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PODCAST

Entra.Chat

Merill Fernando

Entra Chat is a weekly podcast hosted by Merill Fernando and delivers practical insights for Microsoft administrators and security professionals through conversations with identity experts who"ve been in the trenches. Episodes feature seasoned Entra practitioners sharing real-world deployment experiences and Microsoft Entra team members who build the features you use daily. Get the inside track on best practices, implementation strategies, and upcoming capabilities directly from those who design

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All Episodes

58:03

Hacking Entra ID: Inside the Attack & Defense...

Entra.Chat ·

2025/11/01

Sami Lamppu and Thomas Naunheim, the creators of the Entra ID Attack and Defense Playbook, join me to discuss their incredible 5-year community project.We talk about the most complex attacks they’ve researched, including the “black box” token and PRT attacks, and their shocking findings related to TPM and device compliance. We also dive deep into their brand-new chapter on the new Microsoft Entra Connect Application Based Authentication model and the critical steps you must take to secure

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60:39

I found a bug that could hack ANY Microsoft 365...

Entra.Chat ·

2025/10/24

In this episode, I chat with Dirk-jan Mollema, the legendary researcher behind some of the most important discoveries in Microsoft identity security. We go deep into how curiosity led him from tinkering with web tools to uncovering one of the biggest Entra ID vulnerabilities ever found. He shares the story behind the CVE that rocked the cloud world, the stress of realizing what he’d uncovered, and the mindset that drives his relentless research. If you’ve ever wondered what it feels like to find a

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67:40

AI is Coming to Identity Governance! Meet the Entra...

Entra.Chat ·

2025/10/18

In this episode, I sit down with Alexander Filipin, a Product Manager at Microsoft, to unpack the essentials of identity governance and why access reviews are a game-changer for security and compliance.We explore the pitfalls like rubber stamping that plague traditional methods and tease how the new AI-driven Access Review Agent is stepping in with smart recommendations and context to make decisions easier and more accurate. Plus, we peek into exciting future possibilities where agents could

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32:22

Why AI Is Breaking Identity Security – Experts Spill...

Entra.Chat ·

2025/10/11

Welcome back to Entra.Chat! In this rapid-fire Q&A, I’m joined by a team of brilliant CXE Identity Architects from Microsoft, and they’re answering the toughest questions on the future of identity. We dive deep into the security challenge posed by agentic AI that can spawn self-replicating identities and how Microsoft is creating tailored behavioral analytics to protect your environment. The team also spills the details on the shift to phishing-resistant MFA through authentication strengths and

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38:47

Azure AD B2C to Entra External ID: Migration...

Entra.Chat ·

2025/10/04

In this episode, I sit down with my longtime friends and colleagues, Jas Suri and Gayan Randeny, at Microsoft’s campus to unpack the biggest Microsoft consumer identity shift in years—Azure AD B2C’s sunset and the rise of Entra External ID. We talk about why B2C is going away, the crazy scale of tenants with 100M+ identities, the migration paths and what the future looks like for customer identity. Plus, stick around until the end because Gayan and Jas share a world premiere on the podcast about a

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31:35

Microsoft's Secret Weapon for M365 Admins: A 10x...

Entra.Chat ·

2025/09/26

On this episode of Entra Chat, I was thrilled to sit down with Yanyan and Sweta from the Entra UI experience team to dive deep into a feature that many of us have used but is now getting a massive refresh: Bulk Operations. We talked about how they took a critical legacy tool and completely re-engineered it for insane performance and scale, making it more reliable than ever. You’ll hear about some amazing new capabilities, like customizing the columns in your CSV exports and using UPNs instead of

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61:12

How a Pharmacist Became a Pro Hacker (And What She...

Entra.Chat ·

2025/09/20

Cybersecurity expert Erica shares her incredible journey from pharmacist to becoming a professional hacker. She reveals how attackers are bypassing modern security controls like MFA and what you can do to protect your tenant.We talk about the most common configuration vulnerabilities that exist in almost every organization, the dangers of application onboarding, and the top five phishing vectors threat actors are using to gain initial access, including clever abuses of Microsoft Teams.Subscribe with

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44:22

The Great Debate: P2 vs. Entra ID Governance for Guests

Entra.Chat ·

2025/09/14

Jeremy Conley, Product Manager on the Identity Governance team at Microsoft, demystifies the world of guest access in Microsoft Entra. We discuss the hidden security risks that accumulate as guests are invited into a tenant and the governance challenges this creates.We also do a deep dive into the different licensing tiers, from P2 to the new Entra ID Governance for Guests license, and explain the recently GA’d , cost-effective MAU-based billing model for guests. Jeremy provides actionable tips for

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48:47

The Hidden Risks of Non-Human Identities in Your Tenant

Entra.Chat ·

2025/09/06

In this episode of Entra.Chat, I dive into the critical world of app governance with experts Jay Gundotra and Sander Berkouwer, who unpack the hidden risks of non-human identities in Microsoft Entra. From shocking real-world breaches like Midnight Blizzard to a hilarious tale of a theme park’s water supply mishap, we explore why securing your cloud apps is more urgent than ever. Tune in to discover practical tips and tools to safeguard your organization without losing your giraffes!Subscribe with

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58:03

Red Team Secrets: How we bypass Conditional Access...

Entra.Chat ·

2025/08/29

In this episode of Entra.Chat, I dive deep with cybersecurity architect Fabian Bader into his research on bypassing poorly designed Microsoft Entra’s conditional access policies and what you can do about them. We also cover the game-changing new Group Source of Authority feature that lets you finally manage synced groups in the cloud, and share insights from Fabian’s work with MSRC to secure the platform—don’t miss this one if you want to stay ahead in cloud security!Subscribe with your favorite

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75:26

Inside Entra Resilience: Microsoft's Outage War...

