10 Top Azure Security Tools You Cannot Go Without

Security in Microsoft Azure 

Malicious actors are constantly on the move, seeking new opportunities to exploit vulnerabilities. Think about theft of sensitive data and network breaches, DDoS attacks, unauthorised access, and so forth.  

Therefore, you must have proactive measures in place and configure your cloud environment accordingly with the right tools and services. Only then can you secure your cloud workloads. 

Fortunately, Microsoft Azure includes many services and tools organisations can use to manage their apps and infrastructure. These security tools and measures are based on the concept of Zero Trust and have a multi-layered approach to security (defence-in-depth), including: 

• Identity and Access Management (IAM) 
• Network Security 
• Threat Detection and Monitoring 
• Data Encryption 
• Compliance Management 

 

Azure Security Tools list 

Tool	Layers of Security	Description
1. Microsoft Entra ID (formerly Azure AD)	Identity and Access Management (IAM)	Provides single sign-on SSO, MFA, RBAC, and identity protection.
2. Azure Key Vault	Data Encryption	Stores and manages encryption keys, application secrets and certificates.
3. Azure Firewall	Network Security	Fully managed cloud firewall for Azure Virtual Networks with advanced filtering.
4. Azure Bastion		Connects to Azure VMs without exposing them to the public internet.
5. Azure DDoS Protection		Protects Azure resources from DDoS attacks.
6. Azure Private Link		Private endpoints for Azure PaaS services to keep traffic off the public internet.
7. Microsoft Sentinel (formerly Azure Sentinel)	Threat Detection and Monitoring	Cloud native SIEM and SOAR for detecting, investigating and responding to threats.
8. Microsoft Defender for Cloud (formerly Azure Defender)	Threat Detection	Security posture and threat protection for hybrid and multi-cloud.
9. Azure Monitor	Monitoring	Metrics, logs and telemetry for performance and incident detection.
10. Azure Policy	Compliance	Resources conform to organisational standards and policy automation.

 

 

10 Must-have Azure Security Tools

Identity and Access Management (IAM)  

1. Microsoft Entra ID (former Azure Active Directory) 

Azure Active Directory (AD), renamed Microsoft Entra ID, is Microsoft’s cloud-based enterprise identity and access management (IAM) service. IAM ensures users have limited, appropriate access, guarding against unauthorised actions. 

Microsoft Entra ID manages access to Microsoft 365 SaaS, Azure PaaS, and IaaS services. With it, organisations can protect their user identities and detect possible security threats.  
It offers various features such as: 

• Single sign-on (SSO) 
• Multifactor authentication (MFA) 
• Role-based access controls (RBAC) 
• Conditional access to protect against 99% of cybersecurity attacks

 

 

Key features 

• Single sign-on (SSO): SSO lets users sign in once and uses their credentials to access multiple resources and apps across different providers. 
• Fine-grained access controls: Entra ID leverages RBAC to implement fine-grained access control, using identities to ensure users have exactly the permission they need for their role. Here, the least privilege principle is followed, which means only the minimum level of access necessary is given to users and devices to perform their tasks.  
• Multi-factor authentication (MFA): Aside from a username and a password, Microsoft Entra ID lets you establish another layer of authentication: MFA. It employs two or more factors for account access, combining:  
  • Something you know (e.g., a password) 
  • Something you have (e.g., a device) 
  • Something you are (e.g., a fingerprint) 
• Identity Protection: This feature uses advanced machine learning (ML) and risk-based policies to detect and respond to suspicious sign-ins. It protects user identities from potential threats. 
• Passwordless Authentication: Azure also provides passwordless authentication methods. These are more convenient because they eliminate the need for a password, replacing it with something you have or something you know.  
  For example, your computer is something you have. Once it’s registered or enrolled, Azure associates it with your identity. From there, you can authenticate using something you know, like a PIN, or something you are, like a fingerprint, without needing a password. 

 

Data Encryption 

2. Azure Key Vault 

Azure Key Vault is Azure’s platform-as-a-service (PaaS) designed to securely store and manage encryption keys, application secrets, and certificates.  

Key Vault supports: 

• Key management 
• Certificate management 
• Secret management 
• Storing secrets supported by hardware models (HSMs) 

 

The disks you create in Azure typically contain operating system information and application data, and all the information on these disks must be encrypted (encryption uses keys to secure the data). By default, Azure encrypts disks with platform-managed keys. But you can use your own encryption keys to secure and decrypt virtual machine drives, which can be safely stored in Azure Key Vault. 

