The rise of cloud computing has brought numerous benefits to organizations, such as cost savings and greater scalability. However, it has also introduced new security challenges that need to be addressed effectively.

While cloud service providers like Microsoft Azure offer the essential tools to protect your environment, it’s the responsibility of the IT administrator to properly configure and manage these tools. Most security failures in cloud environments stem from a lack of knowledge or poor application of best practices by the administrators in charge.

This article will highlight some of the most common security mistakes made by IT administrators in cloud environments, particularly within Microsoft Azure, and offer practical recommendations to avoid them.

Granular Access Control and Multi-Factor Authentication
One of the most frequent causes of security breaches is improperly assigned access permissions. It’s crucial to ensure that users only have the permissions they need to complete their tasks, and nothing more. Microsoft Azure’s Role-Based Access Control (RBAC) tool makes it easy to create custom roles, granting access to specific resources or actions.

In addition to carefully managing access permissions, it’s essential to enable multi-factor authentication (MFA) for all users. MFA adds an extra layer of security, requiring users to provide more than one form of authentication when logging in, making it harder for attackers to gain access. It’s also vital to use strong, unique passwords—preferably 12 characters long, including uppercase letters, numbers, and special characters—and not to reuse them across different services.

Despite its importance, many companies neglect to implement MFA, leaving their data vulnerable to attacks.

Data Encryption at Rest
Encrypting data is a critical measure for protecting it from unauthorized access. In Microsoft Azure, data encryption at rest is enabled by default for new storage accounts, but older storage accounts may not have this setting enabled, potentially leaving virtual machine disks and blob storage unprotected. If cybercriminals manage to gain access to an account with rights to these resources, they can easily steal sensitive data. IT administrators should always verify that data encryption at rest is enabled for all storage accounts.

Using Audit Logs
Audit logs are a valuable tool for monitoring changes made in the Azure environment and can help identify potential security risks. IT administrators should regularly review these logs and consider integrating them with tools like Power BI or Microsoft OMS for easier management. Audit logs can also serve as an early warning system, alerting administrators to suspicious activity and enabling them to take prompt action if a threat is detected.

Proper Use of Network Security Groups
Network Security Groups (NSGs) act as the simplest form of firewall in Microsoft Azure, allowing administrators to set rules that restrict access to network resources based on IP addresses or security groups. However, misconfigured NSGs can inadvertently expose resources to the public, making the environment vulnerable to brute-force attacks and potentially leading to ransomware incidents. IT administrators should ensure that NSGs are correctly set up, allowing only the necessary rules to be active.

Final Thoughts
Maintaining the security of your cloud infrastructure requires a solid understanding of the cloud environment. IT administrators must follow best practices to safeguard the organization’s data and resources.

It’s crucial to recognize that securing Microsoft Azure resources is a shared responsibility between the cloud service provider and the users. Microsoft Azure provides a secure platform, but the responsibility falls on IT administrators to properly configure and manage the environment to ensure it stays secure.

Azure offers a variety of tools and services to help secure the environment, but they need to be used properly. By implementing granular access control, multi-factor authentication, data encryption, audit logs, and correctly configuring NSGs, IT administrators can greatly reduce the risk of security breaches in Microsoft Azure environments.