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What Azure Monitor Events Should SecOps Be Alerting On?
Master the use of Azure Monitor for your AZ-500 exam. Learn how to configure alerts on critical security events from the Azure Activity Log, diagnostic logs, and metrics to empower your Security Operations (SecOps) team.
Question
Azure Monitor can be used to alert on events of interest to Security Operations (SecOps).
A. TRUE
B. FALSE
Answer
A. TRUE
Explanation
The correct answer is A. TRUE. Azure Monitor is a foundational tool for a Security Operations (SecOps) team, providing the necessary visibility and alerting capabilities to detect and respond to security-relevant events across the Azure environment.
Events from the Administrative and Security categories of the Activity Log are definitely of interest to SecOps.
The Role of Azure Monitor in SecOps
Azure Monitor is the native, centralized monitoring service in Azure. It collects and analyzes telemetry from various sources, many of which are of direct interest to security professionals. SecOps can leverage this data to build a comprehensive security monitoring strategy.
Azure Activity Log
This is a platform log that provides insight into subscription-level events. It is a primary source of security information for SecOps.
- Administrative Category: This category records all create, update, delete, and action operations for resources. SecOps monitors this to detect unauthorized or suspicious changes, such as the modification of a Network Security Group (NSG) rule, the assignment of a high-privilege RBAC role (like Global Administrator), or the deletion of a critical resource.
- Security Category: This category logs alerts generated by Microsoft Defender for Cloud. When Defender for Cloud detects a potential threat, it writes an entry to the Activity Log, allowing SecOps to create Azure Monitor alerts based on these high-fidelity security signals.
- Policy Category: Records events related to Azure Policy, which helps SecOps ensure that resources remain compliant with organizational security standards.
Diagnostic Logs and Metrics
Beyond the Activity Log, Azure Monitor collects resource-level data that is vital for security analysis.
- Diagnostic Logs: These are detailed logs emitted by individual resources. SecOps can configure resources like Azure Key Vault, Azure Firewall, and Storage Accounts to forward their logs to Azure Monitor. This allows for monitoring specific activities, such as who is accessing secrets in a Key Vault or what traffic is being denied by a firewall.
- Metrics: These are numerical time-series data points. While often used for performance monitoring, SecOps can use them to detect security anomalies. For example, an alert can be configured for a sudden spike in outbound network traffic from a VM (potential data exfiltration) or a high rate of authentication failures against an application.
Creating Alerts for SecOps
The primary function for SecOps within Azure Monitor is creating alert rules. An alert rule specifies a condition to monitor and an Action Group to trigger when the condition is met. An Action Group can send notifications via email or SMS, trigger a webhook to a SIEM system, run an Azure Function or Logic App for automated remediation, or create an ITSM ticket. This allows SecOps to move from passive monitoring to active, automated response.
Microsoft Certified Azure Security Engineer Associate AZ-500 certification exam assessment practice question and answer (Q&A) dump including multiple choice questions (MCQ) and objective type questions, with detail explanation and reference available free, helpful to pass the Microsoft Certified Azure Security Engineer Associate AZ-500 exam and earn Microsoft Certified Azure Security Engineer Associate AZ-500 certification.