What is identity protection?

Identity protection is a phrase used to describe activities that safeguard digital identities (and information linked to those identities) from being used by unauthorized sources for (usually) illegal advantage.

Identity theft is now big business. Microsoft monitors the sign-in behaviour of its customers’ Entra ID identities to detect sign-ins that appear risky – that is, that they may be attempts to sign in by an attacker. A variety of factors are used to evaluate the risk, including the user’s current and recent locations, use of anonymization approaches, access from IP ranges known to be malicious, and others. 

Besides these technical measures to protect against the loss of control of identities, users themselves must act cautiously, being aware that attackers are trying to guess passwords, capture passwords (e.g. with the use of phishing emails and falsified sign-in pages), and discover (for example) answers to security questions which might be used to reset the user’s password. 

The combination of technical detection measures, strong technical policies, and ongoing user education contributes to the protection of corporate identities. 

Oxford Computer Group’s CTO has written extensively about identity protection in the Microsoft environment.  Read more about identity protection. (Note, since this article was written, Microsoft has rebranded Azure AD Connect to Microsoft Entra Connect).

If you need further help, contact our sister company, Oxford Computer Group.