Securing Your Cloud Environment: 5 Tools from Microsoft

Data security is at the top of the list of concerns for most organizations. As more businesses recognize the benefits of cloud computing, the question remains: how secure is your data in the cloud? According to Gartner, a cloud environment is fast becoming more secure than traditional on-premises data centers. Gartner says by 2020, public cloud infrastructure as a service (IaaS) workloads will see at least 60 percent fewer security incidents than non-cloud data centers. However, Gartner also says reaching that level of security requires implementing “appropriate cloud visibility and control tools.”[1]

Microsoft has taken major steps toward ensuring high levels of security within their cloud environment. Here are five ways Microsoft ensures your data is secure in the cloud.

Advanced Data Governance (ADG)

ADG applies machine learning to help you find and retain important data, while eliminating extraneous, duplicate, and obsolete data, that could cause risk if it were compromised. Using proactive policy recommendations and automatic data classifications, ADG allows you to manage data retention and deletion actions throughout your data’s lifecycle. System default and custom created alerts help identify risks such as “unusual volume of file deletion.”

Threat Intelligence (TI)

TI provides interactive tools to analyze the prevalence and severity of threats in near real-time, customizable threat alert notifications, remediation capabilities for suspicious content, and expanded API management to include threat details that enable integration with Security Incident and Event Management (SIEM) solutions. Threat intelligence also provides information about internal and external malware families including breach information detailed down to actual lines of code.

Advanced Threat Analytics (ATA)

ATA provides a quick and simple way to see and understand what is happening within your network by identifying suspicious user and device activity with built-in intelligence. ATA leverages deep packet inspection technology along with information from other data sources like SIEM and Active Directory to build an Organizational Security Graph to detect advanced threats in near real-time. ATA helps you protect your enterprise from advanced targeted attacks by automatically analyzing, learning, and identifying normal and abnormal user, device, or resource behavior.

Azure Information Protection (AIP)

AIP is a cloud-based solution that helps you classify, label, and protect your documents and emails. You can define rules and conditions to automate the process, handle it manually by users, or employ a combination where users are given recommendation. AIP helps you control and secure email, documents, and sensitive data that you share outside your company. It enhances the protection of your data no matter where it’s stored or with whom you are sharing it.

Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA)

MFA is a two-step process that requires more than one verification method and adds a critical second layer of security to user sign-ins and transactions. It requires two or more of either something you know (a password), something you have (a trusted device like a smartphone) or something you are (biometrics like a fingerprint). Azure MFA helps safeguard access to data and applications while meeting user demand for a simple sign-in process. It delivers strong authentication with a range of verification methods including phone call, text message, or mobile app verification.

Microsoft has been building enterprise software and running some of the largest online services in the world for decades. They use this experience to implement and continuously improve security-aware software development, operational management, and threat-mitigation practices that are essential to securing your cloud environment.

For information on how to convert your cloud vision to business reality, take DynTek’s complimentary Cloud Readiness Assessment.

[1] Is the Cloud Secure? By Kasey Panetta, Smarter with Gartner, January 23, 2017