Entra.Chat
Entra Chat is a weekly podcast hosted by Merill Fernando that offers practical insights for Microsoft administrators and security professionals. Each episode features conversations with identity experts who share real-world deployment experiences, as well as Microsoft Entra team members who discuss the features they build. The show covers best practices, implementation strategies, and upcoming capabilities in Microsoft identity solutions. Listeners gain actionable takeaways that can be applied immediately in Microsoft 365, Azure, and Entra environments. The content reflects Merill's personal opinions and is not an official Microsoft publication.
Episodes
Stolen Tokens, Agents and Universal CAE: What Global Secure Access Adds to Entra ID
A phished and stolen refresh token is one of the most useful things an attacker can take from your tenant. It is a long-term artifact, which is why so many phishing attempts go after it. Alex Pavlovsky’s answer to that attack is a feature every Entra ID P1 tenant already owns.Compliant network is part of Global Secure Access, and, like source IP restoration, it comes with Entra ID P1. Put the GSA
Your AI Coding Agent Is Creating Secrets You Don’t Know About
Ask a coding agent to build something that talks to another service and watch what it does. It creates a client secret. Then another one. As Arturo Lucatero puts it, next thing you know you have ten secrets that were created without you knowing about it. At the speed AI is moving, he thinks we could be cleaning up a few million new secrets within six months.That would undo a lot of hard work. Unde
Active Directory Security Testing in Maester 2.2
Active Directory is not dead. It is nearly thirty years old, Microsoft is still shipping new capabilities and new telemetry for it, and most of the forests running today will outlive the people currently administering them. What has changed is that you can now test it the same way you test your cloud tenant.Maester, the open-source PowerShell testing framework, added Active Directory coverage: 269
Microsoft Security Architect: Active Directory Is 10x Harder to Defend Than Entra
At Black Hat USA 2026, Microsoft’s David Weston put three numbers on a slide that anyone still running domain controllers should sit with. The Microsoft Security Response Center went from 80 patches in February to 1,142 at the July Patch Tuesday. The fastest observed breakout time dropped from 98 minutes to 27 seconds. And mean time-to-exploit flipped from 63 days after a patch shipped to seven da
How General Motors Moved 200,000 People to Passkeys
Microsoft starts making passkeys the default in Microsoft Entra ID on 1 September 2026, and retires Microsoft-provided SMS and voice MFA on 1 February 2027. Every organisation with a large, messy population now has to answer a question that has nothing to do with passkey technology itself: how do you move a hundred thousand real people - office workers, factory floors, call centres and guests - wi
Microsoft Entra memberOf Retirement: What Admins Must Do
On 3 November 2026, the memberOf operator in Microsoft Entra dynamic membership groups stops working. Nothing errors. Nothing breaks loudly. Every dynamic group, dynamic administrative unit and entitlement management auto-assignment policy that uses it simply freezes in its last known state the people who should be added are not added, and the people who should be removed stay.It was a preview fea
Pass-the-Passkey: What Michael Grafnetter's Black Hat Research Means for Entra Admins
Passkeys are phishing-resistant. But that resistance is enforced by your browser, which binds every authentication to the origin that requested it. Skip the browser, and the guarantee weakens.In this episode of Entra.Chat, I spoke with Michael Grafnetter, Principal Security Researcher at SpecterOps and Microsoft MVP, about the Pass-the-Passkey research he presented at Black Hat USA 2026. A family
From SMS MFA to Passkeys: A Practical Microsoft Entra Migration Plan
Microsoft-managed SMS and voice MFA will stop working on February 1, 2027. That deadline makes passkey planning urgent, but enabling a new authentication method is only the first milestone.In this episode of Entra.Chat, Merill speaks with Jai Maharaj, Product Manager at Microsoft, about the practical journey from legacy MFA to a passwordless Microsoft Entra environment. Jai explains what is actual
The Ultimate Microsoft Entra Global Secure Access Migration Guide
An Entra GSA migration should not mean throwing away years of useful SSE policy work and rebuilding every application, segment, and rule by hand.Existing configuration carries hard-won intent: which populations need access, which destinations should be blocked, and which exceptions keep the business running. Migrate2GSA creates a path to preserve the useful parts while making the migration a delib
