Conditional Access

Azure AD Conditional Access is at the heart of the new identity-driven control plane.

Conditional Access policies at their simplest are if-then statements, if a user wants to access a resource, then they must complete an action. Example: A payroll manager wants to access the payroll application and is required to do multi-factor authentication to access it.

Conditional Access policies are enforced after first-factor authentication is completed. Conditional Access isn't intended to be an organization's first line of defense for scenarios like denial-of-service (DoS) attacks, but it can use signals from these events to determine access.

What is Conditional Access in Azure Active Directory?

Many organizations have common access concerns that Conditional Access policies can help with such as:

• Requiring multi-factor authentication for users with administrative roles
• Requiring multi-factor authentication for Azure management tasks
• Blocking sign-ins for users attempting to use legacy authentication protocols
• Requiring trusted locations for Azure AD Multi-Factor Authentication registration
• Blocking or granting access from specific locations
• Blocking risky sign-in behaviors
• Requiring organization-managed devices for specific applications