Limit Global Administrators to 2-4 for Healthcare & Life Sciences

Healthcare & Life Sciences organizations face specific regulatory requirements including hipaa, soc2, nist-800-53. The PA-01 control helps address these requirements by:

• Between 2 and 4 principals have the Global Administrator role
• No single point of failure (minimum 2)
• Attack surface is minimized (maximum 4)
• No service principals have Global Administrator (use least-privilege)
• No groups have Global Administrator (hidden privilege escalation risk)

Global Administrators have unrestricted access to your entire tenant. Too many increases your attack surface; too few risks lockout. Service principals and groups with Global Admin are especially dangerous - service principals can be compromised via app credentials, and groups hide who actually has the role. Microsoft recommends 2-4 permanent Global Admins for most organizations.

When implementing PA-01 in a healthcare & life sciences environment, consider:

• **Regulatory requirements**: hipaa, soc2, nist-800-53 may mandate specific configurations
• **Risk tolerance**: Healthcare & Life Sciences organizations typically have moderate to low risk tolerance
• **Audit frequency**: Plan for regular compliance reviews
• **Documentation**: Maintain detailed records for regulatory inspections

PA-01 requires the following configuration:

• Between 2 and 4 principals have the Global Administrator role
• No single point of failure (minimum 2)
• Attack surface is minimized (maximum 4)
• No service principals have Global Administrator (use least-privilege)
• No groups have Global Administrator (hidden privilege escalation risk)

Review and adjust Global Administrator assignments manually. Remove service principals and groups.

Follow the steps above in your Microsoft Entra admin center to enable this control.