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Merill Fernando 💚

@merill.net
6.2K followers 4.4K following 3.8K posts

Product Manager @microsoft | Creator of bluesky.ms • cmd.ms • idPowerToys.merill.net • Graph X-Ray • 🇦🇺 • 🇱🇰 • Posts my own youtube.com/@merillx Sign up to my newsletter entra.news

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Reposted by Merill Fernando 💚
Tim Cappalli @timcappalli.me · 29/09/2026
This is HUGE. Microsoft 1P apps now use a system browser when authenticating against a 3P IdP (such as Okta or Auth0), allowing #passkeys to be used for sign in. This is a massive step towards finally eliminating phishable authentication for workforce.
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Merill Fernando 💚 @merill.net · 29/09/2026
👋 Check out this new Microsoft Entra blog post 👇 Sign in to Microsoft apps with passkeys from external identity providers techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/microsoft...
techcommunity.microsoft.com
Sign in to Microsoft apps with passkeys from external identity providers
Enable external identity provider passkeys, browser single sign-on, and modern web authentication for brokered Microsoft app sign-ins on Android, iOS, and...
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Merill Fernando 💚 @merill.net · 28/09/2026
Self-hosted Maester Cloud is ready 🔥 You can now buy it and deploy it into your own Azure subscription with guided setup. → Scheduled Maester runs with the built-in runner → Drift tracking, test by test → Email reports and drift alerts from your own mailbox
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Merill Fernando 💚 @merill.net · 28/09/2026
This week's entra.news is out!
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Reposted by Merill Fernando 💚
Faav @faav.net · 25/09/2026
How I Could've Accessed 17 Trillion Microsoft Records blog.faav.net/how-i-couldv... :)
blog.faav.net
How I Could’ve Accessed 17 Trillion Microsoft Records
How one unchecked login token put 17 trillion rows in a Microsoft internal analytics service within reach.
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Merill Fernando 💚 @merill.net · 25/09/2026
Folks, phishers have figured out rage bait. Got this today from "SendGrid HR". They're adding a trans youth message to my email footer this month. Don't want it? Just click the button to remove it. Sender is noreply@billkill.no Rage is the new urgency.
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Merill Fernando 💚 @merill.net · 23/09/2026
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Merill Fernando 💚 @merill.net · 22/09/2026
👋 Check out this new Microsoft Entra blog post 👇 Prepare your tenant estate for AI: Join our upcoming webinars techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/microsoft...
techcommunity.microsoft.com
Prepare your tenant estate for AI: Join our upcoming webinars
Discover how to gain visibility, maintain consistent configurations, and reduce risk across every tenant in your organization.
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Merill Fernando 💚 @merill.net · 19/09/2026
👋 Check out this new Microsoft Entra blog post 👇 Public preview of self-service onboarding for new Microsoft Entra App Gallery applications techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/microsoft...
techcommunity.microsoft.com
Public preview of self-service onboarding for new Microsoft Entra App Gallery applications
Learn how publishers can validate SSO and provisioning, resolve issues earlier, and manage App Gallery submissions from start to finish.
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Merill Fernando 💚 @merill.net · 18/09/2026
👋 Check out this new Microsoft Entra blog post 👇 Replace VPN access with identity-driven security techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/microsoft...
techcommunity.microsoft.com
Replace VPN access with identity-driven security
Use Microsoft Entra Private Access to move from broad VPN access to per-app connectivity, phased rollout, and Zero Trust controls.
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Merill Fernando 💚 @merill.net · 17/09/2026
Developers wouldn't ship without tests. Identity teams ship changes to a 30-year-old directory every single day with nothing but a change ticket and hope. 269 checks. Read-only. Runs from your workstation. There's no good reason not to have a baseline for AD 🎙️ entra.chat
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Merill Fernando 💚 @merill.net · 15/09/2026
👋 Check out this new Microsoft Entra blog post 👇 Simplify Employee Identity Lifecycle with HiBob and Microsoft Entra techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/microsoft...
techcommunity.microsoft.com
Simplify Employee Identity Lifecycle with HiBob and Microsoft Entra | Microsoft Community Hub
Use Microsoft Entra to govern hybrid identities from HiBob while moving to the cloud at your own pace.
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Merill Fernando 💚 @merill.net · 15/09/2026
Entra News #166 is out!
