Identity, email, data, endpoints, compliance, and Copilot readiness. EPC Group's 47-Point Framework covers what Microsoft Secure Score misses.
A Microsoft 365 tenant security audit checks six domains: identity and access, email security, data protection, endpoint management, compliance posture, and Copilot readiness. EPC Group's 47-Point Framework covers all six. The audit runs 2 weeks and delivers a prioritized remediation roadmap.
By Errin O'Connor, Founder & Chief AI Architect, EPC Group
Quick Answer: A Microsoft 365 tenant security audit examines six key areas:
This audit identifies misconfigurations, permission gaps, and compliance risks. On average, enterprises find 15-25 critical issues during their first audit.
With Copilot now inheriting user permissions, tenants that have not been audited risk exposing sensitive data through AI-powered search without realizing it.
Your Microsoft 365 tenant is crucial for your business operations. It manages email, stores documents, and facilitates meetings. It also oversees identity management.
With Microsoft Copilot, AI can now:
A security gap in your tenant is not just a theoretical risk. It is an active exposure that increases with:
Many organizations see M365 security as a one-time task. They typically set up MFA during the initial deployment and create basic DLP policies. However, they often neglect to review these settings later. This oversight can result in:
Over time, these factors can create security gaps.
In fact, the average enterprise tenant we audit has been operational for 5-8 years without a thorough security review.
EPC Group has audited over 700 Microsoft 365 tenants across healthcare, financial services, government, and Fortune 500 enterprises. Our 47-Point Security Framework was developed from patterns we see repeatedly — the same 15-20 critical gaps appear in nearly every tenant we assess. This guide walks you through what to audit, how to audit it, and when to bring in professionals.
The Copilot Factor: Before Copilot, a SharePoint site with overshared permissions was a latent risk — someone would have to navigate to the site and browse its contents to find sensitive data. With Copilot, that same overshared content is now surfaced proactively in response to natural language queries. Every permission gap in your tenant becomes an active data exposure path the moment you enable Copilot.
A comprehensive M365 tenant audit looks at six related areas. Problems in one area can raise risks in others. For instance, weak identity controls can make data protection policies less effective. Also, poor endpoint management can undermine Conditional Access.
Our 47-Point Framework was developed by auditing over 700 tenants. It addresses 23 critical areas that Microsoft Secure Score overlooks. These areas include:
| Criteria | DIY (Secure Score + Admin Center) | Professional (EPC 47-Point) |
|---|---|---|
| Coverage | 40-50% of security gaps | 95%+ of security gaps |
| Identity & Access | MFA and basic CA policies | PIM, risk policies, service accounts, break-glass |
| SharePoint Permissions | Not covered by Secure Score | Full inheritance analysis across all sites |
| Copilot Readiness | Not covered | Data exposure modeling and remediation plan |
| Compliance Mapping | Generic compliance score | Industry-specific (HIPAA, SOC 2, FedRAMP) |
| Remediation Plan | Generic Microsoft recommendations | Prioritized 30/60/90 day roadmap with effort estimates |
| Cost | Free (staff time only) | $15,000 (2-3 week engagement) |
| Time to Complete | 1-2 weeks (part-time) | 2-3 weeks (dedicated team) |
Our Recommendation: Begin with a DIY review using Microsoft Secure Score. This will help you address clear gaps, such as:
Next, consider a professional assessment for a more thorough analysis. This should include:
The $15,000 investment pays for itself by preventing a single data exposure incident.
Every organization should perform a complete security audit every year. This is essential due to factors like configuration drift, staff changes, new Microsoft features, and the changing threat landscape. Annual audits are also necessary for various compliance frameworks, including:
Review the following areas quarterly to ensure security and effectiveness:
These areas change frequently and can have a significant impact if misconfigured.
Conduct targeted audits after specific events. These include:
Enhance your audits with ongoing monitoring. Key components include:
Automated alerts help identify configuration changes and unusual access patterns between formal audits.
An audit without remediation is just a report that gathers dust. EPC Group provides every audit with a clear remediation roadmap. This roadmap is organized into three phases:
Each phase is based on risk severity and implementation effort.
A comprehensive M365 tenant security audit examines six domains: identity and access management (Entra ID, MFA, Conditional Access), email security (anti-phishing, DMARC, safe attachments), data protection (sensitivity labels, DLP policies, sharing settings), endpoint management (Intune compliance, device policies), compliance posture (retention policies, audit logs, eDiscovery), and Copilot readiness (permission inheritance, oversharing). EPC Group's 47-Point Framework covers all six domains in a structured assessment that takes 2-3 weeks to complete.
