Finding Forwards based upon to address
I have a distribution list that is designed to send an email to every mailbox associated with my company's domain. This distribution list only contains company generated mailboxes. When I send an email to this list, I get automatic replies from 2 email addresses that are not associated with my company. The emails state that those employees have new email addresses and to update my address book. The address that I get the reply from does not disclose the employee's name. All I know is that it's from a business position like school principal or school resource officer. Yes, I can lookup the name of the current office holder, but the account is generically tied to the position rather than a specific employee. The most likely cause of this is that 2 of the email accounts in my company have forwarding turned on. How do I search my company directory to find the 2 mailboxes that are forwarding to external email addresses so I can turn off that forwarding? I've read that this can be achieved with a powershell command but have not seen anything in the way of a working script. Nor do I have the slightest knowledge to write my own script.I built a free, open-source M365 security assessment tool - looking for feedback
I work as an IT consultant, and a good chunk of my time is spent assessing Microsoft 365 environments for small and mid-sized businesses. Every engagement started the same way: connect to five different PowerShell modules, run dozens of commands across Entra ID, Exchange Online, Defender, SharePoint, and Teams, manually compare each setting against CIS benchmarks, then spend hours assembling everything into a report the client could actually read. The tools that automate this either cost thousands per year, require standing up Azure infrastructure just to run, or only cover one service area. I wanted something simpler: one command that connects, assesses, and produces a client-ready deliverable. So I built it. What M365 Assess does https://github.com/Daren9m/M365-Assess is a PowerShell-based security assessment tool that runs against a Microsoft 365 tenant and produces a comprehensive set of reports. Here is what you get from a single run: 57 automated security checks aligned to the CIS Microsoft 365 Foundations Benchmark v6.0.1, covering Entra ID, Exchange Online, Defender for Office 365, SharePoint Online, and Teams 12 compliance frameworks mapped simultaneously -- every finding is cross-referenced against NIST 800-53, NIST CSF 2.0, ISO 27001:2022, SOC 2, HIPAA, PCI DSS v4.0.1, CMMC 2.0, CISA SCuBA, and DISA STIG (plus CIS profiles for E3 L1/L2 and E5 L1/L2) 20+ CSV exports covering users, mailboxes, MFA status, admin roles, conditional access policies, mail flow rules, device compliance, and more A self-contained HTML report with an executive summary, severity badges, sortable tables, and a compliance overview dashboard -- no external dependencies, fully base64-encoded, just open it in any browser or email it directly The entire assessment is read-only. It never modifies tenant settings. Only Get-* cmdlets are used. A few things I'm proud of Real-time progress in the console. As the assessment runs, you see each check complete with live status indicators and timing. No staring at a blank terminal wondering if it hung. The HTML report is a single file. Logos, backgrounds, fonts -- everything is embedded. You can email the report as an attachment and it renders perfectly. It supports dark mode (auto-detects system preference), and all tables are sortable by clicking column headers. Compliance framework mapping. This was the feature that took the most work. The compliance overview shows coverage percentages across all 12 frameworks, with drill-down to individual controls. Each finding links back to its CIS control ID and maps to every applicable framework control. Pass/Fail detail tables. Each security check shows the CIS control reference, what was checked, what the expected value is, what the actual value is, and a clear Pass/Fail/Warning status. Findings include remediation descriptions to help prioritize fixes. Quick start If you want to try it out, it takes about 5 minutes to get running: # Install prerequisites (if you don't have them already) Install-Module Microsoft.Graph, ExchangeOnlineManagement -Scope CurrentUser Clone and run git clone https://github.com/Daren9m/M365-Assess.git cd M365-Assess .\Invoke-M365Assessment.ps1 The interactive wizard walks you through selecting assessment sections, entering your tenant ID, and choosing an authentication method (interactive browser login, certificate-based, or pre-existing connections). Results land in a timestamped folder with all CSVs and the HTML report. Requires PowerShell 7.x and runs on Windows (macOS and Linux are experimental -- I would love help testing those platforms). Cloud support M365 Assess works with: Commercial (global) tenants GCC, GCC High, and DoD environments If you work in government cloud, the tool handles the different endpoint URIs automatically. What is next This is actively maintained and I have a roadmap of improvements: More automated checks -- 140 CIS v6.0.1 controls are tracked in the registry, with 57 automated today. Expanding coverage is the top priority. Remediation commands -- PowerShell snippets and portal steps for each finding, so you can fix issues directly from the report. XLSX compliance matrix -- A spreadsheet export for audit teams who need to work in Excel. Standalone report regeneration -- Re-run the report from existing CSV data without re-assessing the tenant. I would love your feedback I have been building this for my own consulting work, but I think it could be useful to the broader community. If you try it, I would genuinely appreciate hearing: What checks should I prioritize next? Which security controls matter most in your environment? What compliance frameworks are most requested by your clients or auditors? How does the report land with non-technical stakeholders? Is the executive summary useful, or does it need work? macOS/Linux users -- does it run? What breaks? I have tested it on macOS, but not extensively. Bug reports, feature requests, and contributions are all welcome on GitHub. Repository: https://github.com/Daren9m/M365-Assess License: MIT (free for commercial and personal use) Runtime: PowerShell 7.x Thanks for reading. Happy to answer any questions in the comments.
