Securing Identities and Device Hardening

Securing Identities and Device Hardening

The Challenge: Lack of MFA, Control, and Monitoring

Upon performing a comprehensive evaluation of the client’s environment, Falx identified a critical absence of security controls. Multi-factor authentication (MFA) was not enforced, sign-in activity remained unmonitored, and access controls were absent across applications and services. Additionally, user accounts exhibited recurring sign-in events originating from unknown locations beyond the organisation’s operational boundary.

Endpoints throughout the estate reflected an identical risk posture, with an absence of enforced endpoint protection.

This lack of essential safeguards presented a severe exposure for the organisation across regulatory and operational domains. Lacking multi-factor authentication alongside endpoint governance, the environment failed to align with compliance standards mandated by regulatory bodies and external partners. Had the unmonitored sign-in activity progressed to a breach, the resulting exposure of confidential customer information would have led to significant regulatory sanctions.

Falx’s Approach: Secure Authentication, Controlled Access, and Hardened Endpoints

Given the critical nature of these exposures, Falx promptly deployed robust safeguards across user identities and corporate endpoints.

• Enforced MFA: To fortify user identities, Falx initially mandated multi-factor authentication along with rigorous validation protocols. Implemented across all identities and resources, this enforced a custom set of strong authentication methods.
• Sign-in Restrictions: To restrict sign-in activity, Falx established comprehensive Conditional Access Policies (CAP). These measures incorporated geo-location controls, restricted access from unmanaged personal devices, and completely prevented legacy authentication protocols.
• Device Security: A baseline set of device security measures were designed to lock down devices, such as restricting users’ access to removable media, enforcing Windows Hello for Business (WHfB), and device lock settings.
• Defender for Endpoint: To fortify endpoints across the organisation, Microsoft Defender for Endpoint was deployed to all user devices. This provided extensive web content filtering, automated threat investigation alongside remediation capabilities, and custom notifications for critical vulnerabilities requiring manual intervention.

The Results: A secure, Controlled Environment

Following the execution of these tailored safeguards, the client transitioned to a fully hardened, heavily defended posture. Mandatory multi-factor authentication, rigorous access governance, device lockdown policies, and complete Defender deployment seamlessly neutralised rogue authentication attempts and unmanaged endpoint exposure throughout the organisation.

• Full MFA Coverage: Achieved total multi-factor authentication enforcement across all 200+ employee identities.
• Conditional Access: Established complete Conditional Access Policy enforcement governing access to cloud services and applications.
• Defender for Endpoint: 100% coverage of device enrollment into Defender for Endpoint, allowing for full monitoring of the devices.
• Vulnerability Remediation: Significantly diminished system exposure across the environment, leveraging automated remediation where viable.

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