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Merill Fernando 💚 @merill.net · 06/09/2026
Issue #165 of Entra News is out and its a bumper issue. Get it at entra.news/p/entra-n...
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Reposted by Merill Fernando 💚
Frank Lesniak @franklesniak.com · 30/08/2026
I'm Nashville-bound next week for the Hybrid Identity Protection Conference! I selected sessions on defending AD, retiring NTLM & securing Entra (@dotdot.horse, @ericonidentity.com, @merill.net, @samerde.day3bits.com) to help me keep my clients secure. Attending? Say hi! #HIPConf
Conference agenda webpage with tabs for Tuesday, September 8, 2026, Wednesday, September 9, 2026, and Thursday, September 10, 2026; Wednesday is selected. The schedule lists Breakfast 7:30 AM–8:45 AM, Opening Remarks: Mickey Bresman, Why Cyber Conflict Is a Human Problem, LETs KILL NTLM, Breaks, Attackers Aren’t Wizards: Turning Red Team Lore into Real Controls, Mission-Critical Conditional Access at Scale, Lunch, AD Experts Panel, Let’s Kill NTLM (Vol. 2): The Kerberos Connection, Abusing the Holes in Conditional Access: Modern Attack Paths and How to Close Them, and Evening Event 6:30 PM–10:00 PM.Conference agenda page with tabs for Tuesday, September 8, 2026, Wednesday, September 9, 2026, and selected Thursday, September 10, 2026. The Thursday schedule lists sessions such as Breakfast, Human Resilience in the Age of AI: Building Proactive Cyber Defense, Your Agents Don’t Have Passwords: Governing Non-Human and Agentic AI Identities, Lunch, and Resilience Under Fire: A CISO’s Journey Through Crisis, Health Challenges, and High-Stakes Defense, each with times and magnifying glass icons on the right.
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Reposted by Merill Fernando 💚
Darren 'Doc' Robinson [MVP] @darrenjrobinson.com · 02/09/2026
New MCP Server: @merill.net Joanne Hayek have resumed their fantastic weekly Microsoft AI Newsletter. I've updated and published the associated MCP Server. Check it out and add it to your AI Knowledge Agents blog.darrenjrobinson.com/microsoft-ai...
blog.darrenjrobinson.com
Microsoft AI Roundup MCP Server - darrenjrobinson - Bespoke Identity and Access Management Solutions
An MCP server that turns Merill & Joshua's weekly Microsoft AI Roundup newsletter into a searchable knowledge base
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Merill Fernando 💚 @merill.net · 02/09/2026
👋 Check out this new Microsoft Entra blog post 👇 What’s new in Microsoft Entra: September 2026 techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/microsoft...
techcommunity.microsoft.com
What’s new in Microsoft Entra: September 2026
Learn about generally available and public preview identity and network access capabilities released in the past 30 days.
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Merill Fernando 💚 @merill.net · 01/09/2026
We just sent out this week's Microsoft AI news roundup. Get it at msai.ms Subscribe today!
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Merill Fernando 💚 @merill.net · 31/08/2026
General Motors is ~200,000 people into its passkey rollout. Andrew Cameron on Windows Hello at scale, factory floors, and the guest accounts that make it hard. Watch / Listen to the full episode on Entra Chat. entra.news/p/how-gen...
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Merill Fernando 💚 @merill.net · 30/08/2026
We just sent out this week's Entra newsletter - Issue #164 Get it at entra.news
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Merill Fernando 💚 @merill.net · 28/08/2026
👋 Folks after year long hiatus the community powered database of aka•ms is back!! Bookmark it 👇 akams.fyi PS. I made some updates to the site, including a much simpler experience to contribute aka•ms links to the database.
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Merill Fernando 💚 @merill.net · 28/08/2026
👋 Folks, I’ll be joining Sam and Mike to show how you can go beyond security baselines and build custom security tests with Maester across Entra ID, on-prem AD, and your entire hybrid estate. 📅 September 10 at 11:00 AM Hope to see you there!
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Merill Fernando 💚 @merill.net · 27/08/2026
👋 PSA - M365 admins: quick heads up myaccount.microsoft.com 👇 myaccount.cloud.micr...
