We reside in the age of AI, ML, IoT, and cloud computing; as technology develops, so does the risk of attacks on business servers, data, infrastructure, and applications gets developed simultaneously.
Thus, with the advancement of technology businesses are also experiencing climb in cyber-attack and malicious attack. However, businesses can relax and stay confident with Azure. Microsoft Azure security offers a variety of security capabilities and functionality to assist businesses in safeguarding their data and adhering to laws, compliance, and requirements.
Hence, this blog has listed the top 10 Azure cloud security practices that Microsoft or Azure Expert MSP aid businesses to protect their data and infrastructure from malicious attacks, cyber-attack, and threats.
Top 10 Azure Cloud Security Practices
Security has risen to the top priority list for businesses hosting their applications and data on the cloud as cloud computing usage increases. To ensure the security and reliability of data in the cloud, Azure cloud security standards are crucial.
Organizations may be sure that their data is safe from unwanted access and security risks by adhering to the Azure cloud security procedures listed below.
Implementing access controls:
To secure your Azure resources, it’s essential to implement access controls. This will ensure that only authorized individuals may access your business resources. For your Azure resources, you can build roles and assign individuals or groups to those roles using RBAC. As a result, access will be restricted to only authorized people according to their allocated duties.
You can restrict access to your Azure resources, lower the possibility of illegal access, and guarantee the security of your data and applications by installing access controls in Azure. Moreover, Azure AD allows you to control user identities and resource access. Users and groups can be authenticated and permitted to access Azure resources using Azure AD.
Use Encryption:
Protecting sensitive data from unauthorized access requires encryption, a key component of Azure cloud security. Data in Azure services and Azure solutions can be encrypted and decoded using Azure Key Vault solutions. You can manage and store encryption keys and certificates using Azure Key Vault.
You may safeguard sensitive data from unauthorized access and adhere to industry and regulatory standards by utilizing encryption in Azure. Your data can be encrypted using customer-managed keys kept in Azure Key Vault. It also enables you to encrypt data stored at rest in Azure Files, Azure Blob storage, and Azure Queue storage.
Implement Network Security:
Network security implementation is a vital Azure cloud security technique to safeguard your network and resources from online dangers. Internet safety offers Your Azure resources are protected at the network level by Azure Firewall, a cloud-based network security service. To filter network traffic, stop malicious traffic, and defend against distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) assaults, utilize Azure Firewall.
Enable Logging and Monitoring:
To identify security issues, to take applicable act, and advocate compliance, enabling logging and monitoring is one of the important Azure cloud security practices. With Azure Monitor, users can be able to check, monitor, and analysis how well and readily your Azure resources perform in real time with cloud-based monitoring solution.
Users can collect and analyze data from a variety of sources, including operating systems, custom apps, and Azure services, using Azure Monitor.
Moreover, Azure Log Analytics is a cloud-based service that additionally gathers and examines log data from a variety of sources, including Azure services, operating systems, and bespoke applications. You can identify security incidents and comprehend your environment with the aid of Azure Log Analytics.
Implement Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA):
To prevent unwanted access to your resources, it’s imperative to implement Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) on the Azure cloud. To access their accounts, MFA requires users to give additional authentication factors, such as a password and a code texted to a mobile device.
A cloud-based identity and access management solution called Azure AD is also available, and it offers authentication and authorization for your Azure resources. All users in your company might be subject to additional authentication requirements by turning on MFA for Azure AD.
Implement Backup and Disaster Recovery:
To secure business continuity and data availability in the case of a disaster, Backup and disaster recovery implementation is a vital Azure cloud security practice. Using Azure Backup, a cloud-based Backup solution, you can back up and restore your Azure resources, such as virtual machines, servers, applications, databases, files, documents, images, videos, and storage accounts. Azure Backup may safeguard your data from unintentional deletion, ransomware assaults, and other catastrophes.
Use Azure Security Center:
A cloud-based security management tool called Azure Security Center gives you a unified picture of your Azure security posture and assists you in identifying and reducing security risks across all your Azure resources. Using the Azure portal, you can activate Azure Security Center. All Azure subscriptions have Azure Security Center enabled by default; however, to fully utilize the service’s features, you must start it.
Implement Compliance Standards:
Adopting compliance standards is crucial to Azure cloud security since it helps your company adhere to laws and regulations like HIPAA, PCI DSS, and GDPR. To Determine the legal and industry requirements that your organization must follow.
The standards that apply to your Azure resources can be found in the documentation for Azure compliance. With Azure Policy, you can automate the cleanup of non-compliant resources and monitor compliance with security restrictions. Additionally, it checks for gaps or violations in your adherence to regulatory and industry standards.
Encrypting virtual disks:
Virtual disc encryption is a crucial Azure cloud security procedure that aids in safeguarding your data from unauthorized access. With the help of the Azure Disk Encryption service, you can encrypt your virtual discs using well-known encryption programs like BitLocker for Windows and DM-Crypt for Linux. Azure Disk Encryption encrypts your virtual drives at rest, which also helps safeguard your data from illegal access.
Use a WAF with ATM:
Protecting your online apps and APIs from typical web assaults requires using a Web Application Firewall (WAF) in conjunction with Azure Traffic Management (ATM), a crucial Azure cloud security strategy. Azure WAF is a cloud-based firewall solution that assists in defending against typical web attacks like SQL injection, cross-site scripting (XSS), and cross-site forgery for your web applications and APIs (CSRF). Azure WAF allows you to block malicious requests and filter traffic according to your rules.
Like this, ATM is a cloud-based traffic routing tool enabling you to divide traffic among numerous endpoints depending on location, health, and other variables. ATM can direct traffic to your web apps and APIs while ensuring excellent performance and availability.
Wrapping Up –
For your organization’s data and cloud apps to be secure and protected, Azure cloud security policies are crucial. You may drastically lower the risk of security breaches and data loss by applying best practices and working with an Azure Expert MSP.
Azure has a wide range of security features and services that can assist you in setting up a solid security framework that satisfies the particular security requirements of your business. You can ensure that your company’s data and apps are well-protected in the cloud by adhering to these best practices and regularly assessing and enhancing your security posture.
Author Bio:
Myself Helen Mejia, a senior technical consultant at the leading USA-based Dynamics 365 Development Company at Bitscape. With such a highly visionary brand, I have unified experience in designing the existing technological structure with more value addition to various businesses. While experiencing technological advancements, I have been through a wide range of challenges and have designed customized solutions with growth-oriented abilities that work against challenging issues for any industry.
