A lot of organizations will have some sort of compliance they will usually have to monitor for across their cloud infrastructure. In this particular blog, I'll explain how to do this and the possible use cases you may have when it comes to using Microsoft Defender for Cloud and some of the configuration steps.
To get started you will first need to log into your Azure Portal and find the Microsoft Defender for Cloud Application
Select the Environment Settings and the Subscription you want to use. In this particular case, I'm using a free subscription so I'll select this.
When you select your subscription a list of your current defender plans will come up, to enable the compliance standard you want to monitor, select the Security Policy Section
Find the Regulatory Compliance Dashboard and select Add More Standards
Select from the list the particular standard you want to monitor for. Depending on your organisation you may have multiple you want to monitor for across several different subscriptions.
In this particular case, I've selected the New Zealand ISM Restricted v3.5 to add in. After you click add. An Azure policy window will appear with all the Azure Policies that apply to the standard you have selected. At the top of the screen click Assign and follow the prompts as required
Apply the policy to the required scope and add in a description if required.
After you have applied the required configuration depending on your organisation's requirements click Review + Create
After you click Create, review your Industry & Regulatory Standards section and you will see your new compliance standard appear.
Keep in mind that will take up to 1 hour for your Compliance standard to appear within the Regulatory Compliance section within Microsoft Defender for Cloud.
Once it has appeared reporting and open query will be available to use to check for compliance against your resources.
Overall Microsoft Defender for Cloud is a powerful compliance and security posture management tool that can be used for a number of use cases, but are not limited to the following.
Continuous Compliance Monitoring: Defender for Cloud can continuously assess your Azure resources and configurations against industry standards and compliance benchmarks (e.g., CIS, NIST). It helps you identify and remediate non-compliant resources to ensure your environment adheres to security best practices.
Security Policy Enforcement: Organisations can create custom security policies tailored to their specific compliance requirements. Defender for Cloud can then enforce these policies, automatically flagging and remediating resources that violate them.
Security Baseline Configuration: Ensure that all your Azure resources are configured with a predefined security baseline. Defender for Cloud can identify deviations from this baseline and provide guidance on remediation.
Vulnerability Assessment: Perform vulnerability assessments on virtual machines, containers, and other resources in Azure. Identify and prioritize vulnerabilities based on severity and potential impact, and take action to remediate them.
Threat Detection and Alerts: Use Defender for Cloud to detect and respond to security threats and incidents in real time. It provides alerts and recommendations for mitigating security risks, helping you respond effectively to potential breaches.
Security Compliance Reporting: Generate compliance reports and dashboards to track the security and compliance posture of your Azure environment over time. These reports can be used for auditing purposes and to demonstrate compliance to stakeholders and regulators.
Resource Inventory and Classification: Maintain an inventory of all Azure resources, classify them based on sensitivity and business impact, and apply appropriate security policies and controls to protect critical assets.
Identity and Access Management: Monitor and manage user identities, access permissions, and authentication mechanisms in Azure Active Directory (Azure AD). Ensure that only authorized users have access to Azure resources and that access is appropriately controlled.
Data Protection and Encryption: Ensure that data stored in Azure services is encrypted and that sensitive data is protected. Defender for Cloud can help identify and secure data that may be at risk.
Third-Party Integration: Integrate Defender for Cloud with third-party security tools and solutions to enhance your compliance monitoring capabilities and streamline incident response workflows.
Security Posture Improvement: Use the security recommendations provided by Defender for Cloud to proactively improve your organization's overall security posture, reducing the likelihood of compliance violations.
Compliance Automation: Automate compliance checks and remediation actions using Azure Policy, Azure Functions, and Azure Logic Apps to ensure that resources remain compliant in real time.
Resource Locks: Implement resource locks to prevent accidental deletion or modification of critical Azure resources, helping maintain compliance and stability.
Multi-Cloud Compliance: Extend compliance monitoring to multi-cloud environments by integrating other cloud security services and solutions, allowing you to maintain consistent security and compliance policies across clouds.
Certification and Accreditation: A tool to assist in monitoring and reporting on a service or platform hosted within Azure or one of the other supported cloud environments.
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