Disable incessant nagware popups
I don't know about everyone else, but I am sick and tired of the nagware pop ups in Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, etc. Every single product harasses me with pop ups trying to tell me "hey, did you know this feature was here?", "you can do this if you click that", "let me hold your hand through using products you've used for decades even though you don't want daddy Microslop to do that". This is a prime example. I keep getting the same ones again and again and again and everything I've read indicates they should only appear once. But they don't. They keep coming back like a psychotic stalker ex who wants alimony even though you were never married. How do I get this nagware to stop?!
Not able to logon office 365 account or change it
If I want to logon to my Office 365 account I have to enter my emailaddress. Its is an @.onmicrosoft.com account. Entering password is ok, but then I am have to verify my phone number. The last two digits are shown, but clicking on this phone number I am getting an error like: 399287. There is no way of resetting this. I already contacted helpdesk but they cannot solve this problem. I have a bussniess account and I need some help about this. Every time I want to reset or want to make a change the account I am stuck in this error screen (endless loop). Please help me.Microsoft Feedback Portal account is not working
I changed my Microsoft password a year ago, and it updated everywhere other than the Feedback Portal. As a result, I get an error when I try to login, or do anything on the page. Microsoft account support's suggestion was to login to the Feedback Portal which is insane given I'm having issues accessing it. How can I get this issue resolved? I've got three separate support tickets now and they keep asking me to wait 24 hours to get the issue resolved. Can someone from the Feedback Portal team please contact me to resolve this?" This is what Microsoft Support have said: "understand your frustration, and yes—this is an account‑related issue because the Feedback Portal is still tied to your old alias, which causes login conflicts and forces you out. Your Microsoft account itself signs in correctly, but the Feedback Portal is pulling outdated identity data that you cannot update on your own. Since you cannot access the Portal to submit feedback, directing you back there is not a workable solution. What you need is for Support to escalate this to the internal Identity/Feedback Platform engineering team so they can manually correct the outdated alias mapping on the backend. In this situation, the Feedback Portal and Tech Community teams are the ones who manage and maintain that specific platform. Because the issue appears on the Feedback Portal side—even though your Microsoft account is working normally—only their dedicated team can make the necessary corrections on their end. That’s why we are guiding you to connect with them through the links provided: https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/ or https://feedbackportal.microsoft.com/feedback. They will be able to review the portal‑specific account data and assist you further. I understand why this is frustrating. Since you’re unable to stay signed in to the Feedback Portal, I completely see why posting there isn’t possible for you. However, I do need to be transparent: I’m not able to escalate this issue directly to the Feedback Portal team, as they don’t provide internal escalation channels for us and only accept requests through their own platform. "
Case 2512040040001886 - Cannot Access Account
Since the 4th of December we have been patiently waiting on MS Tech support to assist on resolving our Case with no success endless calls and endless promises with no luck. How do you proceed in using Microsoft for a Business if they don't deliver on the support. My business is taking the brunt of it. I suppose another call holding for hours and another Support person promise a solution. No other methods to log complaints as you cannot log into your Account Portal.
