Azure Security Best Practices

Azure Security Best Practices

This post summarizes some collected best practice resources relating to Microsoft Azure Security. 

Microsoft Azure Security Best Practices Document

From: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/cloud-adoption-framework/secure/security-top-10

For a video presentation, see best practices for Azure security

1. People: Educate teams about the cloud security journey

• How security roles and responsibilities are evolving in the security organization.
• Evolution of threat environment, roles, and digital strategies.
• Transformation of security, strategies, tools, and threats.
• Learnings from Microsoft's experience in securing hyperscale cloud environment.

2. People: Educate teams on cloud security technology

• Azure security
  • Az-500 learning path and certification
  • Azure Security Benchmark
    • Security baselines for Azure
  • Microsoft security best practices
• Azure compliance
  • Regulatory compliance
• Identity protocols and security
  • Azure security documentation site
  • Azure Active Directory (Azure AD) authentication YouTube series
  • Securing Azure environments with Azure AD

3. Process: Assign accountability for cloud security decisions

Decision	Description	Typical team
Network security	Configure and maintain Azure Firewall, network virtual appliances and associated routing, Web Application Firewalls (WAFs), NSGs, ASGs, and so on.	Infrastructure and endpoint security team focused on network security
Network management	Manage enterprise-wide virtual network and subnet allocation.	Existing network operations team in central IT operations
Server endpoint security	Monitor and remediate server security, including patching, configuration, endpoint security, and so on.	Central IT operations and infrastructure and endpoint security teams jointly
Incident monitoring and response	Investigate and remediate security incidents in SIEM or source console, including Microsoft Defender for Cloud, Azure AD identity protection, and so on.	Security operations team
Policy management	Set direction for use of Azure role-based access control (Azure RBAC), Defender for Cloud, administrator protection strategy, and Azure Policy to govern Azure resources.	Policy and standards and security architecture teams jointly
Identity security and standards	Set direction for Azure AD directories, PIM/pam usage, multi-factor authentication, password/synchronization configuration, application identity standards.	Identity and key management, policy and standards, and security architecture teams jointly

4. Process: Update incident response processes for cloud

• Incident response reference guide
• Guidance on building your own security incident response process
• Azure logging and alerting
• Microsoft security best practices
  • Transformation of security, strategies, tools, and threats
  • Security operations
• Microsoft learnings from Cyber Defense Operations Center (CDOC)
  • Overall lessons learned
  • Incident investigation
  • Incident remediation

5. Process: Establish security posture management
6. Technology: Require passwordless or multifactor authentication

• Passwordless Windows Hello
• Passwordless authenticator app
• Azure AD multi-factor authentication
• Third-party multifactor authentication solution

7. Technology: Integrate native firewall and network security

8. Technology: Integrate native threat detection

9. Architecture: Standardize on a single directory and identity

10. Architecture: Use identity-based access control instead of keys

11. Architecture: Establish a single unified security strategy

Azure Security Technologies

EMS - Licensing Details  - E3 vs E5

Enterprise Mobility and Security = EMS

If you do not wish to make the step to Microsoft 365 E5 but want the security capabilities, then there is a security addon (‘Microsoft 365 E5 Security’ addon) that you can purchase on top of Microsoft 365 E3 that comes with the E5 security features across Office 365, EMS and Windows 10.

Another feature comparing between EMS E3 vs E5

The Complete Office 365 and Microsoft 365 Licensing Comparison

Technologies

Threat Protection

• Exchange Online Protection
• Office 365 Advanced Threat Protection (Protection for email, Office clients, Sharepoint Online, OneDrive for Business, Microsoft Teams)
• Office 365 Threat Intelligence (from user accounts, Attacks, Phishing, Enterprise security, System updates, Denial of service, Spam, User log-ins, Malware, Device Log-ins, Data Encryption, Unauthorized data access, MFA)

