Azure AD Identity Protection to detect and remediate identity risks

What is Azure AD Identity Protection?

In today’s dynamic threat landscape, securing access to enterprise resources is crucial. An essential component of Microsoft Entra, Azure AD Identity Protection enables enterprises to proactively identify and address identity-related risks within their Azure Active Directory (Azure AD) environment. This comprehensive solution offers a layered approach to identity security, safeguarding access and minimizing the potential for unauthorized activity.

Azure AD Identity Protection is a cloud-based security service that monitors user sign-in activity within your Azure AD tenant. It helps visualize data to better investigate risks, allowing you to view risk detection data through the portal or export it for further analysis by information and event management (SIEM) solutions.

Identity Protection can automatically detect and remediate identity-based risks using machine learning algorithms and advanced analytics to spot unusual or suspicious behavior that could indicate hacked accounts or security breaches. This feature is available with the paid Premium edition, license P2, of Azure AD. Microsoft supplies this tool with insights acquired from analyzing over 6 trillion signals every day to identify and protect against threats.

Risks detected by Azure AD Identity Protection

1. Anonymous IP addresses
2. Atypical travel
3. IP addresses associated with malware
4. Anomalous sign-in properties
5. Stolen credentials
6. Brute force attacks

Identity Protection policies

1. Azure AD MFA Registration Policy
2. Sign-in Risk Policy
3. User Risk Policy

Benefits of Azure AD Identity Protection

Azure AD Identity Protection plays a vital role in mitigating identity-related risks. By providing real-time insights and automated remediation options, Identity Protection empowers organizations to:

• Enhance threat detection: Identify compromised credentials, unsafe sign-ins, and other security risks.
• Implement risk-based access control: Apply adaptive multi-factor authentication (MFA) based on the perceived risk level of sign-in attempts.
• Automate threat response: Set up automated processes to handle high-risk sign-in attempts, such as password resets or account lockouts.
• Reduce the attack surface: Detect suspicious sign-in attempts and enforce conditional access policies, making unauthorized access more difficult.
• Minimize account takeover: Prevent account takeover attempts by taking prompt action, like password resets, upon detecting anomalous sign-in activity.
• Improve security posture: Gain insights into potential security flaws in the identity environment, enabling proactive remediation and overall security improvement.

Implementation steps

To keep Azure AD Identity Protection up and running, follow these procedures:

• Login to the Azure portal: Use your Azure AD administrator account.
• Go to Azure AD Identity Protection: Select “Get started” to initiate the setup process.
• Review and accept terms: Agree to the terms of use for the service.
• Configure settings: Enable or disable detection of unusual sign-ons, create risk-based policies, and set up MFA.
• Setup notifications: Receive alerts when a user’s account is flagged for suspicious activity.
• Customize risk event categories and scores: Tailor these to your organization’s needs.
• Delegate roles and permissions: Assign responsibilities for managing the service.

Best Practices for Azure Identity Management

Follow these best practices to maximize the effectiveness of Azure AD Identity Protection:

1. Centralize Identity Management: Ensure consistent management of identities for both on-premises and cloud resources. Synchronize the on-premises directory with the cloud directory using Azure AD Connect and federate the on-premises identity with the cloud directory using Active Directory Federation Services (AD FS).

2. Enable single sign-on (SSO): Configure SSO to allow users to sign in to any enterprise service with one set of credentials. This requires configuring the application to use Azure AD as its identity provider via the SAML protocol.

3. Deploy password management: Enforce secure password policies and prevent password abuse with Azure AD’s self-service password reset. Use the Password Reset Registration Activity report to monitor and fine-tune password management settings.

4. Enforce multi-factor authentication (MFA): Prevent credential theft attacks by implementing Azure MFA, which supports multiple authentication factors such as passwords, text messages, and phone calls.

5. Use role-based access control (RBAC): Control user authorization for Azure resources and applications by defining roles that assign permissions to specific users or user groups. Utilize Azure’s built-in roles for managing access to various cloud resources.