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Azure Policy is a service in Microsoft Azure that allows you to create, assign, and manage policies. These policies enforce different rules and effects over your resources, which can help you ensure your resources are compliant with your corporate standards and service level agreements. In the context of security, Azure Policy can play a pivotal role in ensuring that your Azure environment is secure and that you’re auditing the necessary configurations to maintain compliance and security standards.
Azure provides built-in policies that you can use to meet your security needs without having to write your own definitions. These policies can be found in the Azure Policy service under the “Definitions” section.
For example, you might want to ensure that all your storage accounts have secure transfer required. You would choose a built-in policy that audits if secure transfer on storage accounts is enabled:
When built-in policies do not meet your unique requirements, you can author custom policies using JSON. When writing custom policies, you define the “if” condition and the “then” effect. Azure Policy will then evaluate your resources against these custom conditions.
For instance, consider you need to enforce that virtual machines should not be open to the Internet. You might define a custom policy like:
{
“if”: {
“allOf”: [
{
“field”: “type”,
“equals”: “Microsoft.Network/networkInterfaces”
},
{
“field”: “Microsoft.Network/networkInterfaces/*”,
“exists”: “true”
}
]
},
“then”: {
“effect”: “audit”
}
}
This policy would audit any network interfaces that are exposed to the internet, helping you identify potentially vulnerable VMs.
Auditing is a key aspect of maintaining a secure and compliant environment. Azure Policy can be used to audit settings and configurations on a continuous basis. Once you assign a policy with the effect of “Audit”, Azure will continuously evaluate the resources and generate audit logs if the resources are found to be non-compliant.
For instance, you may assign a policy to audit if Azure SQL databases have Auditing enabled:
Non-compliant resources will then be listed under the “Compliance” tab of Azure Policy, and detailed information about the compliance state of resources can be obtained.
Some Azure policies allow for automatic remediation of non-compliance. When a resource is non-compliant, a remediation task can be triggered to bring the resource back into compliance. For example, if a Virtual Network doesn’t have a Network Security Group attached, a remediation task can be set up to automatically attach a predefined NSG to it.
Azure Policy is a powerful tool for configuring security settings and auditing within the Azure environment. By using both built-in and custom policies, you can ensure that your resources are configured according to the highest security standards while maintaining compliance with governance requirements. Regular auditing allows you to stay informed of any resources that fall out of compliance, and remediation tasks help you correct these issues with minimal manual intervention.
Answer: A) True
Azure Policy can be configured to take automatic remediation actions on resources that are found to be non-compliant.
Answer: B) False
Azure Policy can audit resources across multiple Azure regions, not limited to a single region.
Answer: C) Azure Policy
Azure Policy is designed to manage and enforce rules across multiple subscriptions, allowing for compliance at scale.
Answer: B) Review the status of your resources across your environment
Azure Policy’s compliance feature is used to review and monitor the compliance status of resources within your environment.
Answer: B) False
Azure Policy is designed to enforce conventions and compliance for Azure resources, not for Azure Active Directory, which is managed separately through its own set of governance controls.
Answer: A) True
Azure Policy includes a built-in policy definition that can restrict the deployment of resources to specific Azure regions.
Answer: D) All of the above
Evaluations of policy rules can be triggered by the creation, update, or deletion of resources.
Answer: C) A collection of multiple policy definitions
An initiative definition in Azure Policy groups a set of related policy definitions to achieve a specific governance goal.
Answer: B) False
Azure Policy has the capability to not only audit but also enforce rules and block actions that do not comply with the assigned policies.
Answer: B) JSON
Azure Policy definitions are written in JSON (JavaScript Object Notation) format.
Answer: E) Both A and D
Azure Policy integrates with Azure Security Center for security compliance and Azure DevOps for incorporating policy compliance in continuous integration and delivery pipelines.
Answer: D) Azure Log Analytics
Azure Log Analytics can be used to aggregate and query policy evaluation results from multiple policies and across different subscriptions.
Azure Security Center Policy is a set of policies and controls that allow organizations to define and enforce security best practices across their cloud environment. It provides a unified view of security posture and enables quick remediation of vulnerabilities.
You can create a custom policy in Azure Security Center by defining a policy rule, creating a policy definition, and then assigning the policy to a scope in your subscription.
An initiative is a collection of related policies that are grouped together to achieve a specific goal. A policy is a single rule that describes a specific security configuration.
A policy initiative is a set of policy definitions that are grouped together to provide a comprehensive set of security controls for a particular scenario or compliance requirement.
You can enable Azure Security Center Policy for your subscription by navigating to the Azure Security Center Policy blade, selecting the subscription you want to enable it for, and clicking on “Enable Policy.”
A policy definition in Azure Security Center is a rule that describes a specific security configuration, such as “Require SSL for Storage Accounts.”
You can create an Azure Security Center Policy definition by defining a policy rule, configuring the settings for the rule, and then publishing the rule to the policy.
You can view the results of a policy in Azure Security Center by navigating to the policy’s “Compliance” tab and reviewing the status of the policy across all resources in the scope.
You can remediate non-compliant resources in Azure Security Center Policy by using the “Remediate” option in the policy’s “Compliance” tab, which will initiate an automated remediation process for the affected resources.
You can monitor your Azure Security Center Policy for changes and updates by configuring email notifications for policy changes and setting up activity logs and alerts for policy-related events.
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