Identity and Security Enforcement

Microsoft via Coursera

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Details

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Provider

Coursera
Pricing

Paid Course
Languages

English
Certificate

Certificate Available
Effort

11 weeks, 1 hour a week
Sessions

Self-Paced
Level

Intermediate
Subtitles

English

Found in

Overview

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This course advances your identity and security administration expertise across the Microsoft 365 tenant and its critical underlying Azure and Entra ID configuration layers. You’ll gain a deep understanding of cloud-only authentication methods across diverse device platforms, allowing you to secure access effectively. By mapping Zero-Trust principles to native M365 controls, you’ll learn to implement robust security architectures. You’ll gain hands-on experience configuring Conditional Access policies in the Microsoft Entra admin center, interpreting the Identity Secure Score in the Defender portal, and utilizing Privileged Identity Management (PIM) to enforce just-in-time access. The training features immersive activities that simulate real-world security incidents and administrative escalations, requiring you to navigate and resolve issues across both Microsoft 365 and Entra surfaces, ensuring you are prepared for complex enterprise challenges.

Syllabus

Zero Trust Principles: Understand the Framework

This module introduces the Zero Trust security model and the three core principles Microsoft uses to define it. You'll learn what each principle means, why it exists, and how to recognize it in the context of Microsoft 365 security administration, including the conceptual map you'll apply to specific Microsoft 365 controls.

Zero Trust Principles: Map Principles to Microsoft 365 Controls

This module moves from principle recognition to applied mapping. You'll review the specific native Microsoft 365 controls that implement each Zero Trust principle, then complete a mapping worksheet that pairs each principle with its corresponding control, mirroring the job task directly and producing a reference artifact you can use in future security conversations.

Cloud Auth Methods: Understand the Six Methods

This module introduces the six cloud-only Microsoft 365 authentication methods as a structured decision framework. You'll learn what each method is, whether it is passwordless, which platforms it supports, and the key distinctions that determine when each method is the right choice, building the comparison foundation.

Cloud Auth Methods: Apply the Decision Framework

This module moves from method recognition to applied recommendation. You'll watch a realistic service-desk scenario walk through the decision framework across three distinct user profiles, then complete a written recommendation activity where you select and justify the appropriate authentication method for a new set of user profiles—mirroring the job task directly.

Conditional Access: Understand Named Locations and Policy Logic

This module establishes the conceptual foundation for Conditional Access policy configuration. You'll learn what Conditional Access is, how Named Locations define the geographic boundaries a policy enforces, and how the policy evaluation logic determines whether a sign-in is allowed or blocked, building the understanding you need before configuring any policy.

Conditional Access: Configure and Test the Block Policy

This module moves from policy logic to applied configuration. You'll review the step-by-step sequence for creating the Named Location approved list and the "Block-Non-Trusted-Regions" Conditional Access policy in the Microsoft Entra admin center, then follow the full configuration and testing sequence, documenting the outcome at each step and confirming the policy blocks access from an unapproved country as expected.

Secure Score: Understand the Identity Secure Score Dashboard

This module introduces the Identity Secure Score—what it measures, how it's calculated, and how to read the dashboard. You'll learn to navigate the key sections of the Secure Score view, understand what each metric represents, and recognize the difference between a recommendation that's eligible for prioritization and one that should be filtered out before you ever weigh impact and effort.

Secure Score: Identify and Prioritize Quick-Win Recommendations

This module moves from dashboard literacy to applied analysis. You'll watch a realistic walkthrough of the prioritization process using a provided dashboard scenario, then complete a written analysis activity where you interpret a dashboard snapshot, apply the high-impact, low-effort framework, and produce a prioritized quick-wins submission—mirroring the job task of recording the top three quick wins and submitting them to a team lead.

PIM: Understand Just-in-Time Access

This module introduces Privileged Identity Management and the just-in-time access model it enforces. You'll learn what PIM is, why standing admin privileges create a security risk, how JIT access reduces that risk, and how the MFA approval requirement adds a verification layer before elevation is granted.

PIM: Activate PIM and Configure JIT Access

This module moves from PIM concepts to applied configuration. You'll review the step-by-step sequence for enabling PIM, assigning the Helpdesk Admin role as an eligible assignment, and configuring the activation settings—then follow the full activation flow to confirm MFA prompts before elevation is granted. A walkthrough-based activity is provided for all learners; an optional live practice path is available for learners with trial access to an Entra ID P2 or Microsoft 365 E5 tenant.

Project Module: Security Posture Assessment

In this project, you'll produce a Security Posture Assessment, a structured analysis document that evaluates the identity and security posture of a simulated Microsoft 365 tenant, identifies prioritized findings, and documents escalation recommendations for the identity/security team. The assessment integrates the Zero-Trust mapping, authentication method analysis, Conditional Access review, Secure Score prioritization, and PIM awareness skills built across the course into a single professional deliverable that mirrors the kind of security review a junior Microsoft 365 admin would submit to an identity/security team lead. All findings are documented as observations and escalation recommendations, not configuration decisions or policy actions the learner owns independently.