Key Features 

• Managed service for securing sensitive information (PaaS) 
• Secure storage service for 
  • Keys 
  • Secrets 
  • Certificates 
  • Secrets supported by hardware models (HSMs) 
• Highly integrated with other services from Azure (VMs, Logic Apps, Data Factory, Web Apps, etc.) 
• Centralised management:  Reduces operational complexity for large applications by centralizing management so multiple services can access updated secrets seamlessly. 
• Visibility into access and usage: Its monitoring provides visibility into access and usage. 
• Storage for app secrets: Azure Key Vault stores app secrets like server addresses, usernames and passwords. Great for scenarios like a web app connecting to a SQL database. 
• Azure services integration: Store and retrieve secrets across many Azure services without extra code. 

Also, if your web apps serve content over HTTPS you use certificates. Certificates are cryptographic objects that encrypt traffic between your web server and users. 

They can also establish secure communication between multiple services. Azure Key Vault is a secure storage for certificates, so it’s a central and secure repository for these sensitive cryptographic keys. 

 

Network Security 

3. Azure Firewalls 

Azure Firewall is a fully managed and auto scaling cloud-based network security service that you can use to protect your resources in an Azure Virtual Network. It allows you to define and enforce policies for application and network connections. 

Unlike Network Security Groups (NSGs), which focuses on managing traffic within subnets and controlling internal network traffic, Azure Firewall delivers complete protection against external threats. This makes it ideal for securing public-facing apps where scalability and strong security are a must. 

Key Features 

• High scalability and availability: Azure Firewall is auto-scalable, meaning it can scale automatically when your network traffic demand spikes. Plus, it offers (built-in) availability via various availability zones, increasing availability time to 99.99%. 
• Seamless integration: Works well with Azure Monitoring and Azure Policies. 
• Advanced security capabilities: Offers DDoS protection, threat intelligence, and traffic filtering. 
• Service tags: Network rule creation made easy with service tags to define a group of IP addresses for an Azure service. 
• Application FQDN filtering rules: Azure Firewall filters outbound traffic by fully qualified domain names (FQDNs). This adds granular control over application access. 
• Support for multiple public IPs: Allows linking up to 250 public IP addresses with the firewall. 
• Fully managed service: Managed entirely by Microsoft, eliminating the need for user maintenance or operational overhead. 

 

 

4. Azure Bastion 

Exposing a VM to the public internet and opening up the RDP or SSH port is not a wise thing to do. That’s where Azure Bastion comes in.  

Azure Bastion is a fully managed (PaaS) service that enables secure connections to virtual machines (VMs) through a private IP address. In other words, it provides a secure way to remote into servers (both Windows and Linux) without exposing the server to the public internet address. 

That is to say, when connecting over the internet, the server you’re accessing doesn’t need to be publicly exposed. Neither do your VMs need an agent or special client software for it. Their functions are comparable to proxy services but it is far more secure and efficient.  

 

Azure Bastion functions as a fully managed gateway, deployed and scaled by you in your own Azure vNets. 

Key Features 

• No public IP address on Azure VMs: RDP and SSH ports are no longer exposed to the public internet, which reduces the attack surface. 
• Protection against Zero-Day Exploits: Bastion acts as a secure perimeter, shielding your VMs from direct attacks.  
• Reduced VM hardening: With VMs no longer directly exposed to the internet, the need for extensive hardening decreases. However, securing all systems remains a good practice. 
• Modern authentication: Login to Azure Bastion is secured with modern authentication methods, including MFA and Conditional Access and Microsoft Entra ID Protection. 
• No hassle with NSGs: Bastion traffic requires no configuration or management of Network Security Groups (NSGs). This makes security management simpler and more efficient.

With new features like IP-based connections and native client support, Bastion now allows connections to on-premises or multi-cloud VMs (via site-to-site VPN or ExpressRoute). Besides, it lets you use native RDP or SSH clients for added flexibility.

 

5. Azure DDoS Protection 

A Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS) attack is an attempt by a malicious actor to disrupt normal website traffic by overwhelming it with vast quantities of false traffic.  

Imagine if a DDoS attack occurs in Azure while your web server is hosted on an Azure service, like Azure App Service. Then, Azure DDoS protection would filter out the malicious traffic so only legitimate users can connect.  

