🤔 Did You Know? Microsoft Purview Insider Risk Management Connects to More of Microsoft 365 Than You Might Think

When people talk about Microsoft Purview Insider Risk Management (IRM), the conversation often focuses on detecting suspicious user activity.

Perhaps someone is downloading large volumes of files before leaving the organisation. Maybe sensitive information is being uploaded to an unauthorised cloud service, or a user is attempting to remove or downgrade sensitivity labels.

But here’s something you might not know:

Insider Risk Management doesn’t have to stop at identifying risky behaviour. It can help other Microsoft security controls respond to that risk.

Through integrations with Microsoft Purview, Microsoft Entra and Microsoft Defender, IRM can become part of a much wider data security and identity protection strategy.

Let’s look at some of the connections.

1. Insider Risk Management + Data Loss Prevention (DLP)

This is one of the most interesting integrations.

Microsoft Purview Adaptive Protection connects Insider Risk Management with Data Loss Prevention.

The idea is straightforward:

• IRM detects potentially risky behaviour.
• The user is assigned an insider risk level.
• DLP policies can use that risk level to determine what actions are allowed.

For example, imagine an employee who has submitted their resignation.

Over several days, IRM detects a sequence of potentially concerning activities:

• Downloading unusually large volumes of files.
• Accessing sensitive information.
• Copying files to removable storage.
• Attempting to upload information to an unauthorised cloud service.

The user may be assigned an elevated insider risk level.

Adaptive Protection can then influence how DLP responds.

For an elevated-risk user, you could configure DLP to block activities such as copying sensitive files to USB, printing, or sharing information externally.

For a user with a lower risk level, the same activities might simply be audited.

The important point: DLP doesn’t necessarily need to apply the same level of restriction to everyone.

It can respond to the risk context provided by Insider Risk Management.

Microsoft reference: Adaptive Protection in DLP

2. Insider Risk Management + Microsoft Entra Conditional Access

Did you know that insider risk can also influence access decisions?

Through Adaptive Protection, Microsoft Entra Conditional Access can use an Insider Risk condition.

This means access decisions can take account of the risk level identified by Purview.

For example:

• Minor risk: allow access, with visibility and monitoring.
• Moderate risk: require additional acknowledgement, such as Terms of Use.
• Elevated risk: block access to selected Microsoft 365 applications or sensitive SharePoint sites.

You can also use Conditional Access application control to restrict downloads from selected cloud applications.

One particularly interesting scenario involves Microsoft 365 Copilot.

If an elevated-risk user is blocked from accessing a sensitive SharePoint site through an appropriate Conditional Access policy, Copilot cannot use that site as a source of information for that user’s responses.

This is an important connection between identity, data access and AI governance.

It is not simply about detecting a risky user. It is about changing what that user can access.

Microsoft reference: Adaptive Protection configuration guide

3. Insider Risk Management + Data Lifecycle Management

Here’s another integration that deserves attention.

Adaptive Protection can work with Data Lifecycle Management to help preserve information deleted by elevated-risk users.

For example, imagine an employee who is leaving the organisation and starts deleting files from SharePoint, OneDrive or Exchange Online.

With the relevant Adaptive Protection configuration, an automatically created retention label policy can preserve content deleted by users assigned an elevated risk level for 120 days.

Why does this matter?

Because detecting suspicious deletion activity is only part of the problem.

You also need to consider whether the information can be recovered or retained for investigation.

This provides another layer of protection when dealing with potential data loss or malicious deletion.

Microsoft currently documents this capability as part of Adaptive Protection, with Data Lifecycle Management integration identified as a preview capability. Check the current service documentation and licensing before planning deployment.

Microsoft reference: Help dynamically mitigate risks with Adaptive Protection

4. Insider Risk Management + Microsoft Defender XDR

IRM isn’t isolated in the Purview portal either.

You can share Insider Risk Management alerts and user risk context with Microsoft Defender XDR.