Why Entra Admins Need Microsoft Purview Now
Conditional Access no longer begins and ends with identity signals.Microsoft Purview can now influence the controls Entra administrators are asked to implement. From insider-risk conditions in Conditional Access to inline protection for sensitive data moving toward unsanctioned AI apps. That means Entra teams need enough Purview knowledge to understand what triggers a policy, how users experience
How Xbox Secures 70+ Entra Tenants Every Night with Maester
Xbox Security runs a gaming-specific Microsoft Entra baseline across more than 70 tenants every night.The scale is striking: about 50 controls, dozens of independently operated game-studio tenants, and one parallel pipeline that checks whether each environment still matches Xbox’s security intent. When a Conditional Access policy moves to report-only or a required service principal loses a permiss
One Compromised Agent ID Blueprint Can Cross Tenant Boundaries
Microsoft Entra Agent ID uses familiar application and service-principal objects under the hood, but its one-to-many hierarchy creates a different security boundary. A blueprint can be associated with many agent identities. When that blueprint belongs to a third-party provider and is trusted across customer tenants, the provider’s credential security becomes part of every customer’s risk model.In
Attackers Are Targeting The AI Ecosystem You Cannot See
AI agent security is not just about attackers using AI.It is also about attackers targeting the agent ecosystem most organizations cannot see clearly yet: MCP servers, agent skills, packages, API keys, prompts, tools, and the identity layer underneath all of it.In this episode, I sit down with Thomas Roccia, founder of Security Break and a former Microsoft threat researcher, to look at AI agents f
From Windows Core to Leading Agent ID: Vince Smith’s Microsoft Story
Folks, every big thing in identity started as somebody’s late-night side quest and Vince Smith has been in the room for a lot of them. In this episode of Entra Chat, Vince (the PM lead driving Microsoft Entra Agent ID) walks us back through a 25-year run at Microsoft: shipping beta products off a machine wired straight to the internet under a neighbor’s desk, owning the early RBAC and custom roles
Shadow Admins: The Non-Human Identities Hiding in Your Entra Tenant
Not every admin in your tenant is a person. Service principals, app registrations, and the new wave of agent identities can quietly hold permissions powerful enough to own your entire environment and most orgs can’t even see them. In this episode of Entra Chat, we sits down again with Erika Zellig to expose the “shadow admins” hiding in your Entra tenant, and what to do about them.What we get into
How Microsoft Is Securing AI Agents in Entra - Conditional Access, Zero Trust & the "Block" Debate
AI agents can make decisions and act faster than any human — which means your old identity security playbook no longer holds. In this episode of Entra Chat, [host name] sits down with Nikhil, a 10+ year Microsoft identity veteran from the Authentication Stack and Identity Protection team, to break down how Microsoft Entra, Conditional Access, Defender, and Purview are evolving to secure agentic AI
The Learn-It-All Career Playbook for Identity and Security Pros
In this episode of Entra Chat, we sit down with Christina Morillo, the Senior Director of Information Security for the New York Football Giants, to explore her inspiring transition from an identity specialist to a top-tier security leader. Christina shares her “ground floor” start at a technical help desk and her progression through network administration and specialized identity roles at Microsof
5 Lessons from Rolling Out Passkeys to Millions of Users
Passkeys are one of those technologies that sound simple on paper.Turn them on.Users register them.Passwords go away.Everyone is more secure.But in the real world, passkey rollouts are not just an authentication setting. They are a product rollout, a user experience change, a support change, and an operational change all at once.In this episode, I spoke with Vincent Delitz from Corbado, who has wo
The New Control Plane for Microsoft Entra Tenant Governance
Microsoft had 7 million internal tenants and almost lost control of their environment and your org might be facing the same problem at a smaller scale. In this episode, we sit down with Jeff Staiman, PM Area Lead for Tenant Governance at Microsoft, to break down the feature born from the Midnight Blizzard attack. We cover discovery, drift detection, governance relationships, secure tenant creation
