Microsoft Entra now includes Azure Active Directory

In May 2022, Microsoft Entra was introduced as an identity and access product family to provide users and customers secure access and control to the digital world.

A key element for businesses managing users and permissions is Azure Active Directory. This is part of the Entra product family and is now being renamed Microsoft Entra ID. It continues to manage and protect users, apps, workloads, and devices.

The Entra product family has grown from three products at launch – Azure AD, Permissions Management and Verified ID – to now eight, including ID Governance, Workload ID and External ID.

Why is Microsoft doing this?

These changes are part of a substantial effort from Microsoft to provide a foundation for improved security. In a recent blog post it stated:

"As our work and lives become increasingly digital, cyberattacks are becoming more frequent and more sophisticated, affecting organizations of every size, in every industry, and in every part of the world. In the last 12 months, we saw an average of more than 4,000 password attacks per second, an almost threefold increase from the 1,287 attacks per second we saw the previous year."

"We're also seeing far more sophisticated attacks, including ones that manage to evade critical defenses, such as multifactor authentication, to steal access tokens, impersonate a rightful user, and gain access to critical data."

What should Strident customers do?

No action is required from our customers regarding the change to Microsoft Entra ID. Strident will continue to apply the latest Microsoft security updates automatically and recommend practical actions and enhanced security software, such as cloud backup, where appropriate.

If you have any questions regarding the IT security of your business, then please get in touch.