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 and deploy Microsoft identity solutions.
Join us for actionable takeaways you can apply immediately in your Microsoft 365, Azure, and Entra environments.
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Entra.Chat, its content and opinions are my (Merill Fernando) own and do not reflect the views of my employer (Microsoft). All postings are provided “AS IS” with no warranties and is not supported by the author. All trademarks and copyrights belong to their owners and are used for identification only.
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From Okta to Entra: Migrating 700 Apps in 90 Days
Episode 1
Monday, March 10, 2025 • Duration 01:04:02
In this very first episode of the Entra Chat podcast I sat down with Ben Wolfe, my former manager and ex-Microsoft, who is now the Head of Security Solutions at Increment.
Get full access to Entra.News - Your weekly dose of Microsoft Entra at entra.news/subscribe
Operational Groups in Entra with Nathan McNulty
Thursday, March 27, 2025 • Duration 46:59
Entra.Chat Podcast - https://entra.chat
In this insightful episode, Nathan McNulty, Senior Security Solutions Architect at Patriot Consulting, shares his extensive experience deploying and securing Microsoft Entra environments. With a background spanning civil engineering, education, and critical infrastructure, Nathan brings practical wisdom from managing environments with 50,000+ users and 90,000+ devices.
Subscribe with your favorite podcast player or watch on YouTube 👇
The conversation explores realistic approaches to securing BYOD, building effective conditional access policies using a "castle" framework, and leveraging administrative units to partition permissions efficiently. Nathan reveals his innovative "operational groups" automation technique that helps classify users by authentication methods, enabling granular security controls without manual effort. The episode also covers authentication methods migration strategies, extension attributes, and modern cloud automation approaches that replace traditional server-based scripts.
Whether you're looking to improve your conditional access strategy, smoothly migrate authentication methods, or automate Entra management tasks, Nathan's field-tested insights will help you secure your environment more effectively while reducing administrative overhead.
* Administrative units - https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/entra/identity/role-based-access-control/administrative-units
* Restricted management administrative units - https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/entra/identity/role-based-access-control/admin-units-restricted-management
Get full access to Entra.News - Your weekly dose of Microsoft Entra at entra.news/subscribe
Bypassing MFA with Kuba, the Evilginx guy!
Episode 2
Wednesday, March 19, 2025 • Duration 53:46
Episode Summary
In this episode, we dive into the sophisticated world of phishing attacks with Kuba Gretzky, creator of the renowned Evilginx framework. He shares insights on how Evilginx operates as a reverse proxy, capturing authentication tokens in real-time, and discusses the ethical considerations of creating such a powerful tool. Most importantly, Kuba provides valuable guidance on protection strategies that organizations can implement to defend against these advanced phishing techniques.
Chapters
00:00 - Introduction to Kuba and Evilginx
- Creator of Evilginx, a phishing framework demonstrating MFA vulnerabilities
- 15+ years in cybersecurity, started with MMO game hacking
- Transitioned through reverse engineering to cybersecurity
02:03 - Understanding Phishing Fundamentals
- Phishing presents fake sign-in pages to capture user credentials
- Even 7-year-olds now learn about phishing dangers in school
03:39 - How Evilginx Works Technically
- Functions as a reverse proxy between user and legitimate server
- Creates dual TLS connections to intercept all communications
- Captures authentication tokens for complete account takeover
05:55 The Evolution of Phishing Tools
- Evolved from experiments with cookie manipulation
- Improved upon older tools that required malware installation
- Developed from Nginx with Lua scripting to standalone Go application
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What nobody tells you about managing Microsoft 365 guest access with Samantha
Episode 4
Friday, April 4, 2025 • Duration 01:05:31
In this episode we discuss the evolution of guest access from SharePoint to Entra ID, the challenges of managing guest identities, and the importance of security and governance.
Our conversation covers key topics including cross-tenant access settings, identity governance, B2B direct connect, and licensing considerations.
Samantha also shares practical advice and best practices for organizations to secure their tenants and streamline external collaboration.
Subscribe with your favorite podcast player or watch on YouTube 👇
Get full access to Entra.News - Your weekly dose of Microsoft Entra at
Securing a Global Giant: Inside IKEA's Identity Strategy with Martin
Episode 5
Friday, April 11, 2025 • Duration 55:07
In this insightful discussion, Martin Sandren from IKEA joins Entra Chat to discuss the evolving landscape of IAM.
The episode covers critical considerations for modern identity strategies, including the trade-offs between syncable and device-bound passkeys, the necessity of robust regression testing for Conditional Access, and advancements in identity proofing methods.