What’s New in Microsoft Entra - May 2026: Passkeys, Agents & Cloud Sync
Fabian and Thomas join the podcast to share their extensive experience and unpack the massive wave of updates coming to Microsoft Entra.We talk about the massive shift toward Passkeys and registration campaigns, the impending migration from Entra Connect Sync to Cloud Sync, and the rapidly evolving world of Agent IDs and AI workloads. We also cover how Entra admins can leverage new Defender XDR fe
If You Manage Entra Permissions, Watch This Before Deploying Agents
Microsoft Entra Agent ID Just Went GA Here’s What You Need to Know About Agent PermissionsIf you’ve been waiting for the dust to settle on Microsoft Entra Agent ID before diving in, the wait is over. Agent ID hit General Availability on May 1st, and in this episode of Entra Chat, Erin Greenlee, a PM in the the Entra AuthN team joins to break down one of the trickiest parts of the new model: how pe
How to Secure Copilot Agents, Azure DevOps & Defender (+ more) with Maester 2.1 (Full Breakdown)
Maester is back with one of its biggest release since launch. In this episode, we are joined by Sam Erde, Architect at Patriot Consulting and one of Maester’s core maintainers, to walk through everything that’s landed in Maester 2.1.Since the December release, the community has shipped 540 new commits, grown the test suite from 128 to 168 tests, and added coverage across entirely new product areas
What an ID Governance Consultant Wishes You Knew About Entra
Identity Governance is often treated as a “nice-to-have” compliance checkbox, but as ID Governance expert Sandra Saluti reveals, it is actually the foundation of a secure, scalable environment. In this technical deep dive, we move past the marketing slides to discuss some of the common real-world “gotchas” that break Entra ID deployments.In this episode, you will learn:* The Golden Rule of Automat
Stop Leaving the Door Open: The Entra ID Hardening Checklist Security Experts Actually Use
Microsoft Entra security is evolving and the way organizations think about identity protection needs to evolve with it. In this episode, I’m joined by Sean Metcalf, one of the foremost identity security experts in the industry, whose work has helped shape how many organizations approach securing both Active Directory and Microsoft Entra.Sean shares the hardening steps many teams still overlook, an
How to Design Bullet-Proof Conditional Access Policies in Microsoft Entra ID
If you can’t immediately name your break glass accounts and the last time you tested them → you’re already at risk.In this episode of Entra Chat, Microsoft MVP Per Torben walks through the conditional access mistakes he sees even large enterprises making, and the practical framework he actually uses with customers.You’ll learn how to set up emergency access accounts the right way, why your CA poli
5 Entra ID Updates You Can’t Afford to Ignore in 2026 (Backup, Governance, CA Agent & Risk Score Exposed)
Microsoft just dropped a massive wave of features for Entra, and the rules of Tenant Governance have officially changed. Join us as we talk to three world-class MVPs about their hands-on experience with the new Entra Backup and Recovery and Tenant Governance features.Our Microsoft MVP guests Nathan McNulty, Ru Campbell, and Thomas Naunheim break down the most exciting new features in Microsoft Ent
Finding Every MFA Gap: Testing 250 Million Conditional Access Combinations in Under 20 Minutes
Emilien Socchi, Cloud Security Research Engineer at Storebrand, joins us to discuss CA Insight and AZTier.Two open-source tools Emilien built to find gaps in Conditional Access policies and categorize Azure/Entra roles based on attack paths. Learn how CA Insight evaluates 250 million sign-in combinations offline in minutes instead of days, why the What If API doesn't scale, and how AZTier helps de
From FIM/MIM to Cloud Sync: Complete Identity Journey with Australia’s Top Identity MVP Darren “Doc” Robinson
Darren Robinson, Identity and Zero Trust Strategy and Architecture Capability Lead at Increment, shares his extensive experience in identity governance and administration.In this episode Merill sits down with Darren “Doc” Robinson – Microsoft MVP since 2017, former SailPoint Ambassador and one of Australia’s most experienced identity architects.Darren takes us on a 25+ year journey from Novell net
How to Migrate from Legacy VPNs to Entra Private Access (Real Strategies from a Veteran)
Richard Hicks wrote the book on DirectAccess. Then he wrote the one on Always On VPN. Now he’s here to tell you it’s time to move on from both (and other legacy VPNs). Over the last two years, Richard has helped numerous enterprise customers navigate the shift from legacy VPN to Microsoft Entra Private Access, and he’s collected some hard-learnt lessons along the way that most migration guides won
