You open your Microsoft 365 dashboard and see a number: 47%. That is your Microsoft Secure Score. But what does it actually say about your business?
Microsoft Secure Score is a built-in tool that measures how well your Microsoft 365 environment is secured and, more usefully, tells you what to do next. Think of it as a credit score for your security settings. A higher score means more protections are switched on. A lower score means there are gaps an attacker could use. For Australian businesses running Microsoft 365, it is less a number than a roadmap, with each action ranked by impact and effort.
What Microsoft Secure Score Measures
Secure Score reviews how your Microsoft 365 environment is configured across identity, devices, data and apps. You earn points by completing security actions, such as turning on multi-factor authentication, setting up data loss prevention or configuring conditional access. Microsoft works out your total possible points based on your licences and setup, then shows the percentage you have achieved.
The Four Areas It Checks
- Identity: password settings, multi-factor authentication (MFA) and sign-in risk policies
- Devices: antivirus status, device compliance and mobile device management
- Data: encryption, sensitivity labels and data loss prevention
- Apps: third-party app permissions, app governance, Safe Links and Safe Attachments
Each action carries a point value. Higher-value actions usually block more serious threats or cover more users, so the score makes your priorities visible at a glance.
Where the Data Comes From
Microsoft’s threat intelligence, drawn from enormous numbers of security signals across its customers, shapes which controls are recommended and how much each is worth. The dashboard also compares your score with organisations similar to yours, using anonymous, aggregated data. That comparison gives you context for judging whether your result is strong or weak.
Why Your Secure Score Matters
A low score means basic protections are missing, and attackers look for exactly those gaps.
What a Low Score Looks Like in Real Life
Many businesses assume they are secure because they have antivirus and a firewall. But their Microsoft 365 tenant, where email, files and business data actually live, may have no MFA, no conditional access and no data loss prevention. They are one phishing email away from a breach.
Here is a typical (hypothetical) scenario. A professional services firm has a low Secure Score. An attacker steals a partner’s password through a phishing email. Because MFA isn’t enforced and conditional access isn’t configured, the attacker signs in from overseas and no alert fires. They then watch email threads and send a fake invoice to a client. Implementing the top recommended actions, including MFA, conditional access and alert policies, would have blocked the sign-in or flagged it immediately. A regular security review is designed to catch these gaps before an incident does.
Why Microsoft 365 Deserves Extra Attention
For most Australian businesses, Microsoft 365 is the backbone of daily work: email, file storage, Teams and collaboration all run through it. If it is weakly configured, attackers have a direct path to your most important data.
Default settings also leave too much open. Microsoft builds the platform for easy adoption, so you need to switch protections on deliberately. Your Secure Score reflects the gap between what you are paying for and what you are actually using.
How to Find and Read Your Score
Finding it takes under a minute. Reading it takes a little longer.
Where to Access the Dashboard
Sign in to the Microsoft Defender portal and open Secure Score. You need a role such as Global Administrator, Security Administrator or Security Reader. Microsoft explains the tool in more detail in its Secure Score documentation.
The Key Numbers on the Dashboard
- Your score: points earned out of total points available
- Comparison score: the average for similar organisations
- Score trend: how your score has changed over time
- Improvement actions: a ranked list of controls you haven’t completed
Don’t panic if your score is low at first. Many businesses start well below where they would like to be before any hardening. Use the comparison score for context, and treat the trend as the real measure of progress.
Understanding Improvement Actions
Improvement actions are where Secure Score becomes genuinely useful. Every gap in your environment appears as a specific action.
What Each Action Tells You
Each action shows:
- The points you gain by completing it
- The implementation effort and the user impact
- The threats it protects against
- Step-by-step guidance to implement it
- A status you can set, such as to address, planned, risk accepted, or resolved through a third party or alternate mitigation
The goal isn’t a perfect score straight away. It is to close the most dangerous gaps first, weighing risk, points and effort together.
High-Impact, Low-Effort Actions
These usually give the biggest boost for the least work:
- Require multi-factor authentication for all users
- Configure sign-in risk policies to block suspicious logins
- Turn on security defaults if you aren’t using conditional access yet
- Enable Safe Links and Safe Attachments in Microsoft Defender for Office 365
- Set up alert policies so admins hear about unusual activity
Most can be configured properly in a few hours and sharply reduce your risk of compromise.
Actions That Need Business Decisions
Some actions involve trade-offs between security and convenience, so they need a decision, not just a setting.
Data loss prevention and sensitivity labels. DLP policies stop sensitive data being shared outside the business, by accident or on purpose. First you decide what counts as sensitive: client files, financial records, staff details. Labels let users classify documents as public, internal, confidential or highly confidential, with protections applied automatically. Your team needs briefing and security awareness training so they use labels consistently.
