What are Access Reviews in Microsoft 365?

Access Reviews in Microsoft 365 help organizations regularly evaluate user access to resources, ensuring only the right people have the right permissions. This feature is part of Microsoft Entra ID (Azure AD) and enhances security and compliance by reducing unnecessary or outdated access.

How Access Reviews Work

1. Define Review Scope
   • Admins set up reviews for users, groups, or external guests who have access to resources.
2. Reviewers Evaluate Access
   • Assigned reviewers (such as managers or IT admins) approve or revoke access based on user activity and necessity.
3. Automated or Manual Reviews
   • Reviews can be automated with recommendations based on user sign-ins or manually conducted.
4. Enforce Changes
   • If a user no longer needs access, permissions are removed automatically or after an admin review.

Key Benefits of Access Reviews

1. Improve Security: Reduce over-permissioned accounts and minimize security risks.
2. Simplify Compliance: Meet industry regulations like GDPR, ISO 27001, and SOC 2 by maintaining least-privileged access.
3. Automate Reviews: Configure periodic access reviews to remove inactive or unnecessary users.

Use Cases for Access Reviews

1. Guest User Cleanup: Remove external users who no longer need access to Teams or SharePoint.
2. Privileged Role Audits: Ensure admins and security roles are still assigned to the right users.
3. License Optimization: Identify inactive users to free up unused Microsoft 365 licenses.

Best Practices

1. Schedule Regular Reviews: Automate reviews for critical groups and high-privilege roles.
2. Leverage Recommendations: Use AI-driven insights to identify inactive users for removal.
3. Enforce Access Policies: Combine reviews with Conditional Access for stronger security.

Access Reviews help organizations maintain secure, compliant, and well-governed Microsoft 365 environments by ensuring only authorized users retain access.

Explore More

• What are access reviews in Microsoft Entra ID?