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About Martin Sandren
Martin Sandren is the IAM Lead at Inter IKEA, overseeing the systems that support IKEA's worldwide presence. His extensive background includes over twenty years of experience as an IAM product lead, architect, engineering manager, and developer.
Beyond his role at IKEA, he is actively involved in the identity community as a frequent speaker at international conferences and a founder of the Digital Identity Amsterdam meetup and the Amsterdam chapter of IdentiBeer, and is active within the idNext foundation and IDPro.
02:51 Martin's Journey into Entra & Early IAM Experiences
05:35 Early Entra Wins: Simplified Sign-in Logging
07:02 Value of Microsoft's Preview Feature Model (Private/Public/GA)
09:39 Evolution of Federation: SAML/OIDC Then vs Now
13:22 The Rise of SCIM for User Provisioning
14:47 Cloud Standardization vs On-Prem Customization Trade-offs
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Inside Entra Sync: Dhanyah, the Microsoft PM for Entra Connect & Cloud Sync Reveals All
Episode 6
Friday, April 18, 2025 • Duration 38:33
Join us for a conversation with Dhanyah Krishnamoorthy, Product Manager at Microsoft, as she discusses Microsoft Entra Connect Sync and Cloud Sync solutions for synchronizing on-premises Active Directory identities to Entra ID.
Learn about Microsoft's overall strategy for syncing and what you can do to prepare for the future including security considerations and scaling guidance.
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About Dhanyah
Dhanyah Krishnamurthy is a Principal Product Manager in the Microsoft Entra product group. For the past four years, Dhanyah has focused on hybrid identity scenarios, leading the product management for critical services that help organizations manage identities between on-premises Active Directory and the cloud. She specifically owns Microsoft Entra Connect Sync and the newer Microsoft Entra Cloud Sync capabilities, designing solutions to streamline identity provisioning, enhance security, and support complex scenarios like mergers and acquisitions.
* Factors influencing the performance of Microsoft Entra Connect -
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Entra @ McDonald's: Managing 2.2 million workforce identities in the cloud
Episode 7
Friday, April 25, 2025 • Duration 01:07:52
George Roberts, Director of Identity Governance and Administration at McDonald's, shares his extensive experience in migrating the company's workforce identity platform from on-premises ADFS to Microsoft Entra.
We also talk about challenges like handling unique frontline worker needs (including a creative paper-based MFA solution) and integrating with various applications.
About George
George Roberts is the Director of Identity Governance and Administration at McDonald's, where he leads a global team responsible for building and delivering the enterprise identity and access platform to support over 2 million employees, partners, franchisees, and restaurant staff users worldwide. George has over 25 years of experience delivering secure, scalable, and user-friendly solutions that help McDonald's to accelerate its business. All views expressed are his own.
This episode of Entra Chat features Anju Singh, a Product Manager at Microsoft in the Microsoft Entra Authentication Experiences team. We discuss the newest authentication method in Entra: QR codes!
Anju answers heaps of questions in this deep dive including why Microsoft chose QR codes, how it works under the hood, what you should and shouldn't use it for, and the biggest question - is it considered MFA?
Get full access to Entra.News - Your weekly dose of Microsoft Entra at
Microsoft's Entra Kerberos: Bridging Legacy AD to Cloud Auth + MAM on Edge with PM Jordan Gross
Episode 10
Saturday, May 17, 2025 • Duration 51:53
In this episode we chat with Microsoft PM Jordan Gross about the exciting world of Entra Kerberos.
Discover how this crucial feature bridges the gap between traditional on-premises Active Directory and the modern cloud, enabling seamless authentication for legacy applications in hybrid environments.
Jordan delves into the mechanics of Entra Kerberos, its different operational modes (up-level and down-level trust), and its significance for organizations migrating to the cloud.
We also explore MAM (Mobile Application Management) on Edge, another innovative solution Jordan worked on, which helps secure browser access on personal devices.
PS. Can I ask a favor? If you enjoy this podcast please leave a review and rating on your podcast app! This helps more folks discover Entra.Chat - Thank you 🙏 - Merill
Watch on YouTube or get the podcast from the links below 👇
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Entra & Azure Power-Up: Secure Service Principal Impersonation with Simon Gottschlag
Episode 9
Saturday, May 10, 2025 • Duration 38:08
In this episode, Simon Gottschlag, CTO of Co-native and a Microsoft MVP in Azure, discusses his innovative prototype for implementing Azure service principal impersonation using Azure Functions and Key Vault.
We explore the challenges of managing service principals, the journey to building a solution, and the potential for improving developer experience in platform building. Simon shares insights on the four-eyes principle, Entra ID's newer attribute-based access control (ABAC) vs the traditional RBAC model, and how his solution can enhance security and auditability in Azure environments.
