Introduction
Identity management is the process of ensuring users in your organization have just the right privileges to complete the tasks they need to accomplish. One of the key ways in which Microsoft 365 supports this process is through Microsoft Entra Privileged Identity Management (PIM). PIM is a cloud-based solution that enables organizations to control and monitor the access and permissions of their employees and administrators.
This module introduces you to PIM. You learn how PIM minimizes the number of people who have access to secure information or resources across a wide range of Microsoft online services, including Microsoft 365, Microsoft Entra ID, Azure, and Microsoft Intune. Organizations use PIM to avoid assigning excessive privileges to users. Failure to do so can lead to exploitation of privileges, which results in users who can do tasks that are above their grade.
This module examines how PIM helps organizations reduce the risk of security breaches, comply with regulatory requirements, and improve operational efficiency. It does so by allowing organizations to:
- Assign roles and permissions to users on a temporary and just-in-time basis
- Review and audit the activities and requests of privileged users
- Enforce policies and best practices for managing privileged access
- Integrate with other Microsoft Entra services and applications
In this module, you learn how to configure the PIM role assignment process through the following tasks:
- Configure PIM role settings.
- Assign roles to users.
- Activate role assignments.
- Approve or deny requests.
- Extend and renew assignments.
This module also explores how PIM provides a comprehensive audit log that records all the activities and requests of privileged users, such as activating a role, approving a request, or changing a setting. You learn how the audit log helps organizations track and review the actions of privileged users, identify any suspicious or unauthorized activities, and generate reports for compliance purposes. You also learn how the audit log can be accessed from the Microsoft Entra admin center or exported to other tools for analysis.