Design Conditional Access posture
Implementation Effort: Medium – Requires policy planning and technical setup.
User Impact: Low – Defining the strategy does not affect users yet until rollout and migration activities.
Overview
Designing Conditional Access posture means implementing a consistent and cohesive set of policies that evaluate signals like user identity, device health, location, and session risk to govern access. This supports the Zero Trust principles of Verify Explicitly by continuously validating all access attempts using real-time context, and Use Least Privilege Access by enforcing risk-based controls that limit access scope and duration. Fragmented or inconsistent policy design leaves gaps threat actors can exploit—especially through unmanaged devices, legacy authentication flows, or overly permissive access paths. A unified Conditional Access posture ensures that access decisions are predictable, enforceable, and aligned with organizational risk tolerance.