Cloud computing offers many benefits, such as scalability, agility, and cost-efficiency. However, it also introduces new security challenges, such as shared responsibility, increased attack surface, and complex compliance requirements. To help you secure your cloud infrastructure, Microsoft Azure provides a comprehensive security management solution called Azure Security Center.
Azure Security Center is a cloud-native service that helps you prevent, detect, and respond to security threats across your hybrid cloud workloads. It provides you with a unified view of your security posture, as well as actionable recommendations and alerts to help you improve your security. Azure Security Center also integrates with various Azure services and third-party solutions to provide you with advanced security capabilities, such as:
Adaptive network hardening: This feature analyzes the network traffic and connectivity patterns of your Azure virtual machines and recommends rules to restrict inbound and outbound traffic to the minimum required.
Just-in-time (JIT) virtual machine access: This feature reduces the exposure of your virtual machines to brute force and other network attacks by allowing you to enable inbound traffic only when needed and for a limited time.
File integrity monitoring: This feature monitors the integrity of your files and registry keys on Windows and Linux virtual machines and alerts you when unauthorized or malicious changes are detected.
Adaptive application controls: This feature helps you control which applications can run on your virtual machines by creating allow lists based on machine learning and behavioural analysis.
Vulnerability assessment: This feature scans your virtual machines for vulnerabilities and provides you with remediation steps to fix them.
Regulatory compliance dashboard: This feature helps you assess and monitor your compliance status against various industry standards and regulations, such as PCI DSS, ISO 27001, NIST SP 800-53, and more.
Threat protection: This feature leverages advanced analytics and threat intelligence to detect and respond to malicious activities on your Azure resources, such as virtual machines, storage accounts, containers, SQL databases, web apps, and more.
To use Azure Security Center, you need to enable it on your Azure subscription or resource group. You can choose between two pricing tiers: Free or Standard. The Free tier provides basic security features, such as security policy, secure score, and security recommendations. The Standard tier provides advanced security features, such as the ones mentioned above, as well as incident response and threat protection. You can try the Standard tier for free for the first 30 days.