, Secrets and Consent in Microsoft Entra
Most tenants have the same problem: hundreds of app registrations and service principals, client secrets that were set to expire in a hundred years, permission grants nobody remembers approving, and test tenants that were never cleaned up. It’s tempting to start fixing the scariest app on the list. Jeff Sakowicz argues for a different order: stop the pr…
🚨 The ConnectWise (SkyKick) breach. On 15 October an attacker used one stolen credential for the ConnectWise Cloud Backup app to sign in to 173+ Microsoft 365 tenants. There was no phishing, no password and no MFA prompt, because the app already had admin consent to read mail, files and the directory in every tenant. I made a short video that explains how Entra app permissions made this possible, why Conditional Access didn’t apply, and what to check in your tenant today. If you use the app, start by finding it by its app ID (506e08f9-6e9a-4da4-942b-a099a03644ae) in Enterprise apps and disabling it. Don’t delete it.
Sponsored by:
EasyEntra: Empower First-Level Support to Work Efficiently
Managing standard first-level user support in a hybrid environment is overly complex. To handle even basic tasks, your team needs expertise across multiple platforms like ADUC, Exchange on-premises Admin Center, M365 Admin Center, Entra Admin Center, EXO Admin Center, EXO PowerShell, and Entra Connect PowerShell.
EasyEntra eliminates this complexity and allows first-level support to work without headaches:
✅ Intuitive - The interface mimics the familiar AD Users & Computers layout.
✅ Consolidated - Manage all user settings from a single-pane-of-glass.
✅ Responsive - Preloads all properties for lightning-fast navigation of settings.
✅ Reduces junior IT training - Onboard junior IT staff in minutes.
✅ Protects senior IT staff - Prevent first-level support tickets from escalating.
⚡️ Microsoft
🏆 General Availability
What’s new in Microsoft Entra: October 2026 • Yina Arenas
🔥 Public Preview
📖 Read
The hidden network: Inside the phishing infrastructure ecosystem powering global cybercrime • Microsoft Threat Intelligence
🗣️ Message Center
📺 Watch
📺 Zero Trust: From Strategy to Reality • Mark Simos
From the community…
Sponsored by:
App Sprawl is Outpacing Governance
New apps keep coming in. Can your governance processes keep up? Between SaaS growth, shadow IT, AI-powered citizen development, and a constant stream of new app requests, maintaining control of your Entra ID environment is getting harder. And governance challenges extend beyond onboarding:
🔑 Excessive permissions and unclear ownership
📦 Insecure tenant defaults
🗑️ Orphaned apps and lingering access
🔃 Inconsistent offboarding and lifecycle governanceYou can’t govern what you can’t see. ENow’s AppGov Score benchmarks your Entra ID application governance posture, uncovering risks and gaps so you know what to prioritize first. Get your free App Governance Benchmark Report & Score, plus a 7-day upgrade to explore the tool in your own tenant.
☀️ Learn
👩✈️ AI & Copilot
Prevent users from creating new agent identity blueprints • Jan Bakker
Microsoft Entra expands who can create agent blueprints • Daniel Bradley
How to Restrict Users from Creating Agent Identity Blueprints in Microsoft Entra • Ali Tajran
Entra – Restrict users to create agent identity blueprint • Benoit HAMET
Microsoft Entra Updates Agent Blueprint Creation and Consent Requirements • Shanchana
Microsoft Entra Lets Users Create Agent Blueprints by Default • Rudy Mens
🧰 Workload ID
⛑️ ID Protection
M365Permissions v2.2.0 released! • Jos Lieben
👮♂️ ID Governance
How to speed up PIM activations in Microsoft Entra ID • Daniel Bradley
PIM custom extensions, what the docs didn’t say when I tested this • Joël Prins
Attackers Follow the Path You Designed – Why Identity Architecture Matters More Than Ever? • Shehan Perera
Best Practices for Group Management in Microsoft 365 • Office 365 Reports
Attackers Follow the Path You Designed – Why Identity Architecture Matters More Than Ever • Chris Bradshaw
🌐 Private Access & Internet Access (GSA)
Understanding Traffic Forwarding and Advanced Diagnostics • Andy Kemp
Deploying the Global Secure Access Client with Intune • Andy Kemp
📦 Apps
App Registrations and Enterprise Apps: What the Entra Object Model Actually Looks Like • Jonathan Hope
Microsoft Plans to Allow Users to Create Agent Blueprints • Tony Redmond
Containment in Microsoft 365 - the token problem • Rory Wagner
Entra ID Backup & Recovery in GA • Julian Rasmussen
Authentication
Phishing-Resistant by Default: Microsoft’s Passkey Shift • Nathan McNulty
Passkeys Are Not a Trap • Scott Helme
📺 The 4 Entra Passkey Types: Which One Do You Need? • Azure Brother
👥 User & Group Management
Entra User Source of Authority – The Future is Now! • Anthony J. Fontanez
🤖 DevOps & PowerShell
📺 MSGraphProxy: We Have Microsoft Graph at Home - Morten Mynster • PowerShell Conference Europe
🚦 Conditional Access
Microsoft Entra ID Introduces Individual Security Defaults Protections (Preview) • Blesslin Rinu
Manage individual Security Defaults protections in Microsoft Entra • Daniel Bradley
🥷 Conditional Access
🏙️ External ID - Guests & Multi-Tenant Organizations
Microsoft Entra’s New Sponsored Guests Experience Puts Governance in the Hands of Business Owners • Colby Pryor and Colby Pryor
B2B Guest Blocked by Country? Check Global Secure Access Source IP Restoration • Samuel Eng and Samuel Eng
♻️ Sync
🔥 Maester
👨🏽💻 Merill’s corner
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