Information Protection

• Data Loss Prevention
• Office Message Encryption

Security Management

• Security & Compliance Center
• Microsoft Cloud App Security
• Secure Score

Compliance Solutions

• Advanced Data Governance (enables customers to achieve organizational compliance by intelligently leveraging machine assisted insights to find, import, classify, set policy and take actions on the data that is most important to them)
• Advanced eDiscovery
• Compliance Manager - GDPR-Compliance Manager Tool
• Customer Lockbox
• Secure Assurance

Other Security Tools

• CASB
• SIEM
• MDR

Azure Security Features:

Office Malicious Content Detection

Shared Responsibility model for cloud security

1  AWS - Shared Responsibility Model

2  Azure: - Shared Responsibilities for Cloud Computing

3  CIS: Shared Responsibility for Cloud Security: What You Need to Know

Sources:
1. Microsoft Azure, https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/security/fundamentals/shared-responsibility
2. Amazon Web Services, https://aws.amazon.com/compliance/shared-responsibility-model/

Azure Security Reference Model

1  Reference Design - Azure Administration Model

2  Best practices and tips to secure your hybrid cloud environment

2  Best practices - Identity & Access Management

• Centralize Identity management. Designate a single Azure AD directory as the authoritative source.
• Enforce SSO and Multi Factor Authentication.
• Leverage Azure RBAC with Privileged Identity Management.
• Actively monitor for suspicious activities using AAD anomaly reports.
• Use Azure AD for storage authentication.

3  Best Practice - for Azure Storage

Advanced Threat Protection for Azure Storage
Alerts on anomalous access & potential data exfiltration

Investigation & remediation guidance

Alerts in Azure Security Centor

Note: Advanced Threat Protection for Storage Alerts

4  Best practices — Apps and Data security
Leverage Key Vault to store cryptographic keys and secrets. Control access through RBAC
Manage Azure Key Vault access at Management plane and Data plane
Encrypt data and rest and dbta in transit. Use client-side encryption for high value data
Leverage Advance Data Security (ADS) for Azure SQL
Leverage Azure Security Center to identify assets that do not have encryption at rest enabled

5  Best practices — Network Security
Adopt a Zero Trust approach
Control routing behavior and avoid implications of default routes
Disable RDP/SSH Access to virtual machines over internet
Choose whether to use Native Azure Controls or 3rd party Network Virtual Appliances (NVAs) for
internet edge security (North-South)
Simplify NSG rule management by defining application security groups (ASGs)







6  Protect Linux and Windows Servers from Threats

Best practices:

• Reduce open network ports
• • Use Just-in-Time VM to control access to commonly attacked management ports
  • Limit open ports with adaptive network hardening
• Block malware with adaptive application controls
• Protect Windows servers and clients with the integration of Microsoft  Defender ATP and Linux servers

7  Protect your workloads from Threats - Use industry's most extensive threat intelligence to gain deep insights

Best Practices:

• Detect & block advanced malware and threats for Linux and Windows Servers on any cloud
• Protect cloud-native services from threats 
• Protect data services against malicious attacks
• Protect your Azure IOT solutions with near real time monitoring
• Service layer detections: Azure network layer and Azure management layer (ARM)

Modern security operations and threat protection

Modern security operations and threat protection with Azure security center and Azure sentinel

Security Posture management with Secure Score

• Gain instant insight into the security state of your cloud workloads
• Address security vulnerabilities with prioritized recommendations
• Improve your Secure Score and overall security posture in minutes
• Speed up regulatory compliance

References

• 
  Premier Services - WorkshopPLUS - Microsoft Azure Security Best Practices
• 
  Azure security documentation
• 
  Azure security best practices and patterns
• 
  Security best practices for Azure solutions
• 
  Security best practices for IaaS workloads in Azure
• 
  Securing PaaS deployments
• 
  Exam AZ-500: Microsoft Azure Security Technologies
• 
  Azure Design Best Practices: Azure Design & architecture Best practices on-demand: https://aka.ms/AzureDesignSG
  
  Azure Operations & Governance Best Practices - Azure Ops & Governance Best practices on-demand: https://aka.ms/AzureOpsSG

via Blogger http://blog.51sec.org/2020/10/azure-security-best-practices.html
November 01, 2022 at 10:05PM Cloud