How to strengthen security with Microsoft Defender For Cloud

Written by Jesús Eduardo Moctezuma Baltazar | Jun 12, 2024 2:23:47 PM

Introduction

In today's digital age, cloud application security is more crucial than ever. With the mass adoption of software-as-a-service (SaaS) applications, organizations face unique challenges in protecting their corporate data and resources. This is where Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps comes into play, an essential tool to protect your cloud applications.

Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps is a cloud access security broker (CASB) that provides rich visibility and control over the data journey, plus sophisticated analytics to identify and combat cyber threats across all cloud services. This tool not only improves visibility into cloud activity, but also helps to increase the protection of corporate data.

Features

As part of the Microsoft family of security products, Defender for Cloud Apps integrates seamlessly with the Microsoft ecosystem, offering key functionalities such as:

Complete SaaS visibility: Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps gives you a complete view of your SaaS application environment. You can discover, control and configure applications to ensure that employees are using trusted applications.
Data protection in SaaS apps: Classify and protect sensitive information at rest, in use and in motion. In addition, it enables employees to securely access files in applications.
Application interaction control: Gain insight into the privileges, permissions and applications accessing sensitive data on behalf of other applications.
Advanced cyberattack defense: Use application signals as part of the advanced threat search in Microsoft Defender XDR. This allows you to search for threats across the entire cyberattack chain.
Application governance: Manage the security posture of your SaaS applications with real-time controls and governance policies.

Threat detection types

Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps is capable of detecting a variety of threats in your cloud applications. Some of the types of threats it can identify include.

Malware and viruses: Detects malicious files or programs that try to spread or damage your applications and data.
Phishing and phishing: Identifies attempts to trick users into revealing sensitive information, such as passwords or personal data.
Unauthorized access: Detects unusual login activity or unauthorized access attempts to your applications.
Anomalous behavior: Monitors user and application behavior to detect unusual patterns or suspicious activity.
Data Leaks: Identify unauthorized transfer of sensitive data outside of your applications.
Brute force attacks: Detects repeated and automatic attempts to guess passwords or login credentials.
Known Vulnerabilities: Scans your applications for known vulnerabilities and alerts you so you can apply patches or mitigations. Malicious administration activities: Monitors administrator actions and detects unexpected changes in configuration or permissions. Risky activities: Identifies activities that could pose a security risk, such as mass file downloading or accessing sensitive data.

How to activate and configure it

To activate Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps, you must meet the following prerequisites: Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps must be present in your account as a standalone product or as part of a license package. You must have one of the appropriate roles to activate application governance and access it. Roles include:

Company Administrator

Security administrator

Global Administrator

The basic steps to set it up:

Log in to the Microsoft 365 security portal:

Sign in to the Microsoft 365 security portal with the appropriate credentials.

Navigate to the Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps configuration:

Sign in to the Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps configuration.

In the left pane, select "Settings" or "Security."
Select "Settings" or "Security."
Settings.
Look for "Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps" or "Cloud Apps Protection."
Search for "Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps" or "Cloud Application Protection".

Set security policies:

Define the security policies you want to apply to your cloud applications. This includes configuring access rules, permissions and threat detection. Consider the following options:

Access policies: Control who can access the applications and what actions are allowed.
Permissions policies: Defines the permissions users have on applications.
Threat detection: Sets automatic alerts and actions in case of suspicious activities.

Integrates with other security solutions:

Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps integrates with other Microsoft security tools, such as Microsoft Defender ATP and Azure Sentinel. Be sure to configure these integrations for more complete protection.

Monitors and adjusts settings:
- Regularly reviews the logs and alerts generated by Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps.
- Adjust policies as needed to adapt to the changing needs of your organization.

Train your users:

Provide training and awareness of cloud security best practices.
Informs users about policies and actions to be taken in the event threats are detected.

Dashboard access

Access Defender for Cloud Apps from the Microsoft Defender portal in Cloud Applications.

The Cloud Discovery dashboard is designed to provide more insight into how cloud applications are used in the organization. It provides an at-a-glance overview of the types of applications being used, open alerts and risk levels of the organization's applications. It also shows who the users are that use the applications the most and provides a location map of the application headquarters. The Cloud Discovery dashboard has many options for filtering data. With filtering, you can generate specific views based on what you are most interested in and easy-to-understand graphs to give you an overview at a glance.

Review Cloud Discovery dashboard

The first thing you should do to get an overview of your Cloud Discovery applications is to go to the Cloud Discovery dashboard and review this information:

First, look at the organization's overall cloud application usage in the High-level usage overview.
Then, drill down one level to see which categories are most commonly used in the organization for each of the different usage metrics. You can see what portion of this usage corresponds to authorized applications.
Drill down even further and see all the applications in a specific category on the Detected Applications tab.
You can view the top users and source IP addresses to identify the organization's predominant cloud application users.
Check how the detected applications are spread based on geographic location (according to their headquarters) on the application headquarters map.
Finally, don't forget to check the detected application risk score in the application risk introduction. Check the detection alerts status to see how many open alerts to investigate.

Defender for Cloud Apps is an essential tool for any organization looking to take advantage of cloud applications while maintaining tight control over its resources. Whether you're just starting out or looking to enhance your cloud security, Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps is a must-have solution in your security arsenal.

Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps.

The specific configuration may vary depending on your organization's needs and environment. It is always advisable to consult the documentation.

For more details or to explore specific use cases, you can refer to the official Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps blog or Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps Ninja blog. Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps | Microsoft Security

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