Passkeys, Conditional Access, Hard-match updates, GSA BYOD: What Entra Admins Need To Know
I am back home in Melbourne today, and joining me are Nathan McNulty from Alaska and Daniel Bradley from the UK as we dive into all the massive Entra updates that dropped last month. We are breaking down the controversial shift to syncable passkeys , why your Conditional Access policies might suddenly start blocking apps , and the absolute necessity of moving privileged accounts away from on-prem
We Gave Away Our Microsoft Entra Masterclass Labs → Full Governance, Privileged Access & Agent ID Labs Walkthrough
Hey folks, I have to start with a massive shout-out to Morten Knudsen and his entire team at Experts Live Denmark where I’m just returning from. Organizing an event for over 1,200+ attendees is no small feat, and they pulled it off with incredible energy and precision. It was easily one of the most impressive community gatherings I’ve been a part of.Amidst that massive crowd, I had the privilege o
They migrated 40,000 devices to Entra Join in 9 months
What does it take to migrate 40,000 devices to a cloud-native environment in a massive, complex enterprise? For most IT leaders, the prospect of moving away from 20 years of legacy infrastructure is enough to cause a sleepless night.In our latest episode of Entra Chat, we sat down with enterprise veterans Michael Brunker and Prem Kothandapani to deconstruct their recent, massive rollout. They succ
Microsoft Is Auto-Enabling Passkeys in March 2026
March 2026 is shaping up to be one of the most important months for Microsoft Entra ID administrators in recent memory.Microsoft is automatically enabling passkey profiles in Entra ID, and if you don’t configure them yourself, your tenant will be migrated with default settings.In this episode of Entra Chat, I sat down with Microsoft Security MVPs Daniel Bradley and Ewelina Paskowska to break down
Automating Governance: The New Standard for Microsoft 365 Tenant Snapshots and Remediation
Governance in Microsoft 365 has always been hard. Not because the tools didn’t exist, but because scale, complexity, and change made consistency almost impossible. As tenants grow, so do the challenges of configuration drift, manual admin changes, and inconsistent environments.For years, admins have relied on scripts, tribal knowledge, and community-led solutions like Microsoft 365 Desired State C
Mastering Microsoft Entra ID: Real-World Passkey Deployment Tips
In this episode, we sit down with Eric Woodruff, Chief Identity Architect at Semperis, to discuss the reality of achieving a 100% phishing-resistant environment. Over the course of just three months, Eric led a 600-person organization through a complete rollout of passkeys, Windows Hello for Business, and Platform SSO. This conversation moves beyond the technical “knobs and dials” to explore why o
Entra Agent Registry: The Corporate Yellow Pages for AI Agents
Service principals worked for static apps, but AI agents are different—they make autonomous decisions using LLMs and require a new approach to identity and security.In this episode of Entra Chat, Padma Parthasarathy, Product Manager for Microsoft Entra Agent Registry, explains why Microsoft created Entra Agent Registry and Agent ID, and how they provide identity, governance, and security for AI ag
Global Secure Access Explained: Real-World Rollouts, Mistakes, and Best Practices
In this episode, I’m joined by Christopher Brumm from glueckkanja to discuss real-world experiences deploying Microsoft Entra Global Secure Access (GSA).We go beyond the docs to talk about actual customer rollouts, scaling challenges, retiring VPNs, and what teams often underestimate when moving to Zero Trust Network Access.Subscribe with your favorite podcast player or watch on YouTube 👇About Chr
Cybersecurity First Principles: Lessons from a 20-Year Microsoft MVP
Nicolas Blank, Founder of NBConsult and a 20-year Microsoft MVP, joins the show to dismantle the complexity around Zero Trust.Most Zero Trust conversations fail because they start with technology. Nicolas flips the script by using powerful everyday analogies (locking your car, protecting your newborn) to land the three core principles with executives.Essential watching for anyone implementing Zero
Identity-Centric Network Security: Entra Global Secure Access Architecture & Benefits
Is the traditional VPN dead? In the latest episode of Entra Chat, we dive deep Microsoft Entra Global Secure Access (GSA).Joined by Karen Simmel from the GSA product team and Thomas from the Entra CXE Architecture team, we explore how Microsoft is bridging the gap between identity and network security.The Shift from VPN to SASEThe "good old days" of spinning up firewalls and DMZs are fading. Tradi