Organizations should perform a full M365 security audit at minimum annually, with quarterly reviews for high-risk areas. Trigger-based audits should occur after: deploying new services (Copilot, Teams Phone, SharePoint Premium), experiencing a security incident, changing compliance requirements, completing mergers or acquisitions, or significant staff turnover. Continuous monitoring through Microsoft Secure Score, Defender for Cloud Apps, and audit log analysis supplements periodic full audits.
Microsoft Secure Score is a numerical representation (0-100%) of your tenant's security posture based on Microsoft's recommendations. The average enterprise scores 40-55%. Scores above 70% indicate strong security hygiene. However, Secure Score has significant blind spots: it doesn't evaluate SharePoint permission inheritance, sensitivity label enforcement effectiveness, Copilot data exposure risk, or custom DLP policy quality. EPC Group's 47-Point Framework covers 23 areas that Secure Score misses entirely.
The five most common security gaps we find during audits are: 1) MFA not enforced for all accounts — 34% of enterprises still have admin accounts without MFA, 2) SharePoint "Everyone except external users" permissions granting access to sensitive sites, 3) No sensitivity labels deployed or labels configured but not enforced, 4) Legacy authentication protocols still enabled (a top vector for credential stuffing attacks), 5) No DLP policies for Teams chat or Copilot-generated content. Most organizations have 15-25 critical findings in their first audit.
DIY audits using Microsoft Secure Score and the M365 admin center catch approximately 40-50% of security issues — primarily configuration-level gaps with clear Microsoft recommendations. Professional audits catch the remaining 50-60%: permission inheritance analysis, cross-service data flow risks, compliance gaps specific to your industry (HIPAA, SOC 2, FedRAMP), Copilot readiness assessment, and contextual risk prioritization. For regulated industries, a professional audit is not optional — auditors and regulators expect third-party validation.
EPC Group's 47-Point Framework covers six security domains: Identity & Access (8 points: MFA enforcement, Conditional Access policies, PIM configuration, guest access controls, service account audit, break-glass accounts, legacy auth elimination, sign-in risk policies), Email Security (7 points), Data Protection (9 points), Endpoint Management (7 points), Compliance & Governance (8 points), and Copilot & AI Readiness (8 points). Each point receives a Pass/Fail/Partial rating with specific remediation steps, priority level, and estimated effort. The assessment takes 2-3 weeks and includes a 40+ page report with executive summary.
Professional M365 security audits are scoped in three sizes: Basic audit (identity + email only); Comprehensive audit (all six domains); Enterprise audit with remediation roadmap (6+ domains, compliance mapping, Copilot readiness). EPC Group's 47-Point Security Review is a fixed-fee full six-domain assessment with a detailed remediation roadmap. Remediation is scoped separately.
EPC Group offers Copilot & M365 Tenant Security Reviews for businesses across all sectors. We have secured over 700 tenants and have Microsoft experience since 1997.
Our goal is to identify what Copilot can access that it should not. We focus on:
Begin with our 47-Point Security Review for $15,000. This includes a detailed report that is over 40 pages long.
The report provides:
A Microsoft 365 tenant security audit examines six key areas:
EPC Group's 47-Point Framework addresses all six areas. The audit lasts 2 weeks and provides a prioritized remediation roadmap.
A comprehensive M365 audit examines six security domains. Each maps to specific controls in your tenant configuration.
Our structured framework maps 47 specific checkpoints across six domains. Here is the point breakdown.
EPC Group focuses on six key domains:
Our 47-Point Framework evaluates specific configurations in each domain. It then creates a prioritized roadmap for remediation.
EPC Group conducts a 47-point audit within 2 weeks. At the end of week two, you will receive:
The remediation process will depend on the number and severity of gaps identified.
Here are the top five security issues:
E3 includes the basic controls. E5 provides advanced features such as:
For regulated industries like HIPAA, FedRAMP, and CMMC, E5 or specific add-ons are usually required.
GCC High is a Microsoft 365 environment designed for federal contractors managing Controlled Unclassified Information (CUI). It has specific compliance requirements:
Commercial M365 does not meet these requirements.
We evaluate 8 key areas related to Copilot:
EPC Group's 2-week M365 Tenant Security Audit delivers a complete security picture and a remediation roadmap. Call (888) 381-9725 or request a discovery call.
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