Conditional access and identity controls. These policies control when and how people can sign in. You might require MFA for every sign-in, block certain countries or allow only company-managed devices. Each choice improves security but affects flexibility, so the right setup depends on your industry, compliance needs and how your team works. Microsoft Entra ID is where most of these controls live.
Common Misconceptions About Secure Score
A Perfect Score Doesn’t Mean You’re Fully Secure
Secure Score measures how well Microsoft 365’s built-in security features are configured. It doesn’t measure everything. You can have a high score and still be vulnerable if your network is weak, staff click every phishing link or third-party applications are insecure. It is one indicator of security health, not the whole picture.
Not Every Recommendation Fits Every Business
An action may be high-value to Microsoft but irrelevant to you. For example, hardening external sharing won’t help much if you never share externally. Review each action with someone who understands your business. Chasing points without context wastes time and can disrupt legitimate work. If you decide not to act on something, record it as risk accepted rather than leaving it hanging.
Your Score Changes Over Time
Microsoft adds new actions as features and threats evolve, so your score can drop even if you changed nothing. Changes you make can also take a day or two to appear. Check monthly and review new recommendations quarterly. Security is ongoing management, not a one-off project.
Practical Steps to Improve Your Score
A phased plan delivers the biggest gains without disrupting your team.
Month One Priorities
- Enable MFA for everyone. This is the highest-impact control and blocks most automated credential attacks. Where possible, plan a move to phishing-resistant MFA.
- Turn on security defaults for baseline protection if you aren’t ready for conditional access. Note that security defaults and conditional access can’t run together, so switch defaults off when you move to conditional access.
- Configure Safe Links and Safe Attachments so emails and files are scanned before users interact with them.
- Set up basic alert policies for activity such as mass deletions or suspicious sign-ins.
Month Two and Ongoing
- Implement conditional access. Start by requiring MFA for all cloud apps, then add location or device rules.
- Configure data loss prevention to prevent accidental sharing of sensitive information.
- Enable Microsoft Entra ID Protection to detect and respond to risky sign-ins and users.
- Review risky OAuth apps. Third-party apps with excessive permissions create holes.
For ongoing maintenance, review your score monthly and investigate any drop straight away, since it can signal a setting that was changed or a new recommendation. Test major changes with a pilot group before rolling out to everyone.
How Your Score Compares With Similar Businesses
The comparison score shows how you stack up against organisations like yours. Different sectors face different threats and compliance rules, so context matters. If you sit well below the average for your size and sector, you are likely more exposed than your peers.
Attackers often go after the easiest targets. Being clearly above average can be enough to make them move on, which is why benchmarking matters beyond compliance alone.
Where Secure Score Fits in Your Wider Security Strategy
Secure Score shows Microsoft 365 configuration gaps. Other layers cover what it can’t:
- Vulnerability scanning finds weaknesses in networks, servers and applications
- Email security stops threats before they reach inboxes
- Security awareness training strengthens the human layer
- Microsoft 365 backup lets you recover data if something goes wrong
- An incident response plan makes sure you know what to do in a breach
Secure Score also supports wider frameworks such as the ASD’s Essential Eight, because many of its recommendations, like MFA and admin controls, overlap with those strategies.
When to Get Professional Help
You can improve your score yourself, since the interface gives step-by-step guidance. But many owners don’t have the time to learn conditional access or DLP.
Consider help if:
- Your score is low and you aren’t sure where to start
- You have done the easy actions but not the complex ones
- Your score dropped and you don’t know why
- You need to demonstrate controls for compliance, clients or insurers
- You have no in-house Microsoft 365 security expertise
Most businesses have a dozen or more high-value, low-effort actions waiting in their queue, so early progress is often fast. Our Microsoft 365 security assessment and managed IT services can help.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is a good Microsoft Secure Score?
There is no single “good” number. Compare yourself with the benchmark for similar organisations, aim for steady improvement and focus on closing high-risk gaps first.
Is Microsoft Secure Score free?
It is included with Microsoft 365 subscriptions, but the actions available depend on your licences, which also affects your total possible points.
How often does Secure Score update?
It refreshes regularly, but changes you make may take a day or two to show up.
Does a high Secure Score mean we can’t be hacked?
No. It measures configuration, not every risk. Staff behaviour, network security and third-party apps still matter.
Who can see Secure Score?
People with roles such as Global Administrator, Security Administrator or Security Reader.
Check Your Score and Close the Gaps
Microsoft Secure Score takes the guesswork out of securing Microsoft 365. Instead of wondering whether you have set things up properly, you get a measurement and a ranked list of actions.
Your score is available right now. Check it, understand it, then decide whether to improve it yourself or with a team that does this every day. At Codehyper, we help Australian businesses review their Microsoft 365 security and fix what matters most. Book a cyber health check or contact us to go through your score together.
