Microsoft Ignite is an annual event organized by Microsoft where they make exciting new technical announcements. As a Microsoft professional, I eagerly anticipate this event each year for its informative sessions, product demos, hands-on labs, and valuable networking opportunities. The last physical Microsoft Ignite event was held in Orlando in 2019. After three years, I am happy to attend the event again alongside my colleague Rieël Wouter and girlfriend Femke de Vroome.

In this blog post, I want to share my experience with you and discuss my top three Microsoft Security announcements from the event.

My Experience

When Microsoft announced that the event would be held in person again and my employer, 2source4, chose me to visit the event, I was excited. I couldn’t wait to go to Seattle! I had planned out which sessions I wanted to attend ahead of time, and on Tuesday, October 11, the day finally came, and we headed to Seattle.

It was amazing to be back at Microsoft Ignite, in the beautifully decorated Seattle Convention Center this time. The sessions were inspiring, and the hands-on labs helped me gain more practical experience with Microsoft products I don’t often work with.

The most valuable thing I learned from Microsoft Ignite was the new ideas and insights for the future that I gained from talking with other Microsoft experts. It was an incredible experience, and I can’t wait to share all the things I learned in the coming year.

As a special bonus, we visited the Microsoft Campus in Redmond. We had a tour of one of the Office buildings and talked with some employees and product managers. It was a great way to top off an already fantastic event.

Top 3 Security announcements

There were many great announcements, but here are my top 3 Microsoft Security-related announcements.

Endpoint Privilege Management

For legitimate security reasons, many organizations do not give users administrative privileges to install applications on their workstations. Often, the result is that users are less productive, and IT administrators spend too much time installing separate applications for their employees. As a result, many organizations simply give their employees administrative privileges themselves, with all the associated dangers.

With the announcement of Endpoint Privilege Management, this is no longer necessary. IT administrators can indicate which applications may be installed by users and decide that users can only install the application through an approval process. We will see how exactly this will work in practice shortly, but it certainly sounds very promising and is the most important security-related announcement this year.

See my first look at the Endpoint Privilege Management feature right here.

Conditional Access Authentication Strength

Most organizations now know how important Multi-Factor Authentication is and have already activated it for their employees. But setting up MFA alone is not good enough today to prevent modern phishing attacks. There are several methods available for users to set up MFA with one more secure than the other, such as;

• SMS messages or phone calls (unsafe)
• Microsoft Authenticator Push Notification or One-time Passcode (more secure)
• Hardware token (FIDO), Windows Hello or Microsoft Authenticator Number Matching (most secure)

With the introduction of “Conditional Access Authentication Strengths,” you can ensure that the most secure authentication method is mandatory to use where and when needed. This announcement is also very important for many organizations that want to protect access to their IT environment against modern phishing attacks.

Advanced Meeting Protection

Microsoft Purview Information Protection is Microsoft’s product to apply information security to company data using Sensitivity Labels. It has Security techniques such as encryption, content marking, applying access control for guests and unattended devices, and much more.

Sensitivity Labels can apply these security techniques in many different places, such as;

• Microsoft Office files in SharePoint Online and OneDrive
• Exchange Online email messages
• Microsoft 365 Groups, SharePoint Online sites, and Microsoft Teams
• On-premises (file servers and SharePoint on-premises)
• Microsoft Teams Chats and Conversation

The “Advanced meeting protection” announcement is now also available for Microsoft Teams meetings. By configuring it, you can determine who can record a meeting, apply end-to-end encryption, and ensure in other ways that discussions in meetings will remain private.

Are you interested in another blog about Microsoft Ignite? My girlfriend Femke de Vroome (Teams Governance Consultant) shared her experience.

Experiencing Microsoft Ignite 2022