This allows security operations teams to investigate insider risk alongside other security signals.

For example, a SOC analyst could investigate:

• An Insider Risk Management alert.
• A related Microsoft Defender for Endpoint alert.
• A Data Loss Prevention alert.
• Other identity or security activity associated with the same user.

Rather than investigating each signal independently, analysts can gain a more joined-up view of the activity.

Insider Risk Management alerts can appear in the Defender incident and alert queues, and analysts can use Advanced Hunting to investigate relevant information.

This is particularly useful for organisations where the SOC works primarily in Microsoft Defender rather than switching between multiple portals.

Microsoft reference: Investigate insider risk threats in the Microsoft Defender portal

5. Insider Risk Management + Communication Compliance

Another useful connection is with Microsoft Purview Communication Compliance.

IRM can share user risk severity information with Communication Compliance, giving investigators additional context when reviewing potential policy violations.

Think about a situation where an employee is sending inappropriate or potentially sensitive communications while also displaying other indicators of risky behaviour.

Communication Compliance can provide insight into the communications, while Insider Risk Management provides additional user-risk context.

This helps investigators understand the wider picture rather than looking at an individual communication in isolation.

There is also an important connection in the other direction: Communication Compliance activity can be used as a triggering event for certain Insider Risk Management policies.

That creates opportunities to connect communication-related concerns with broader insider risk investigations.

Microsoft reference: Share Insider Risk Management data with other solutions

6. Insider Risk Management + Microsoft Sentinel and SIEM platforms

Finally, don’t forget the wider security ecosystem.

IRM alert information can be exported to SIEM and SOAR solutions using the Office 365 Management Activity API.

Microsoft Sentinel also provides an Insider Risk Management data connector.

This means organisations can bring insider risk information into their wider security monitoring and response processes.

If your SOC uses Sentinel, Splunk or another SIEM platform, this is worth investigating.

Microsoft reference: Share Insider Risk Management data with other solutions

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Putting it all together

The real value becomes apparent when you look at these integrations as a connected security model.

Imagine this sequence:

1. DETECT – Insider Risk Management identifies potentially risky user behaviour.
2. ASSESS – The user is assigned an appropriate insider risk level.
3. PROTECT – Adaptive Protection influences DLP policies to restrict risky data activities.
4. CONTROL – Conditional Access can limit access to Microsoft 365 applications or sensitive SharePoint sites.
5. PRESERVE – Data Lifecycle Management can preserve relevant deleted content under the configured protection scenario.
6. INVESTIGATE – Defender XDR, Communication Compliance and SIEM integrations provide additional context for security teams.

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A few things to remember

There are some important considerations before switching all these integrations on:

• Licensing matters. Insider Risk Management, Adaptive Protection, DLP and Conditional Access have specific licensing requirements. Check the relevant Microsoft licensing guidance.
• Adaptive Protection must be configured. These integrations don’t automatically start enforcing controls just because IRM is enabled.
• Risk levels aren’t alert severity levels. Adaptive Protection uses Minor, Moderate and Elevated risk levels. These are different from the Low, Medium and High alert severity classifications used by IRM.
• Test before enforcing. Start with audit or simulation modes where supported. Understand the impact before introducing blocking controls.
• Privacy and governance matter. IRM uses pseudonymisation by default, role-based access controls and audit logs. Make sure your investigation processes are appropriately governed.

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The bigger picture

I think this is one of the most interesting aspects of Microsoft Purview.

Insider Risk Management is not just about identifying employees who might be putting information at risk.

It can help connect the dots between user behaviour, data protection, identity controls, retention and security operations.

Instead of treating DLP, Conditional Access, Defender and Insider Risk Management as separate products, organisations can start using them as connected parts of a broader security strategy.

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💡 The Jim Talks takeaway:

Detecting insider risk is important. Using that risk context to adapt your protection is where things get really interesting. Did you know how many Microsoft 365 security capabilities can connect to Insider Risk Management?