The great thing is that Azure’s DDoS Protection is free as it is standard included with all Azure services. Azure provides two types of DDoS protection: 

1. DDoS Protection Basic: Included for free with all the Azure services.  
2. DDoS Protection Standard: Designed for more high-value apps, as it can protect against sophisticated attacks. It costs around $3000 monthly and provides SLAs for application and cost protection. 

 

Key Features 

• DDoS protection service in Azure 
• Made to: 
  • Detect malicious traffic and restrict it while enabling legitimate users to connect. 
  • Prevent additional costs for auto-scaling environments 
• It has two tiers 
  • 1. Basic - included and automatically enables for Azure platform 
  • 2. Standard – additional mitigation and monitoring capabilities for Azure Virtual Network resources 
• Uses machine learning (ML) to analyse traffic patterns for improved accuracy

 

6. Azure Private Link (Private EndPoints) 

You can enhance network security further in your environment by using Azure private link to protect Azure PaaS services (Azure Storage, Azure SQL Database, Azure SQL Managed Instance) with Azure virtual networks. Azure private link lets Azure ML connect via a Private Endpoint within your VNet.  

Private Endpoints are network interfaces for Azure PaaS services like storage accounts, app services, automation accounts, key vaults, and so forth. Services like Azure Migrate and Azure Arc also support Private Endpoints. Private Endpoints use private IP addresses to access services securely, keeping traffic on Microsoft’s backbone and away from the public internet. You can also gain control over traffic by using features like Network Security Groups (NSGs) and User Defined Routes (UDRs).  

For example: if you have an internal website that you want to restrict to your internal network, you can use a Private Endpoint. The private IP can route traffic over your ExpressRoute or VPN instead of the public internet. 

The image below illustrates how it connects services to your network. 

 

 

Private Endpoints offer more security, speed and stability. And to sweeten the deal, there are more benefits:   

• Private access to services: Manages secure connectivity between consumers and services via the Azure backbone network. 
• Cost-effective: Private Endpoints come at a price of approximately $0.01 per hour and $0.01 per GB of traffic. 
• Enhanced security: Private endpoints help protect against data leakage by ensuring only specific resources are accessible, reducing the risk of unauthorised access. 
• On-prem and peered networks: access resources from on-prem through VPN tunnels, peered virtual networks or ExpressRoute private peering. There’s no need for internet traversal, thus, it offers a more secure way to migrate workloads to Azure. 
• Global reach: You can connect privately to services running in other regions. For example, a consumer’s virtual network in Region A can securely access services behind a private link in Region B. 

Setting up an Azure private link is straightforward and protects your cloud workloads against unauthorised access and data leaks. Prioritise securing your network to avoid potential breaches. 

 

Threat Detection and Monitoring 

7. Microsoft Sentinel 

Microsoft Sentinel (Azure Sentinel) is a cloud-native Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) solution that offers intelligent security analytics and threat intelligence across the enterprise. It’s also a security orchestration, automation and response (SOAR) solution. With this Azure security tool, organisations can find, investigate and respond to threats, create alerts, and mitigate security threats across their environment. 

Microsoft Sentinel collects data from many sources and analyses it for security incidents and threats. It correlates security logs and signals from all sources across your apps, services, infrastructure, and users.  

Key features 

Threat identification and mapping: By leveraging signals from Microsoft Threat Intelligence, Microsoft Sentinel identifies attacks based on your data and places them on a map so you can analyse malicious traffic.  

• Works everywhere: Visibility and detection across on-premise, in Azure, hosted in another cloud, or a combination of clouds – multi-cloud.  
• Unified solution: As a unified platform for threat visibility, it offers features such as proactive threat hunting, rapid incident response, and security alert detection.  
• Automate security operations: You can build and run security playbooks, which can be created with Azure Logic Apps and execute specific actions (blocking malicious IPs, disabling compromised accounts, etc.) based on security events.  
• User-friendly playbooks: Creating playbooks is easy, and you don’t need developer skills. They can be triggered both on-demand and in real-time. 
• Integrates with Azure Notebooks: Based on Jupyter Notebooks, which lets you automate investigative steps, enrich data, and visualise results. 
• Threat hunting tools: On the hunting page, you can find pre-built queries crafted by Microsoft security experts to hunt for anomalies and security threats in your logs.  

Since it provides real-time intelligence, we find it a more powerful tool than Microsoft Defender for Cloud. Plus, it supports Zero Trust while using advanced analytics and AI. services to your network.