The Identity Illusion: Why Your MFA and SSO Setup Might Not Be Enough

In today’s cloud-first workplace, most organisations take pride in having ticked off the “essentials” - Single Sign-On (SSO), Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) and User access? Mostly managed.

But here’s the hard truth: these controls don’t guarantee security - they just reduce the attack surface. Without deeper visibility, governance, and alignment, SSO and MFA can create a dangerous illusion of safety.

Gone are the days when a firewall was the boundary. In the Microsoft 365 ecosystem, identity is the new perimeter. It defines who has access, how they get it, and what they can do once inside.

Yet despite this shift, many identity environments suffer from:

• Over-assigned roles (too many Global Admins)

• Unreviewed guest access (external identities never deprovisioned)

• Legacy authentication protocols still enabled (like IMAP or POP3)

• Exclusions and exceptions in Conditional Access policies

• Privileged accounts without lifecycle management

Each of these creates risk - and none of them are caught by “MFA is on” checkboxes.

Multi-Factor Authentication is essential, but it’s not absolute. Common pitfalls we discover during Identity Health Checks include:

• MFA not enforced for all user types (guests, service accounts, or execs with exceptions)

• Users with multiple authentication methods - and weak fallback options

• Unmonitored “Break Glass” accounts that bypass MFA entirely

• Legacy auth-enabled applications that allow sign-ins without MFA enforcement

Bottom line: MFA is a control, not a cure. It needs enforcement logic, monitoring, and review to be effective.

Single Sign-On is hailed for convenience - and rightly so. But without governance, SSO can:

• Enable third-party app sprawl, bypassing internal review processes

• Be misused by external users with excessive permissions

• Mask untracked access to sensitive data via unmonitored apps

In essence, SSO amplifies access - which means it also amplifies risk if not paired with Conditional Access, Identity Protection policies, and delegated administration frameworks

Our audits routinely reveal:

• Hundreds of dormant guest accounts still active in Entra ID

• Privileged accounts that haven’t logged in for months - yet hold admin rights

• No consistent Conditional Access logic - or dozens of overlapping, contradicting rules

• Break Glass accounts not being tested or monitored

And perhaps most critically: no single person owns identity governance across the business.

You don’t need another tool - you need alignment.

The most secure environments:

• Know who their users are - and who shouldn’t be there

• Use policy, not guesswork, to determine access

• Regularly review access, exceptions, and account lifecycle controls

• Benchmark their configurations against Zero Trust principles

But all of that starts with visibility - and that’s where most teams fall short.

Identity Is Not Just a Login

It’s your front door, your firewall, and your single point of failure. And unless it’s intentionally governed, it’s vulnerable - even with MFA and SSO enabled.

Before you assume you’re covered, ask:

• Do you know what your Conditional Access logic is really enforcing?

• Are guest accounts managed with lifecycle policies?

• Is your admin delegation scoped and tracked?

• Can you prove enforcement - or just assume it?

If you hesitated on any of these, it’s time to look deeper.

We uncover what your dashboards don’t - and give you clarity without complexity.

Our health check focuses on how identities and devices interact within Entra ID and Intune. It identifies gaps in Conditional Access, MFA, device compliance, and endpoint governance to support a scalable, Zero Trust-aligned security model.