Azure Security Best Practices

Securing your Azure environment is critical for protecting applications, data, and infrastructure. Below are actionable, modern best practices for DevOps Engineers and Cloud Architects, with real-life examples and automation snippets.

1. Centralized Security Management

Use Microsoft Defender for Cloud for unified security posture management and threat protection.
Example:

az security pricing create --name VirtualMachines --tier 'Standard'

2. Enforce Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA)

Enable MFA for all users, especially privileged accounts.
Example:

az ad user update --id user@contoso.com --force-change-password-next-login true
# Enforce MFA via Conditional Access Policy in Azure Portal

3. Least-Privilege Access with RBAC

Assign only the permissions required for each user/service.
Example:

az role assignment create --assignee <user-or-group-id> --role "Reader" --scope /subscriptions/<sub-id>/resourceGroups/<rg>

Best Practice: Use custom roles for fine-grained access.

4. Network Security

Use Network Security Groups (NSGs) and Azure Firewall to restrict traffic.
Example (Terraform):

resource "azurerm_network_security_group" "web" {
  name                = "nsg-web"
  location            = azurerm_resource_group.main.location
  resource_group_name = azurerm_resource_group.main.name
}

5. Secure Secrets and Keys

Store all secrets, certificates, and keys in Azure Key Vault.
Example:

az keyvault secret set --vault-name my-keyvault --name "DbPassword" --value "SuperSecret123"

6. Patch and Update Regularly

Enable automatic OS and application updates for VMs and PaaS services.
Example:

az vm update --name myvm --resource-group myrg --set osProfile.linuxConfiguration.patchSettings.patchMode=AutomaticByPlatform

7. Backup and Disaster Recovery

Use Azure Backup and geo-redundant storage for critical data.
Example:

az backup vault create --resource-group myrg --name mybackupvault --location westeurope

8. Identity Protection and Conditional Access

Enable Azure AD Identity Protection and set up risk-based conditional access policies.
Example:

9. Monitor, Audit, and Alert

Enable Azure Monitor, Log Analytics, and Security Center alerts.
Example:

az monitor diagnostic-settings create --resource-id <resource-id> --workspace <log-analytics-id> --logs '[{"category": "AllLogs", "enabled": true}]'

10. Automate Security with Policy

Use Azure Policy to enforce security standards (e.g., require tags, restrict locations, enforce encryption).
Example:

az policy assignment create --policy "/providers/Microsoft.Authorization/policyDefinitions/audit-vm-managed-disks-encryption" --scope /subscriptions/<sub-id>

Common Pitfalls

Over-permissioned accounts and service principals
Storing secrets in code or pipelines
Not enabling logging and alerting
Manual patching and configuration

References

Joke: Why did the Azure admin enable MFA? Because one factor just wasn’t secure enough!

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Last updated 4 days ago

4. Network Security

Use Network Security Groups (NSGs) and Azure Firewall to restrict traffic.

Example (Terraform):

resource "azurerm_network_security_group" "web" {
  name                = "nsg-web"
  location            = azurerm_resource_group.main.location
  resource_group_name = azurerm_resource_group.main.name
}