Wish You Were Here: Why You Should Let Your IT Team Know When You’re Going Out of the Country

The Importance of Keeping Your Conditional Access Policies Current 

IN THIS ARTICLE: 

When planning a trip abroad, your to-do list is long. From personal tasks like setting up a cat-sitter and packing, to work-related ones like getting someone to cover key responsibilities and setting your out of office email autoreply.

Here’s another important item you may not have known about: Letting your IT team know where you’re going and when you’ll be back.

It’s not so we can live vicariously through you as you traverse a sunny beach in Bali. It’s so we can adjust your conditional access policies and keep your account as secure as possible!

Understanding Conditional Access

Conditional access is a security measure that uses criteria to limit login access to company resources. Josh Farlow, our Director of Cloud Services, explains, “These access policies are often applied to Microsoft applications. Your conditional access policy sets the conditions for who can access, and which authentication methods are required for logging in to your Microsoft 365 environment.”

One important condition is location. Josh adds, “Our default policy blocks authentication attempts outside the USA and Canada. For some companies, we include exceptions like Mexico if needed.”

Conditional Access: Location Restrictions

In this case, we’re focusing on the location parameter. Your IT team should have set approved locations as part of your access policy. For example, if you typically log in to your Microsoft 365 account from Central California, that would be the approved location that your account can be logged into from. If there is an attempted login with your credentials from anywhere outside of that area, the policy would flag that and block it. This disrupts a bad actor in, say, Uzbekistan, from accessing your account with stolen credentials.

However, if you’re going to be visiting family in Uzbekistan and need to log in to send a quick email while you’re there, your conditional access policy would prevent that. Notifying your IT team ahead of time lets them adjust the policy for smooth sailing while you’re away.

Think of it like back in the day when you had to call your credit card provider and let them know where you were traveling so your card would work in those countries without being blocked. Same idea!

Why Your IT Team Needs to Know About Travel Plans

Notifying your IT team of your international travel plans will enable them to adjust the conditional access policy appropriately for your temporary change of location. Not only will this prevent headaches and ensure smooth operations for you while you’re traveling, but it will also improve your security.

This information about your whereabouts empowers your IT provider to properly:

  • Maintain security protocols during your absence
  • Adjust conditional access settings to prevent authorized and unauthorized access
  • Proactively monitor and respond to suspicious activity

How to Notify Your IT Team

Before your trip abroad, give your IT team a call to let them know where and when you’re traveling. Once they verify your identity, they can adjust your policy temporarily to allow access from those locations should you need it.

If you’re a client of CIO Solutions, simply call into Support and let us know:

  • Where– Primary locations you’ll be traveling to
  • When– Dates you’ll be in the location(s) and when you’re returning

You can keep the “why” and “how” to yourself unless you really want to share the exciting trip you have coming up. Once we verify your identity, we’ll take it from there and you’re free to continue the rest of your trip preparations!

Adding this simple step of notifying your IT team when you’re going abroad means more security for your business and streamlined access for you. A win-win!

Are you a current client of CIO Solutions? Please feel free to reach out with any questions!

Not a client yet, but curious about maturing your IT solutions? Let’s talk!