Securing Azure Resources

Azure Security Center, available in preview, helps prevent, detect, and respond to security threats to Azure resources such as virtual machines (VMs) or Azure SQL instances. The service monitors activity, sending alerts and recommending solutions if problems are detected. Customers can use it in conjunction with third-party security solutions to monitor and protect workloads running in Azure, with flexibility to tailor appropriate security policies to those workloads through the Azure portal. The service is offered in two tiers—a Free tier with basic protection capabilities and a Standard tier (additional cost) that adds advanced analytics.

Antimalware and More

Azure Security Center works with Azure services and third-party security products, such as Barracuda and Trend Micro antimalware, to detect malware and other threats, alerting administrators to problems through the Azure portal. For example, Security Center will detect compromised VMs that communicate with known malicious IP addresses and can detect brute force attacks against VMs. It can also discover deployments for which a firewall is recommended to protect Web applications and enable customers to quickly provision a virtual firewall appliance from leading vendors such as Cisco and Fortinet. It can guide resource owners through the process of addressing vulnerabilities, such as misconfigured security groups, and misconfigurations such as missing OS updates.