Cybersecurity audit

Microsoft 365 security audit

A structured review of your Microsoft 365 that finds security gaps, settings that are wrong and compliance risks. You get a clear report that shows where you stand and what to fix first.
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How exposed is a typical Microsoft 365 tenant?

Most security gaps in Microsoft 365 are settings nobody has checked. Breaches can sit undetected for months, and the cost of a privacy breach can be high.
99%+of unauthorised access attempts are blocked by multi-factor authentication, even with a valid passwordMicrosoft Digital Defense Report 2025
247 daysaverage time for organisations worldwide to identify and contain a data breachIBM Cost of a Data Breach 2026, breaches March 2025 to February 2026
$50 millionmaximum civil penalty for a company’s serious interference with privacy, or more where three times the benefit or 30% of turnover is higherPrivacy Act 1988, penalties since December 2022

Nine areas where security gaps appear

The audit covers the parts of Microsoft 365 where gaps most often appear. Every check is mapped to attack patterns we see across Australian businesses.

Sign-in locations

Sign-ins from places they should not come from

We review up to 90 days of Microsoft Entra ID and mailbox sign-in logs for sign-ins from unexpected countries, impossible travel and suspicious IP addresses.

  • Microsoft Entra ID sign-in logs
  • Mailbox audit logs

MFA status

Accounts without multi-factor sign-in

We check multi-factor authentication on every account. An account with only a password is one of the easiest ways into a Microsoft 365 tenant.

  • Authentication methods
  • Conditional Access

Secure Score

The changes that will help most

We assess your Microsoft Secure Score and pick out the recommendations that will make the biggest difference to your security.

  • Microsoft Secure Score

Forwarding rules

Mail quietly sent somewhere else

We scan every mailbox for automatic forwarding rules. Attackers often add hidden forwarding rules after they get into an account, so this is one of the first things we check.

  • Exchange Online
  • Inbox rules

Transport rules

Mail flow that skips your filters

We review the Exchange transport rules that control how email flows through your business. A badly set rule can bypass spam filtering, send data outside or redirect sensitive messages.

  • Exchange Online mail flow rules

Shared mailboxes

Shared mailboxes anyone can sign in to

Shared mailboxes with direct sign-in turned on are a common gap. We check for ones that could be reached without multi-factor sign-in and recommend the right setup.

  • Exchange Online
  • Microsoft Entra ID

Mobile devices

Phones and tablets nobody manages

We list the mobile devices connected to your Microsoft 365 and check whether device management policies are in place. Unmanaged devices with company data on them are a real risk.

  • Exchange mobile devices
  • Microsoft Intune

Authorised apps

Apps with access to your data

We review the third-party applications staff have allowed into their Microsoft 365 data. An app with too much access, or a malicious one, can read email and files without anyone knowing.

  • Enterprise applications
  • App consent

External sharing

Files shared outside the business

We review SharePoint and OneDrive external sharing over the past 90 days. Uncontrolled sharing is a common way sensitive documents end up outside the business without anyone noticing.

  • SharePoint
  • OneDrive

Six things you get at the end

At the end of the audit you get a detailed security report that covers every area we reviewed, with clear recommendations in order of priority.

Security posture assessment

A clear summary of where your security stands across identity, email, data and devices. We score each area and show how it compares with Microsoft’s recommended baselines.

Prioritised recommendations

A ranked list of improvements ordered by impact and effort. We do not just point out problems. We tell you what to do about each one, in plain English, with the most important at the top.

Licence optimisation

We review your Microsoft 365 licences and show where upgrading or consolidating would add security features you are missing, or that you are paying for separately.

Alert and monitoring samples

Examples of the alerts that become available once monitoring is in place, such as forwarding rule detection, impossible travel alerts and mass deletion events.

Compliance gap analysis

We map your setup against the Notifiable Data Breaches scheme and the Essential Eight, so you know which requirements you meet and where the gaps are.

Remediation roadmap

A practical plan to put the recommendations in place, split into quick wins we can fix straight away and longer-term improvements. If you choose to work with us, we can do all of it for you.

