Forum Discussion
Global administrator in Office 365, how to get real governance
Microsoft CAN help you in situations like this, but you will need to pass over multiple verifications and so on. So if you havent contacted support already, do it, and if the first line guys are giving you trouble ask to get the issue escalated.
As to what you can do to avoid future issues - dont grant access to people you dont trust and protect your sensitive accounts with MFA (it's free and very simple to setup/use).
The Global Admin account level is extremely important to protect. MFA is a must.
One related tip... If you're on E3, you can Activity log to query all changed admin settings or call the corresponding API.
For E5, Advanced Security Management would be able to set up rules in case too many settings are set by a rogue Global Admin, then you could suspend that rogue Global Admin account automatically if they exceed your threshold.
Either way, it is good from a checks and balances perspective to see what other admins are setting.
Microsoft CAN help you in situations like this, but you will need to pass over multiple verifications and so on. So if you havent contacted support already, do it, and if the first line guys are giving you trouble ask to get the issue escalated.
As to what you can do to avoid future issues - dont grant access to people you dont trust and protect your sensitive accounts with MFA (it's free and very simple to setup/use).
Is it recommended that the Global Administrator of an organization be enabled for MFA, using the built in MFA that comes with the Office 365 E1 subscription? What happens if the Global Administrator loses access to his or her smart phone, and can't authenticate? What is the best practice recommendation for securing the Global Administrator's login credentials?
- A good place to start is to ensure that every admin role has at least 2 people assigned.
Thanks for your reply! That is obviously minimal, but one global admin can take out the global admin. We implement 3 global admin from different dept. Also, we will implement in the AD Azure a corporate admin that can take out the rights of any global admin in Office 365. Using the Compliance center for audit and alerts, we should be fine. I think that I am heading to a good governance and information security.
Sorry Vasil, but Microsoft can not do anything if the Global Admin does not give is OK. So if you deal with a bad boy, you are stock in the coner. I have try if to 3 days, and Microsoft can not do anything.
- JeremyChapmanMSFT
Microsoft
The Global Admin account level is extremely important to protect. MFA is a must.
One related tip... If you're on E3, you can Activity log to query all changed admin settings or call the corresponding API.
For E5, Advanced Security Management would be able to set up rules in case too many settings are set by a rogue Global Admin, then you could suspend that rogue Global Admin account automatically if they exceed your threshold.
Either way, it is good from a checks and balances perspective to see what other admins are setting.
Being more a busness manager I did not know MFA, but I quikly surf it, and it seem to be in the right direction. So, If one department is taking care of managing MFA, and another one is doing Office 365, I understand that the MFA person could remove the Global Administor rights to login and take over. I hope I have properly understood. Thanks for the community, it is very helpfull.
All Global admins have equal rights, if that's what you mean. Protecting an account with MFA will not prevent any malicious activities from rogue operative, but it will put another layer of security on top of the password.
Thanks Jeremy,
Looks like that the real solution for me is to be E5 level to ensure a full corporate control in case of bad intention or behavior from a Global Admin
JeremyChapmanMSFT wrote:The Global Admin account level is extremely important to protect. MFA is a must.
One related tip... If you're on E3, you can Activity log to query all changed admin settings or call the corresponding API.
For E5, Advanced Security Management would be able to set up rules in case too many settings are set by a rogue Global Admin, then you could suspend that rogue Global Admin account automatically if they exceed your threshold.
Either way, it is good from a checks and balances perspective to see what other admins are setting.
Thanks,
- MichaelHolsteThanks for sharing!
- jeffmedford
VasilMichev wrote:
Microsoft CAN help you in situations like this, but you will need to pass over multiple verifications and so on. So if you havent contacted support already, do it, and if the first line guys are giving you trouble ask to get the issue escalated.
As to what you can do to avoid future issues - dont grant access to people you dont trust and protect your sensitive accounts with MFA (it's free and very simple to setup/use).
Just wanted to +1 on the Multi-Factor Auth protection statement above.
For more information on MFA, you can see below:
- On a somewhat related topic, are there any plans to implement Just In Time admin roles in which admins have to request an increase in permissions to perform specific tasks during a dedicated period of time?
you have this today thru azure privlaged identity management. from the azure portal add it as a new service and walk thru the wizard.
Nice work VasilMichev! 'Best Answer' FTW!
