Cybercrime is on the rise. It’s more prevalent, it’s more sophisticated, and no one is safe. That’s why it’s time to truly invest in a robust security system that covers everything, from your data to your endpoints to your cloud to your identities. Leave no stone unturned.
The good news for businesses is that these comprehensive security stacks already exist and can integrate seamlessly together so that you can boost your protection even further.
One such stack is Microsoft’s security stack, which includes:
- Microsoft Azure
- Microsoft Defender
- Microsoft Entra ID Protection
- Microsoft Sentinel
- And more
Of course, deciding you’re going to use Microsoft’s security stack is just the start. To get the most out of this security solution, you’re going to want to follow this guide:
1. Ensure Integration is Optimized
The reason why businesses are migrating to a Microsoft-only security stack, even if they ramp it up with third-party solutions, is the integration capabilities. These are only worth your time, however, if you invest in them properly.
To do this, you will need to unify and integrate Defender for Endpoint, Identity, Office 365, Cloud Apps, and Vulnerability management in the Microsoft Defender portal. This is how you and your security teams will be able to get a single incident story, allowing you to reduce alert fatigue from the outset.
Microsoft’s solutions come with all the connections necessary to streamline integration, but it’s still up to your IT teams to optimize them in-house.
2. Beef Up Alert Management
The best way to beef up alert management and improve Microsoft security stack integration is to outsource to the experts. Red Canary, for example, offers a managed detection and response solution that helps teams throughout the transition to ensure your business sees the highest ROI from the Microsoft platform, and onwards, reducing non-actionable and false-positive alerts to remove the risk of alert fatigue almost entirely.
3. Centralize Your Data
You will, ideally, want all the incoming data centralized in a data warehouse. In addition to this, you will want the data cleaned and metadata added to it so that automated and AI systems can better understand what they’re dealing with.
There are a few reasons to add this data governance to your security overhaul. One, it’s easier to protect a single source than multiple options, particularly when there’s the risk of dark data haunting your operations. Two, it’s how your automated systems can better understand your operations, and, in turn, defend them. Three, having your information logically outlined means that your security teams can respond faster and more effectively.
Having your data centralized does not mean it’s open access once you have the key to the front door. You can lock it down with user access restrictions and keep it encrypted. Centralizing it just makes it easier to do all of the above.
4. Implement These Top Security Settings
Having a security stack isn’t the same as fully deploying that stack. To get the most out of your security system, you’ll want to implement Zero Trust principles, including:
- Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA
- Establish Conditional Access (CA)
- Principle of Least Privilege (PolP)
This is just the start. Either have your internal teams or invest in a security expert, set up all the security features throughout the stack to maximize protection.
5. Regularly Review the Microsoft Secure Score
Every business, even those small or mid-sized companies, can benefit from reviewing the secure score and following the automated recommendations. More advanced teams can use Attack Path Analysis and Microsoft Sentinel’s Playbooks to handle basic tasks automatically to free up your security teams where they are needed most.