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Merill Fernando 💚 @merill.net · 27/08/2026
"If it ain't broke, don't fix it" is why AD groups still run licensing in a lot of Entra tenants. On 3 November, part of that setup stops working. The clip explains the habit. The episode covers the fix. Gregor Reimling, René Wasel + Eric Woodruff. 🎧 entra.chat
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Merill Fernando 💚 @merill.net · 26/08/2026
👋 Check out this new Microsoft Entra blog post 👇 Instant Revocation of Service Principal Bearer Tokens with CAE techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/microsoft...
techcommunity.microsoft.com
Instant Revocation of Service Principal Bearer Tokens with CAE | Microsoft Community Hub
This blog post describes how to instantly revoke Entra service principal bearer tokens with continuous access evaluation, even before their lifetime has...
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Merill Fernando 💚 @merill.net · 26/08/2026
Folks, I just re-started MSAI weekly, your weekly round up of the Microsoft AI updates worth knowing. Including Microsoft 365 Copilot, GitHub Copilot, Azure AI Foundry, Copilot Studio, Security Copilot, Microsoft Fabric, Agent 365, and more. Check it out at msai.ms and subscribe today.
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Merill Fernando 💚 @merill.net · 22/08/2026
I just sent out issue #163 of the weekly Entra News. Get it today and subscribe if you haven't already! entra.news
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Merill Fernando 💚 @merill.net · 21/08/2026
Today I accidentally wandered into the wrong neighbourhood on X. PS. I’m loving it 😂
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Merill Fernando 💚 @merill.net · 18/08/2026
Folks, I'm excited to announce something for all the die hard Intune fans. Check out daily.intune.admin.news today! + bookmark it. BONUS: Sign up for the email newsletter to get the updates delivered straight to you inbox daily.
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Merill Fernando 💚 @merill.net · 17/08/2026
He copied a value out of the Windows Event Log. Pasted it into his special browser. And he was signed into Microsoft Entra as the user who had just authenticated. No password. No phishing link. No stolen private key. @MGrafnetter's Black Hat USA 2026 research Watch at entra.chat
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Merill Fernando 💚 @merill.net · 15/08/2026
Have you read this weeks Entra.News ?
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Merill Fernando 💚 @merill.net · 14/08/2026
Did you know your Entra dynamic groups could be granting AI agents access to apps and services without you realizing it? You might even be assigning them licenses and running out of licenses for your human users. Find out how to fix at merill.net/blog
An agent's user account is a subtype of user identity within Microsoft Entra. An agent's user account is evaluated by user-based membership rules and can be included in a dynamic user group when it satisfies the rule.

By default, an agent's user account isn't distinguished from other user identities. To exclude these accounts, include a condition in the membership rule. You can also create rules that include only agents' user accounts or target accounts associated with a specific agent identity blueprint. Agent identities, which are service principals, aren't supported as members of dynamic membership groups.
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Merill Fernando 💚 @merill.net · 14/08/2026
👋 Check out this new Microsoft Entra blog post 👇 Why Active Directory alone is no longer enough techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/microsoft...
techcommunity.microsoft.com
Why Active Directory alone is no longer enough | Microsoft Community Hub
Five signs your organization has outgrown Active Directory, and four practical steps to reduce dependency and modernize identity.
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Reposted by Merill Fernando 💚
Darren 'Doc' Robinson [MVP] @darrenjrobinson.com · 12/08/2026
On Entra Podcast Jai Maharaj describes to @merill.net an Australian customers concerns that employer-issued passkey-enrolled laptops were being handed to workers overseas to do the job for them. Phishing-resistant MFA didn't stop the human workaround. www.youtube.com/watch?v=MCFz...
youtube.com
SMS MFA Ends in 2027: Your Microsoft Entra Passkey Migration Plan
YouTube video by Merill Fernando
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Merill Fernando 💚 @merill.net · 12/08/2026
👋 Check out this new Microsoft Entra blog post 👇 How to enforce Zero Trust across every resource techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/microsoft...
techcommunity.microsoft.com
How to enforce Zero Trust across every resource
Discover the latest Microsoft Entra Internet Access and Private Access innovations to secure AI interactions, local agents, web traffic, and private...
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Merill Fernando 💚 @merill.net · 11/08/2026
Now I can find and fix vulnerabilities in my own code. I'm glad to see OpenAI making these model's available to help make our app's secure. FYI For those who want to get access to Daybreak Blue 👇 openai.com/index/exp...