Four steps, with no disruption to your team

The process is simple and designed to cause as little disruption to your team as possible.

01

First conversation

We talk about your current setup, any worries you have and what you want to learn, so the audit fits your business.

02

Read-only access

We ask for read-only access to your Microsoft 365 tenant. That lets us review settings and logs without changing anything.

03

Automated and manual review

Our tools scan your tenant for known misconfigurations. We then review the results by hand, check them against current threats and build your report.

04

Report and walkthrough

We send your report and walk you through the findings on a video call, explaining what each issue means in practice and answering your questions.

Why this matters for Australian businesses

The Notifiable Data Breaches scheme

Businesses with an annual turnover over $3 million are covered by the Privacy Act, and some smaller ones are too. A covered business must report a data breach that is likely to cause serious harm to the OAIC and the people affected.

Health service providers are covered by the Privacy Act whatever their turnover.

Since December 2022, the maximum civil penalty a court can order against a company for a serious interference with privacy is the greater of $50 million, three times the benefit obtained or, if the benefit can’t be worked out, 30% of its adjusted turnover during the breach period.

An audit shows whether your Microsoft 365 has the controls you need to detect, contain and report a breach.

The Essential Eight

The Australian Signals Directorate’s Essential Eight is the baseline cyber security framework for Australian organisations. It was first written for government agencies, but cyber insurers, industry regulators and government buyers increasingly refer to it.

Our audit checks several Essential Eight controls in Microsoft 365, including multi-factor authentication, restricting administrative privileges and regular backups.

Many businesses we audit find their Microsoft 365 licences already include features that help, but nobody has set them up. The audit finds these, so you can close the gaps without buying more software.

Your report, your choice

The audit gives you a clear picture. What you do with it is up to you, and there is no obligation to work with us.
  • Take it to your current provider

    The report is yours. If you already have an IT provider, share the findings with them and ask them to make the changes.

  • Let us fix the findings

    We can put the recommendations in place for you. Quick wins like enforcing multi-factor sign-in and cleaning up forwarding rules can often be done within days.

  • Move to ongoing monitoring

    For ongoing protection, the GCIT Security Pack adds monitoring and regularly refreshed portal reporting. Many clients start with the audit and move to managed security through Security First Managed Services.

Fixes our team wrote

Guides for the problems an audit often turns up. Written by our team and free to use, whoever looks after your IT.

See all our knowledge base articles

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Microsoft 365 security audit questions

The full process usually takes one to two weeks from access to report. The automated scan runs within 24 hours, and the manual review and the report follow over the next few business days.

No. The audit uses read-only access and does not change any settings. Your team will not notice any difference during the review. We may ask for a short conversation with whoever looks after your IT to clarify some settings.

Yes. This audit is designed for Microsoft 365 (and older Office 365) environments. If you are on another platform and thinking about a move to Microsoft 365, we can talk about that in the first conversation.

Any business that uses Microsoft 365. We most often work with organisations of 5 to 200 users, but the same security gaps turn up whether you have 10 mailboxes or 500.

None at all. The report is yours to use however you like. You can share it with your current IT provider, make the changes in-house or ask us to fix the findings. Many clients do keep working with us, but that is entirely your decision.

Microsoft Secure Score is a useful benchmark, and we include it in the review. But Secure Score only covers some security areas and does not put the findings in the context of your business. Our audit goes further, reviewing actual sign-in logs, forwarding rules, app permissions and settings that Secure Score does not cover, and adds the Australian compliance context Microsoft’s tools leave out.

We ask for Global Reader access to your Microsoft 365 tenant for the length of the audit. This role lets us view settings and logs without being able to change anything. Access is removed once the audit is complete.

Reviewed by Elliot Munro, CISO at GCIT and Microsoft Certified: Cybersecurity Architect Expert.

Book a Microsoft 365 security audit

Get a clear, honest assessment of your Microsoft 365 security. We will tell you what is working, what is not and what to fix first. No sales pressure, just a practical report you can act on.
Monday to Friday, 8am to 5pm Queensland and NSW time.
Support for existing clients
1300 369 111
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