Microsoft Azure is a public cloud computing platform which can create, deploy and manage applications over the internet or in a private network. It provides a bunch of services starting from compute analytics, storage to networking. Though Azure cloud offers a lot of attractive aspects such as reliability and scalability, security is one of the important concern for the enterprises who are planning to move on Azure cloud.
The IT departments within the enterprises have to be extremely careful whether the data stored on the cloud is protected and have to follow a steady process to ensure the security which can be complex at times. However, traditional security monitoring and management models aren’t feasible as they may demand complete modernization.
With Microsoft Azure Security Center, it’s an easy process for the enterprises to define a security policy through various Azure assets and receive recommendations with reference to their policy. It provides a complete visibility to the applications hosted on Azure which in return can prevent, detect and respond to threats instantly.
The Azure Security Center is powered by Microsoft global threat intelligence, security enterprise and advance analysis of signal which leads in early threat detection. Managing and monitoring cloud protection in accordance with business security and compliance can be done with Azure Security Center.
Azure Security Center provides suggestions on how to prevent the current malicious attacks on your cloud and also how to stop the future ones. Security threats occurring are known within a flash and one can also prioritize the alerts based on the specific requirements. All of this information is scrutinized using Microsoft machine learning and behavioral analysis.
Let’s check how we can start using it -
One can access the Azure Security Center using the portal at portal.azure.com. To gain a complete access of Azure Security Center features, one must have a valid subscription. The services are available for all type of subscriptions like MSDN, Pay as you Go and EA. For pricing details click here.
1. Browse -> Type Security. You can see Security Center. Click it to start further.
2. After clicking on the Security Center you can see the default Welcome Page.
3. Click on Overview to see the main window.
4. In the overview tab, click on the Recommendations where data is based on the collected information and security policy. One can follow the recommendations and can fix the security threats.
5. Click on the Policy title to load the policy page.
6. The Security policy tab will be opened. As you can see the data collection is on.
7. In case if the data collection is off, click the data collection tab to on the data collection and then click on Save.
8. In order to change the policy settings click on Prevention policy under the Policy components on the left side of the tab.
Once you define the policies and enable them simultaneously, the Azure Security Center will automatically analyze the security configuration of your Azure hosted instance and identify the vulnerabilities and errors. To rectify the errors and vulnerabilities ASC will provide a list of recommendations and guide through the entire process of deploying additional controls to the administrators.
9. To enable the email notifications for the security alerts in Azure Security Center click on Email notifications under the Policy components tab on the left.
In addition, Azure Security Center also provides a Power BI Dashboard which empowers you to visualize, analyze and filter recommendations and security alerts even using your mobile device.
10. In Azure Security Center dashboard, click on Explore in Power BI button.
Azure Security Center is one of the best option if you are using Azure. It provides lot of features for security, monitoring and alerting which can make the job of IT department hassle-free. All the resources provided in Azure are done securely according to the designated policy. Advance features like threat protection using the Machine intelligence and analytics is also provided in Azure Security Center.
If you are keen to find out more about the Azure Security Center, its best practices and other Security offerings, contact us here. Also do read our blog post “Myths of Azure Security and Privacy.” here.