How to Kill SMS MFA in Entra ID Without a Single Script
Louis Mastelinck, a Microsoft MVP and Security Consultant at Proximus NXT, joins me to discuss the critical journey of moving organizations away from SMS-based MFA.We deep dive into a practical strategy for migrating users to the Authenticator app, starting with “stopping the bleed” and managing user groups. We also explore a significant security blind spot regarding Email OTP for SharePoint guest
Extending Microsoft Entra: Logic Apps, Power Apps, and the Art of Tinkering with Entra ID
In this week’s episode Jan Bakker, Microsoft MVP and solution architect from the Netherlands, joins us for a masterclass in extending Microsoft Entra ID beyond out-of-the-box capabilities. This episode is your complete guide to building custom identity governance and lifecycle management using Power Apps, Logic Apps, and Azure automation.You’ll learn the fundamental building blocks of automation i
Inside Microsoft’s Entra Tenant: The Internal App Governance Playbook
Khurram, a key member of the internal App Governance assessment team at Microsoft, joins the show to pull back the curtain on how Microsoft manages application security at a massive corporate scale and the rigorous internal security measures Microsoft employs to protect its corporate Entra ID tenant from risky applications.In this deep dive, Khurram reveals Microsoft’s custom-built App Governance
The "Secret Sauce" Behind Microsoft's New MCP Server
Luca Spolidoro from the Microsoft Entra AI Innovations team joins us to unveil the new Microsoft MCP Server for Enterprise. We discuss how this innovation allows admins and AI agents to interface with their tenant using natural language, bridging the gap between LLMs and the complexity of Microsoft Graph.We also talk about the technical challenges of token limits, the patented “three-tool” solutio
Entra Ignite Recap: Synced Passkeys, Agent ID & The Future of Identity
This week, I’m joined by a stellar panel of Nathan McNulty, Ru Campbell, Martin Sandren, and Thomas Naunheim to break down the firehose of news from Microsoft Ignite related to Entra. We dive straight into the hot debate over synced passkeys versus device-bound credentials and why consumer adoption might force our hand in the enterprise. We also explore the new Account Recovery features that could
Zero Trust Assessment: Secure your tenant
This week, I’m so excited to share the inside story of a project I’ve been working on for over a year: the new Zero Trust assessment. I’m joined by some of the key folks from the team: Tarek, who’s leading the charge; Sarah and John, who are crushing docs; and Ravi, who’s owning Intune.We unpack the wild breach that sparked it all, geek out over those Sankey charts that spotlight sneaky unmanaged
Hacking Entra ID: Bypassing AppLocks & Creating ‘Immortal’ Users
In this episode, I sit down with security researcher Katie Knowles to unpack the hidden layers of identity systems inside Microsoft Entra. We get into real-world attack paths like backdooring service principals, restricted administrative units that can accidentally create unstoppable accounts, and OAuth phishing in Copilot Studio. Katie also shares how she approaches deep technical research, what
Hacking Entra ID: Inside the Attack & Defense Playbook with its Creators
Sami Lamppu and Thomas Naunheim, the creators of the Entra ID Attack and Defense Playbook, join me to discuss their incredible 5-year community project.We talk about the most complex attacks they’ve researched, including the “black box” token and PRT attacks, and their shocking findings related to TPM and device compliance. We also dive deep into their brand-new chapter on the new Microsoft Entra
I found a bug that could hack ANY Microsoft 365 tenant - Here's what happened
In this episode, I chat with Dirk-jan Mollema, the legendary researcher behind some of the most important discoveries in Microsoft identity security. We go deep into how curiosity led him from tinkering with web tools to uncovering one of the biggest Entra ID vulnerabilities ever found. He shares the story behind the CVE that rocked the cloud world, the stress of realizing what he’d uncovered, and
AI is Coming to Identity Governance! Meet the Entra Access Review Agent
In this episode, I sit down with Alexander Filipin, a Product Manager at Microsoft, to unpack the essentials of identity governance and why access reviews are a game-changer for security and compliance.We explore the pitfalls like rubber stamping that plague traditional methods and tease how the new AI-driven Access Review Agent is stepping in with smart recommendations and context to make decisio
Why AI Is Breaking Identity Security – Experts Spill the Truth!
