28 Aug 2026

The Microsoft 365 hardening checklist we run first

Twelve settings that close most of the gaps we find in tenants that were set up quickly.

Most Microsoft 365 tenants were created in an afternoon and never revisited. These are the settings we check before anything else.

  • Security defaults or Conditional Access with MFA for all users
  • Legacy authentication blocked
  • Admin accounts separated from daily accounts
  • Mail forwarding rules audited
  • Sharing defaults reviewed
  • Audit log retention confirmed