How Compliance Policies and Conditional Access Work Together in Intune (Enforce Zero Trust in Real Time)

 One of the most powerful — and misunderstood — combinations in Microsoft 365 is this:

✅Compliance Policies + 🔐 Conditional Access

🛡 Real-time enforcement of your Zero Trust strategy

In this post, we’ll break down how these two features work together to protect your environment — and how to configure them the right way.

1. What’s the Role of Each?

Compliance Policies (from Intune)

  • Evaluate device posture (encryption, password, OS version, etc.)
  • Mark devices as compliant or noncompliant
  • Define what a secure device looks like in your organization

Conditional Access (from Microsoft Entra)

  • Controls who can access what under which conditions
  • Checks if a device is marked compliant before allowing access
  • Enforces MFA, blocks risky sign-ins, or grants limited access

2. How They Work Together

  1. Device enrolls into Intune
  2. Intune evaluates it against compliance policies
  3. If compliant ➡ marked as “Compliant” in Entra
  4. Conditional Access grants or blocks access based on that compliance state

🚫 If the device fails the compliance check?

Conditional Access denies access, even if the user credentials are valid.

3. Why This Matters

This combo lets you:

  • Block access from unencrypted, outdated, or jailbroken devices
  • Ensure only secure endpoints connect to SharePoint, Exchange, Teams, etc.
  • Reduce breach risk from unmanaged personal devices
  • Enforce BYOD security without full MDM enrollment (when using MAM + CA)

4. How to Set It Up

Step 1: Create Compliance Policies in Intune

1. Go to the Intune Admin Center - https://intune.microsoft.com

2. Navigate to: Devices > Compliance > Create policy

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Compliance policy

3. Choose your platform: Windows 10 and later or iOS/iPadOS or Android or macOS

4. Configure the compliance settings: Common recommendations:

5. Actions for noncompliance: Set a grace period (e.g., 1–3 days), Notify user via email or push Mark device as noncompliant immediately or after delay.

6. Assign the policy to a device group E.g., “All Corporate Devices” or “Pilot Windows Devices”

7. Save and monitor the policy deployment from: Devices > Compliance > Monitor

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Step 2: Create a Conditional Access Policy in Microsoft Entra

1. Go to Entra Admin Center https://entra.microsoft.com

2. Navigate to: Protection > Conditional Access > + New policy

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  • Name your policy E.g., “Require compliant device for Microsoft 365 access”
  • Under ‘Users or workload identities’: Choose specific users/groups or select All users (recommended after testing) ✅ Exclude at least one break-glass admin account to avoid lockout
  • Under ‘Cloud apps or actions’: Select Select apps Choose Exchange Online, SharePoint Online, Microsoft Teams, or All cloud apps
  • Under ‘Conditions’: (Optional but recommended) Location: exclude trusted IPs or countries Device platform: target specific OS platforms Sign-in risk (if using Defender/Identity Protection)
  • Under ‘Access controls’ → ‘Grant’: Select Grant access ✅ Check “Require device to be marked as compliant”
  • Enable policy: Start in Report-only mode to monitor impact Review sign-in logs before switching to On
  • Click Create

3. Monitor Results: In Entra go to Protection > Conditional Access > Insights & Reporting

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4. Review:

  • Which devices/users are compliant or blocked
  • Reasons for noncompliance
  • Sign-in attempts blocked by Conditional Access

Pro Tips

  • Use named device groups for testing new policies
  • Always have a break-glass admin account that bypasses CA
  • Use report-only mode before enforcing a new policy
  • Review CA logs regularly for blocked sign-ins

Final Thoughts

  • Compliance Policies are the brains.
  • Conditional Access is the bouncer.

Together, they make sure your data only goes to secure, trusted devices — and they’re central to implementing Zero Trust the Microsoft way.

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