Welcome back to Entra.Chat! In this rapid-fire Q&A, I’m joined by a team of brilliant CXE Identity Architects from Microsoft, and they’re answering the toughest questions on the future of identity. We dive deep into the security challenge posed by agentic AI that can spawn self-replicating identities and how Microsoft is creating tailored behavioral analytics to protect your environment. The team
Azure AD B2C to Entra External ID: Migration Strategies You Need to Know
In this episode, I sit down with my longtime friends and colleagues, Jas Suri and Gayan Randeny, at Microsoft’s campus to unpack the biggest Microsoft consumer identity shift in years—Azure AD B2C’s sunset and the rise of Entra External ID. We talk about why B2C is going away, the crazy scale of tenants with 100M+ identities, the migration paths and what the future looks like for customer identity
Microsoft's Secret Weapon for M365 Admins: A 10x Faster Bulk Operations Tool
On this episode of Entra Chat, I was thrilled to sit down with Yanyan and Sweta from the Entra UI experience team to dive deep into a feature that many of us have used but is now getting a massive refresh: Bulk Operations. We talked about how they took a critical legacy tool and completely re-engineered it for insane performance and scale, making it more reliable than ever. You’ll hear about some
How a Pharmacist Became a Pro Hacker (And What She Found in YOUR Tenant)
Cybersecurity expert Erica shares her incredible journey from pharmacist to becoming a professional hacker. She reveals how attackers are bypassing modern security controls like MFA and what you can do to protect your tenant.We talk about the most common configuration vulnerabilities that exist in almost every organization, the dangers of application onboarding, and the top five phishing vectors t
The Great Debate: P2 vs. Entra ID Governance for Guests
Jeremy Conley, Product Manager on the Identity Governance team at Microsoft, demystifies the world of guest access in Microsoft Entra. We discuss the hidden security risks that accumulate as guests are invited into a tenant and the governance challenges this creates.We also do a deep dive into the different licensing tiers, from P2 to the new Entra ID Governance for Guests license, and explain the
The Hidden Risks of Non-Human Identities in Your Tenant
In this episode of Entra.Chat, I dive into the critical world of app governance with experts Jay Gundotra and Sander Berkouwer, who unpack the hidden risks of non-human identities in Microsoft Entra. From shocking real-world breaches like Midnight Blizzard to a hilarious tale of a theme park’s water supply mishap, we explore why securing your cloud apps is more urgent than ever. Tune in to discove
Red Team Secrets: How we bypass Conditional Access (and how you can fix it)
In this episode of Entra.Chat, I dive deep with cybersecurity architect Fabian Bader into his research on bypassing poorly designed Microsoft Entra’s conditional access policies and what you can do about them. We also cover the game-changing new Group Source of Authority feature that lets you finally manage synced groups in the cloud, and share insights from Fabian’s work with MSRC to secure the
Inside Entra Resilience: Microsoft's Outage War Stories, Backup Secrets and Preventing Global Outages
In this episode, I sit down with my boss, Tarek Dawoud, to pull back the curtain on what really happens during a major service outage. Tarek shares some incredible "war stories" from his time in the trenches, from the early days of DirSync where the team had to edit a sync file with a debugger to prevent an incident, to the massive outages of 2017 and 2018 that changed everything. We'll give you a
Identity War Stories: Surviving the Domain Cutover Nightmare!
In this episode, I sit down with Conrad Murray, a seasoned expert who lives and breathes the complexities of IT migrations during mergers, acquisitions, and divestitures.We dive deep into the real-world challenges that companies face, from the political battles of deciding whose tenant to use, to the technical nightmares of migrating three-quarters of a petabyte of data for a major global firm.Con
Don't Get Left Behind: The Future of Identity Governance
In this episode we are joined by Jef Kazimer, Principal Product Manager at Microsoft to discuss the critical role of Microsoft Entra ID Governance. We explore the entire identity lifecycle from joiners, movers, and leavers (JML), the financial and security benefits of automated provisioning, and the pitfalls of legacy IGA solutions. Jef shares his extensive experience, from deploying complex MIM
The Zero Trust Mistakes 90% of Companies Are Making (Microsoft Insiders Reveal All)
In this eye-opening episode, I sit down with Microsoft's Clay and Ramiro, two Customer Experience (CxE) architects who've collectively run over 150 Zero Trust workshops with enterprise customers. They reveal the shocking gaps they consistently find—like customers spending millions on compliance policies but forgetting to actually block non-compliant devices with conditional access. We dive deep in
Building Entra's CA AI Agent: A Creator's Perspective
In this episode, I sit down with Jordan Dahl, a Product Manager on the Entra Conditional Access team, to discuss the newly GA'd Conditional Access Optimization Agent. Jordan shares the origin story of the agent, explaining how customer feedback about the difficulties of managing CA policies at scale led to its creation. We delve into how this AI-powered "digital colleague" works to identify and re
The Unpopular Opinion: Why I Actually LIKE Hybrid Join
In this exciting episode of Entra Chat, I dive into the world of Entra + Windows devices with the passionate and knowledgeable John Towles, a solution architect and MVP for Windows 365 and more. We unpack why Entra hybrid join is still relevant for some organizations, explore the ins and outs of Windows Autopilot, and reveal practical tips for navigating the complexities of modern device managemen
Entra Chat 🎙️ → A master class with Entra’s Identity Provisioning Wizard!
