2026 CoreView State of Microsoft 365 Security Report
Benchmarks, trends, and surprises on admin MFA, Entra privileged access, Microsoft 365 configuration backup, Copilot risk, and tenant sprawl, from 279 enterprise IT and security leaders.
Microsoft 365 security is a black box.
Here's what 279 leaders found inside.
Only 17% of organisations have a guaranteed back up of their Microsoft 365 configurations. The rest are trusting a safety net that isn't there.
Many organisations believe their Microsoft 365 security is mature, yet hidden weaknesses in identity, configuration and data governance continue to create unnecessary risk. As AI adoption accelerates, these gaps become increasingly difficult to ignore.
This research explores how enterprise IT and security leaders are approaching Microsoft 365 governance, highlighting the challenges, priorities and emerging trends shaping security strategies in 2026. Download the report to benchmark your organisation and identify where to focus next.
What's inside the report?
Explore the research, trends and practical insights helping enterprise leaders strengthen Microsoft 365 security and prepare for secure AI adoption
Benchmark Your Security
Compare your Microsoft 365 security posture against 279 enterprise organisations.
Uncover Hidden Risks
Explore where governance, identity and configuration gaps commonly emerge.
Prepare for AI
Learn why organisations are delaying Copilot and how governance affects AI readiness.
Prioritise Improvements
Understand which security practices distinguish leading organisations from the rest.
Here are the seven findings from the report that map to these gaps
1
Microsoft 365 security maturity vs. reality
62% rate themselves mature, but still 54% of them are missing a foundational identity or configuration control. Organizations are rating themselves more highly than what the data describes.
2
Admin MFA and privileged access
Standard Microsoft 365 users have more protections than Admin accounts do. The accounts with the most power over your tenant have the least protection.
3
Microsoft Copilot and data exposure
66% of organizations delayed or cancelled a Copilot rollout due to concerns about the data it could surface via SharePoint.
4
Microsoft 365 configuration backup
Only 17% of organizations back up their own Microsoft 365 configurations. Microsoft doesn't do it. And data backup vendors only back up a portion of tenant configurations.
5
Configuration drift and tamper detection
38% trust themselves to catch configuration tampering by hand. 17% aren’t monitoring for config tampering at all. Manual review does not scale when there are 10,000+ Microsoft 365 settings.
6
Tenant sprawl and Entra app governance
Microsoft 365 sprawls in three directions at once: tenants, Entra apps, and access. 83% run multiple tenants, 14% can't count their Entra apps, and 63% skip access reviews because they take too long. Manual review can't keep up.
7
SharePoint sharing links
73% of organizations saw SharePoint storage grow this year, building on top of years of ungoverned sharing links. That backlog is what’s causing the AI anxiety.
Gain the insight needed to strengthen Microsoft 365 security
Download the report to benchmark your organisation and identify the governance priorities shaping enterprise security in 2026
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