The company has been particularly concerned about the increased identity risk as it expands its international footprint — notably opening offices in Hong Kong in 2016 and Saudi Arabia in 2024. As the offices interact and employees travel to other locations, it is crucial that any access to its systems is verified as legitimate.
Their security team has deployed Azure Active Directory (AAD) to verify geographical boundaries — the locations from which employees might reasonably be expected to access their systems from. For example, if an employee based in the US who rarely travels attempts to log in from a remote location where they are unlikely to be, a red flag is immediately raised. Unless the user’s physical presence in that location can be verified, their credentials have likely been compromised.
“From a user perspective, anytime someone is traveling outside of their base location, they need to reach out to the IT and security teams to list their specific location,” Grover notes. The adoption of these policies requires reasonable adjustments to user behavior and company policy. But the rewards are substantial.