In this episode, I sit down with Chetan Desai, a Principal Product Manager on the Microsoft Identity Governance team. We dive deep into a side of Entra that many admins never see: the critical "first mile problem" of getting identities into your system in the first place.We talk about the evolution from on-prem scripts and MIM to specific connectors for Workday and SuccessFactors and then to the n
The Secret to Great Tech Content? A Masterclass in Storytelling
In this episode, I chat with the legendary Tony Redmond, a prolific writer and author of "Office 365 for IT Pros". Tony shares unfiltered insights from his career, critiques the state of technical writing and AI, and discusses the challenges with PowerShell and the future of AI agents in the Microsoft ecosystem.Subscribe with your favorite podcast player or watch on YouTube 👇About Tony RedmondTony
The Ultimate Guide to App Consent in Microsoft Entra
In this episode, I sit down with Erin Greenlee, the Product Manager for App Consent on Microsoft’s App Platform Team. We dive into the critical world of app consent and the upcoming Microsoft 365 secure-by-default changes. We explore the nuances of user and admin consent, the impact of the mid-July 2025, policy shift, and how admins can prepare for a more secure Entra environment.Subscribe with yo
Pushing Microsoft Entra to its Limits to Secure On-Prem AD
In this episode, we talk with an identity expert, ex-Microsoftie and Principal Domain Architect, Mark Renoden, about creating a modern Privileged Access Management (PAM) solution for on-premises Active Directory. Discover how to build a secure "Bastion Forest" architecture using Microsoft Entra. We talk about PIM for Groups, group write-back, phish-resistant credentials, Privileged Access Workstat
From Active Directory to AI Agents: The 25-Year Saga of Microsoft's Identity
In this very special episode, I sit down with the "Yoda of Entra" himself, Tarek Dawoud, who also happens to be my manager!We dig deep into the fascinating and often surprising history of Microsoft's identity platforms. Tarek, who has been on the team since 2007, takes us on a journey from the revolutionary launch of Active Directory in 1999, through the creation of the cloud services that battled
From NetIQ to Cloud-Native Entra: A Decade-Long IAM Revolution
In this episode, we are joined by Maqsood Bhatti, the IAM Principal Engineer at Elkjøp Nordic, who takes us through their incredible journey of migrating from the legacy NetIQ platform to Microsoft Entra. What's fascinating is how they accomplished this years ago, completely bypassing traditional tools like Entra Connect and adopting a "production-only" environment. Maqsood shares how they built a
Decommissioning On-Prem AD: Lessons Learned from We Are Era's Successful Migration
Tobias Binkert, Head of IT at We Are Era, and Yusuke Kodama, Product Manager at Microsoft (who specialises in cloud-first identity, among many other things), join us to discuss We Are Era’s successful migration from on-premises Active Directory to a fully cloud-native Microsoft Entra ID environment.We delve into the motivations behind this significant shift with practical strategies for migrating
Unmasking Entra ID Threats: A CrowdStrike Researcher's Early Career Insights with Sapir Federovsky
In this episode we chat with Sapir Federovsky, a Security Researcher at CrowdStrike, who shares her journey from military service to becoming an identity threat researcher.She discusses her learning methods, the importance of community, and the challenges of keeping up in the fast-paced world of Azure and Entra ID security.Sapir also delves into specific Entra ID features she focuses on, the criti
Microsoft's Entra Kerberos: Bridging Legacy AD to Cloud Auth + MAM on Edge with PM Jordan Gross
In this episode we chat with Microsoft PM Jordan Gross about the exciting world of Entra Kerberos.Discover how this crucial feature bridges the gap between traditional on-premises Active Directory and the modern cloud, enabling seamless authentication for legacy applications in hybrid environments.Jordan delves into the mechanics of Entra Kerberos, its different operational modes (up-level and dow
Entra & Azure Power-Up: Secure Service Principal Impersonation with Simon Gottschlag
In this episode, Simon Gottschlag, CTO of Co-native and a Microsoft MVP in Azure, discusses his innovative prototype for implementing Azure service principal impersonation using Azure Functions and Key Vault.We explore the challenges of managing service principals, the journey to building a solution, and the potential for improving developer experience in platform building. Simon shares insights o
Unlocking Entra ID's NEW QR Code Sign-In. Fast & Simple Authentication!
