Securing your Azure Platform

Modern companies are required to leverage technological innovations to remain competitive. Cloud service providers are at the apex of business digital transformations by providing virtual resources that permit SMEs to compete with large organisations.?We know that security is job one in the cloud and how important it is that you find accurate and timely information about Azure security. One of the compelling reasons to use Azure for your applications and services is to take advantage of its wide array of security tools and capabilities. data breaches continue to plague companies as hackers use innovative methods to compromise cloud providers. Therefore, choosing a secure cloud provider is pertinent since a single data breach has substantial financial and operational impacts. Microsoft Azure is widely popular because of two primary security reasons:

1.?????Robust data security practices

Microsoft Azure provides robust data security measures and controls that enable organisations to customise them to meet their security needs. Microsoft channels vast resources to secure its data centres with adequate logical and physical security controls. Microsoft Azure runs in datacentres managed and operated by Microsoft. These geographically dispersed datacentres comply with key industry standards, such as ISO/IEC 27001:2013 and NIST SP 800-53, for security and reliability. The datacentres are managed, monitored, and administered by Microsoft operations staff. The operations staff has years of experience in delivering the world’s largest online services with 24 x 7 continuity. In addition, Microsoft Azure provides cloud consumers with access to advanced threat detection and prevention technologies.

2.?????Azure cloud security centre

The Microsoft Azure Cloud Security Centre consists of many security technologies and architectures designed to protect business data from modern threats. For example, Windows Defender analytics provides advanced protection from current threats by leveraging threat intelligence capabilities. More importantly, Microsoft Azure classifies data according to sensitivity levels to protect corporate data from unauthorised access. In a similar vein, Microsoft Azure encrypts data and monitors threat agents in real-time to ensure timely threat detection and prevention.

98%?of enterprises have contended with a cloud security breach in the last 18 months, according to a study of 200 CISOs and security decision-makers. This represents a significant jump. In 2020, “only” 20% of organisations experienced cloud security incidents.

How to secure your Azure cloud deployments

1.?????Utilise Azure data protection technologies

Azure provides advanced data protection tools, such as Azure multi-factor authentication, privileged access workstations, and built-in RBAC (role-based access controls). Utilising the security tools prevents unauthorised data access and authenticates users to ensure only legitimate ones can access cloud data.

2.?????Adhere to Microsoft's account management best practices

Microsoft's best practices regarding access control and account management can ensure a secure cloud deployment. For example, the Azure Active Directory provides companies with a centralised platform for managing user identity and access across the Azure suite of products, Office 365, and other cloud services. In addition, the recommended practices are tailored to ensure that only authorised individuals can access and use Azure cloud resources.

3.?????Enable data encryption

Microsoft Azure encrypts data in transit between user devices and its data centres to prevent eavesdroppers and man-in-the-middle attackers from accessing sensitive information. Also, it is recommended to encrypt data stored in Azure storage by encrypting boot volumes, virtual machines, and data volumes. For instance, Azure Disk Encryption uses the Azure Key Vault to manage encryption keys and secure classified data within the Azure cloud deployment.

4.?????Reduce the attack surface

End users are a top attack vector, and it is essential to focus on securing all endpoints. In this regard, Microsoft Azure provides core controls and capabilities for reducing and managing your endpoints. For example, Azure AD Privileged Identity Management assists in reducing account privileged by identifying and managing administrative users, enabling multi-factor authentication for privileged users, and defining data access rules. In addition, blocking legacy authentication can also lessen the Azure attack surface significantly.

Shared responsibility in the cloud

As you consider and evaluate public cloud services, it’s critical to understand the shared responsibility model and which security tasks are handled by the cloud provider and which tasks are handled by you. The workload responsibilities vary depending on whether the workload is hosted on Software as a Service (SaaS), Platform as a Service (PaaS), Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), or in an on-premises datacentre.