Entra.Chat ·

2025/08/23

In this episode, I sit down with my boss, Tarek Dawoud, to pull back the curtain on what really happens during a major service outage. Tarek shares some incredible "war stories" from his time in the trenches, from the early days of DirSync where the team had to edit a sync file with a debugger to prevent an incident, to the massive outages of 2017 and 2018 that changed everything. We'll give you a peek into the high-stakes, quick-thinking world of a "live site" incident and reveal the groundbreaking

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65:41

Identity War Stories: Surviving the Domain Cutover...

Entra.Chat ·

2025/08/15

In this episode, I sit down with Conrad Murray, a seasoned expert who lives and breathes the complexities of IT migrations during mergers, acquisitions, and divestitures.We dive deep into the real-world challenges that companies face, from the political battles of deciding whose tenant to use, to the technical nightmares of migrating three-quarters of a petabyte of data for a major global firm.Conrad shares some incredible "war stories" about the single hardest part of any migration—the domain

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50:23

Don't Get Left Behind: The Future of Identity Governance

Entra.Chat ·

2025/08/09

In this episode we are joined by Jef Kazimer, Principal Product Manager at Microsoft to discuss the critical role of Microsoft Entra ID Governance. We explore the entire identity lifecycle from joiners, movers, and leavers (JML), the financial and security benefits of automated provisioning, and the pitfalls of legacy IGA solutions. Jef shares his extensive experience, from deploying complex MIM solutions to helping shape the future of cloud-native governance, and provides key insights into how AI

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53:37

The Zero Trust Mistakes 90% of Companies Are Making...

Entra.Chat ·

2025/08/02

In this eye-opening episode, I sit down with Microsoft's Clay and Ramiro, two Customer Experience (CxE) architects who've collectively run over 150 Zero Trust workshops with enterprise customers. They reveal the shocking gaps they consistently find—like customers spending millions on compliance policies but forgetting to actually block non-compliant devices with conditional access. We dive deep into their comprehensive Zero Trust Workshop framework that's become the "seventh wonder of the Excel

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44:33

Building Entra's CA AI Agent: A Creator's Perspective

Entra.Chat ·

2025/07/26

In this episode, I sit down with Jordan Dahl, a Product Manager on the Entra Conditional Access team, to discuss the newly GA'd Conditional Access Optimization Agent. Jordan shares the origin story of the agent, explaining how customer feedback about the difficulties of managing CA policies at scale led to its creation. We delve into how this AI-powered "digital colleague" works to identify and remediate security gaps, its future roadmap including Service Now integration and phased rollouts, and how

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55:14

The Unpopular Opinion: Why I Actually LIKE Hybrid Join

Entra.Chat ·

2025/07/18

In this exciting episode of Entra Chat, I dive into the world of Entra + Windows devices with the passionate and knowledgeable John Towles, a solution architect and MVP for Windows 365 and more. We unpack why Entra hybrid join is still relevant for some organizations, explore the ins and outs of Windows Autopilot, and reveal practical tips for navigating the complexities of modern device management. Plus, we share a sneak peek into the upcoming Workplace Ninjas US event and get a special

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55:01

Entra Chat 🎙️ → A master class with Entra’s Identity...

Entra.Chat ·

2025/07/11

In this episode, I sit down with Chetan Desai, a Principal Product Manager on the Microsoft Identity Governance team. We dive deep into a side of Entra that many admins never see: the critical "first mile problem" of getting identities into your system in the first place.We talk about the evolution from on-prem scripts and MIM to specific connectors for Workday and SuccessFactors and then to the new powerful, generic API-driven approach that can handle any HR system and the architectural decisions

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63:01

The Secret to Great Tech Content? A Masterclass in...

Entra.Chat ·

2025/07/04

In this episode, I chat with the legendary Tony Redmond, a prolific writer and author of "Office 365 for IT Pros". Tony shares unfiltered insights from his career, critiques the state of technical writing and AI, and discusses the challenges with PowerShell and the future of AI agents in the Microsoft ecosystem.Subscribe with your favorite podcast player or watch on YouTube 👇About Tony RedmondTony Redmond is a well-known and prolific writer in the Microsoft 365 space. After a long career in large

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72:14

The Ultimate Guide to App Consent in Microsoft Entra

Entra.Chat ·

2025/06/27

In this episode, I sit down with Erin Greenlee, the Product Manager for App Consent on Microsoft’s App Platform Team. We dive into the critical world of app consent and the upcoming Microsoft 365 secure-by-default changes. We explore the nuances of user and admin consent, the impact of the mid-July 2025, policy shift, and how admins can prepare for a more secure Entra environment.Subscribe with your favorite podcast player or watch on YouTube 👇About Erin GreenleeErin Greenlee is a Product Manager

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47:37

Pushing Microsoft Entra to its Limits to Secure...

Entra.Chat ·

2025/06/20

In this episode, we talk with an identity expert, ex-Microsoftie and Principal Domain Architect, Mark Renoden, about creating a modern Privileged Access Management (PAM) solution for on-premises Active Directory. Discover how to build a secure "Bastion Forest" architecture using Microsoft Entra. We talk about PIM for Groups, group write-back, phish-resistant credentials, Privileged Access Workstations (PAW), securing an Entra tenant from the ground up, and navigating challenges with Cloud Solution

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