🎙️ Entra.Chat - https://entra.chatThis episode of Entra Chat features Anju Singh, a Product Manager at Microsoft in the Microsoft Entra Authentication Experiences team. We discuss the newest authentication method in Entra: QR codes!Anju answers heaps of questions in this deep dive including why Microsoft chose QR codes, how it works under the hood, what you should and shouldn't use it for, and the
Entra @ McDonald's: Managing 2.2 million workforce identities in the cloud
George Roberts, Director of Identity Governance and Administration at McDonald's, shares his extensive experience in migrating the company's workforce identity platform from on-premises ADFS to Microsoft Entra.We also talk about challenges like handling unique frontline worker needs (including a creative paper-based MFA solution) and integrating with various applications.About GeorgeGeorge Roberts
Inside Entra Sync: Dhanyah, the Microsoft PM for Entra Connect & Cloud Sync Reveals All
Join us for a conversation with Dhanyah Krishnamoorthy, Product Manager at Microsoft, as she discusses Microsoft Entra Connect Sync and Cloud Sync solutions for synchronizing on-premises Active Directory identities to Entra ID.Learn about Microsoft's overall strategy for syncing and what you can do to prepare for the future including security considerations and scaling guidance.Subscribe with your
Securing a Global Giant: Inside IKEA's Identity Strategy with Martin
In this insightful discussion, Martin Sandren from IKEA joins Entra Chat to discuss the evolving landscape of IAM.The episode covers critical considerations for modern identity strategies, including the trade-offs between syncable and device-bound passkeys, the necessity of robust regression testing for Conditional Access, and advancements in identity proofing methods.Subscribe with your favorite
What nobody tells you about managing Microsoft 365 guest access with Samantha
In this episode we discuss the evolution of guest access from SharePoint to Entra ID, the challenges of managing guest identities, and the importance of security and governance. Our conversation covers key topics including cross-tenant access settings, identity governance, B2B direct connect, and licensing considerations. Samantha also shares practical advice and best practices for organizations t
Operational Groups in Entra with Nathan McNulty
Entra.Chat Podcast - https://entra.chatIn this insightful episode, Nathan McNulty, Senior Security Solutions Architect at Patriot Consulting, shares his extensive experience deploying and securing Microsoft Entra environments. With a background spanning civil engineering, education, and critical infrastructure, Nathan brings practical wisdom from managing environments with 50,000+ users and 90,000
Bypassing MFA with Kuba, the Evilginx guy!
Episode SummaryIn this episode, we dive into the sophisticated world of phishing attacks with Kuba Gretzky, creator of the renowned Evilginx framework. He shares insights on how Evilginx operates as a reverse proxy, capturing authentication tokens in real-time, and discusses the ethical considerations of creating such a powerful tool. Most importantly, Kuba provides valuable guidance on protection
From Okta to Entra: Migrating 700 Apps in 90 Days
In this very first episode of the Entra Chat podcast I sat down with Ben Wolfe, my former manager and ex-Microsoft, who is now the Head of Security Solutions at Increment. How to get in touch with Ben: Ben Wolfe - https://www.linkedin.com/in/benjaminwillwolfe/ Increment - https://www.increment.inc/ Mentions during the episode: Graph X-Ray - https://graphxray.merill.net/ Get full access to Entra.Ne
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