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Merill Fernando 💚 @merill.net · 11/08/2026
👋 Check out this new Microsoft Entra blog post 👇 What's New in Microsoft Entra: August 2026 techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/microsoft...
techcommunity.microsoft.com
What's New in Microsoft Entra: August 2026
Learn about generally available and public preview identity and network access capabilities released in the past 30 days.
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Merill Fernando 💚 @merill.net · 11/08/2026
Microsoft-managed SMS and voice MFA retires in 2027. In Episode 70 of Entra.Chat, Jai Maharaj shares a practical path from SMS to passkeys covering profiles, rollout, Conditional Access, secure onboarding and account recovery. Watch or listen: entra.chat
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Merill Fernando 💚 @merill.net · 10/08/2026
👋 Check out this new Microsoft Entra blog post 👇 Microsoft Entra Tenant Governance is now generally available techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/microsoft...
techcommunity.microsoft.com
Microsoft Entra Tenant Governance is now generally available | Microsoft Community Hub
Learn how Microsoft Entra Tenant Governance helps you discover and govern tenants across your organization to establish an AI-ready secure foundation
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Merill Fernando 💚 @merill.net · 09/08/2026
A busy week in Microsoft Entra 👀 The announcements are one thing. Understanding what they actually mean for admins is another. This week, the Entra community has been digging into the memberOf retirement, passkey changes, managed policy updates & more Lots of practical guidance and analysis 👇
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Reposted by Merill Fernando 💚
Darren 'Doc' Robinson [MVP] @darrenjrobinson.com · 04/08/2026
This week in Entra land: Andres Canello tells @merill.net his Migrate2GSA toolkit is 30k+ lines of PowerShell — and AI wrote every line. He wrote none by hand. Full quote & context at 23:28, in the archive. Get the MCP and search the whole entra.chat archive yourself
entra.chat
Entra.Chat | Merill Fernando | Substack
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...
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Merill Fernando 💚 @merill.net · 06/08/2026
Love the weekly Entra.News? Meet its over-caffeinated sibling → Daily.Entra.News 👀💥🙀 Today I’m launching a new resource for truly hardcore Entra fans A faster way to see what changed on Microsoft Entra
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Merill Fernando 💚 @merill.net · 06/08/2026
👋 Check out this new Microsoft Entra blog post 👇 End VPN gaps with identity-first access techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/microsoft...
techcommunity.microsoft.com
End VPN gaps with identity-first access
Protect AI, SaaS, private apps, and web traffic with adaptive policies that respond to risk in real time.
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Merill Fernando 💚 @merill.net · 03/08/2026
🚨 Entra Conditional Access gotcha from Andres Canello Selecting every device platform ≠ “Any device.” An attacker can spoof the browser user-agent, get no platform match, and that CA policy condition won’t apply. Watch Entra.Chat with for more nuggets 👇 entra.news/p/the-ult...
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Merill Fernando 💚 @merill.net · 02/08/2026
Issue #160 of Entra.News is out! Get it at entra.news/p/entra-n...
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Merill Fernando 💚 @merill.net · 29/07/2026
Insider Risk Is a Business Decision - Bring HR In Early
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Merill Fernando 💚 @merill.net · 29/07/2026
🚧 Folks, we’re planning a major architecture change for Maester 3.0: a native test model with structured metadata, simpler contributions, centralized prerequisite handling, and compatibility for existing Pester tests. We want your feedback before finalizing the design 👇
github.com
RFC: A Maester-native test model for Maester 3.0 · maester365/maester · Discussion #2050
RFC: A Maester-native test model for Maester 3.0 Status: We have decided on the overall direction, but the design and migration experience are still open for community input. We are planning a sign...
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Merill Fernando 💚 @merill.net · 28/07/2026
I’ll be honest. Purview has always felt like someone else’s part of the Microsoft security stack. I’m an Entra person. Ray Reyes isn’t, and that’s why I wanted him on Entra.Chat The lines between our products and teams are disappearing.
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Merill Fernando 💚 @merill.net · 28/07/2026
Folks, Maester 2.2 is here!! It was just a couple of months ago when we launched Maester 2.0 and the amazing Maester community has been SUPER busy.
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Merill Fernando 💚 @merill.net · 26/07/2026
We just sent out the latest Entra News for the week. Check it out! entra.news/p/entra-n...
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