Restrict Security Group Creation for Financial Services & Banking
How financial services & banking organizations should implement GOV-10 for Microsoft 365 security and compliance.
For financial services & banking companies using Microsoft 365, restrict security group creation is a security priority. This guide explains how GOV-10 helps financial services & banking organizations protect their identity infrastructure while meeting industry-specific compliance mandates.
Why Financial Services & Banking Organizations Need This Control
Financial Services & Banking organizations face specific regulatory requirements including soc2, pci-dss, nist-800-53, iso27001. The GOV-10 control helps address these requirements by:
- Non-admin users cannot create security groups
- Security group creation is restricted to administrators
- authorizationPolicy.defaultUserRolePermissions.allowedToCreateSecurityGroups is false
Security groups are used in access grants and policy targeting. If any user can create them, group sprawl and ungoverned access assignments follow, weakening least-privilege and complicating access reviews.
Industry-Specific Considerations
When implementing GOV-10 in a financial services & banking environment, consider:
- **Regulatory requirements**: soc2, pci-dss, nist-800-53 may mandate specific configurations
- **Risk tolerance**: Financial Services & Banking organizations typically have moderate to low risk tolerance
- **Audit frequency**: Plan for regular compliance reviews
- **Documentation**: Maintain detailed records for regulatory inspections
How to Configure
GOV-10 requires the following configuration:
- Non-admin users cannot create security groups
- Security group creation is restricted to administrators
- authorizationPolicy.defaultUserRolePermissions.allowedToCreateSecurityGroups is false
Detect-only. Fix in Entra admin center > Groups > General > Users can create security groups = No.
Follow the steps above in your Microsoft Entra admin center to enable this control.
Financial Services Compliance Requirements
Financial Services organizations must comply with these frameworks, all of which address restrict security group creation:
Why This Control Matters for Financial Services
Security groups are used in access grants and policy targeting. If any user can create them, group sprawl and ungoverned access assignments follow, weakening least-privilege and complicating access reviews.
Common threats in financial services & banking:
- • Account takeover attacks
- • Insider trading through unauthorized access
- • Wire fraud via business email compromise
For financial services & banking organizations, GOV-10 is a key component of a compliant Microsoft 365 security posture. TrueConfig helps you implement and maintain this control while meeting industry-specific requirements.
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