Can't access Microsoft Authenticator for business accounts
Hello. I am the tech support for a small church, where I am the admin for our MS 365 accounts, which are set up as "business accounts". I have been using Microsoft Authenticator for MFA for years. Recently I switched to a new phone and installed Microsoft Authenticator. All of my personal Authenticator accounts transferred over just fine, but all of the church's business accounts say "Scan the QR Code provided by your organization to finish recovering this account". The thing is, I am the "organization" and I don't know how to generate any QR code to recover the accounts. It was suggested that I could do something about this by logging into my Microsoft 365 administrator account, but when I try to log into my admin account, the only MFA option is "enter the code from Microsoft Authenticator". It's not offering a text or alternate email, only Microsoft Authenticator, which is what I'm locked out of. So I'm stuck in a loop. I opened a ticket with Microsoft Support nine days ago. I have received one phone call since then. The support person insisted that they needed to talk to the account's "alternate administrator", which I set up as my pastor, who is pretty computer savvy but not a deep IT person. They tried to call him one time, but he was not available to answer right then. There has been no communication since then. I'm hoping someone in this group can help me figure this out.Securing the Modern Workplace: Transitioning from Legacy Authentication to Conditional Access
Authored by: Gonzalo Brown Ruiz, Senior Microsoft 365 Engineer & Cloud Security Specialist Date: July 2025 Introduction In today’s threat landscape, legacy authentication is one of the weakest links in enterprise security. Protocols like POP, IMAP, SMTP Basic, and MAPI are inherently vulnerable — they don’t support modern authentication methods like MFA and are frequently targeted in credential stuffing and password spray attacks. Despite the known risks, many organizations still allow legacy authentication to persist for “just one app” or “just a few users.” This article outlines a real-world, enterprise-tested strategy for eliminating legacy authentication and implementing a Zero Trust-aligned Conditional Access model using Microsoft Entra ID. Why Legacy Authentication Must Die No support for MFA: Enables attackers to bypass the most critical security control Password spray heaven: Common vector for brute-force and scripted login attempts Audit blind spots: Limited logging and correlation in modern SIEM tools Blocks Zero Trust progress: Hinders enforcement of identity- and device-based policies Removing legacy auth isn’t a nice-to-have — it’s a prerequisite for a modern security strategy. Phase 1: Auditing Your Environment A successful transition starts with visibility. Before blocking anything, I led an environment-wide audit to identify: All sign-ins using legacy protocols (POP, IMAP, SMTP AUTH, MAPI) App IDs and service principals requesting basic auth Users with outdated clients (Office 2010/2013) Devices and applications integrated via PowerShell, Azure Sign-In Logs, and Workbooks Tools used: Microsoft 365 Sign-In Logs Conditional Access insights workbook PowerShell (Get-SignInLogs, Get-CASMailbox, etc.) Phase 2: Policy Design and Strategy The goal is not just to block — it’s to transform authentication securely and gradually. My Conditional Access strategy included: Blocking legacy authentication protocols while allowing scoped exceptions Report-only mode to assess potential impact Role-based access rules (admins, execs, vendors, apps) Geo-aware policies and MFA enforcement Service account handling and migration to Graph or Modern Auth-compatible apps Key considerations: Apps that support legacy auth only Delegates and shared mailbox access scenarios BYOD and conditional registration enforcement Phase 3: Staged Rollout and Enforcement A phased approach reduced friction: Pilot group enforcement (IT, InfoSec, willing users) Report-only monitoring across business units Clear communications to stakeholders and impacted users User education campaigns on legacy app retirement Gradual enforcement by department, geography, or risk tier We used Microsoft Entra’s built-in messaging and Service Health alerts to notify users of policy triggers. Phase 4: Monitoring, Tuning, and Incident Readiness Once policies were in place: Monitored Sign-in logs for policy match rates and unexpected denials Used Microsoft Defender for Identity to correlate legacy sign-in attempts Created alerts and response playbooks for blocked sign-in anomalies Results: 100% of all user and app traffic transitioned to Modern Auth Drastic reduction in brute force traffic from foreign IPs Fewer support tickets around password lockouts and MFA prompts Lessons Learned Report-only mode is your best friend. Avoids surprise outages. Communication beats configuration. Even a perfect policy fails if users are caught off guard. Legacy mail clients still exist in vendor tools and old mobile apps. Service accounts can break silently. Replace or modernize them early. CA exclusions are dangerous. Every exception must be time-bound and documented. Conclusion Eliminating legacy authentication is not just a policy update — it’s a cultural shift toward Zero Trust. By combining deep visibility, staged enforcement, and a user-centric approach, organizations can securely modernize their identity perimeter. Microsoft Entra Conditional Access is more than a policy engine — it is the architectural pillar of enterprise-grade identity security. Author’s Note: This article is based on my real-world experience designing and enforcing Conditional Access strategies across global hybrid environments with Microsoft 365 and Azure AD/Entra ID. Copyright © 2025 Gonzalo Brown Ruiz. All rights reserved.
