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Designing and configuring analytics rules is a crucial aspect of the SC-200 Microsoft Security Operations Analyst certification, which focuses on threat detection, response, and improving the security posture of an organization. Analytics rules in security solutions like Microsoft’s Azure Sentinel help in identifying, alerting, and responding to potential threats by analyzing the security data collected.
There are mainly two types of analytics rules that can be configured within Azure Sentinel:
When designing analytics rules, consider the following steps:
Follow these steps to configure analytics rules in Azure Sentinel:
An example of configuring a scheduled analytics rule for detecting multiple failed login attempts might include the following steps:
SigninLogs | where ResultType !in (“0”, “50125”, “50140”) | summarize Count = count() by UserPrincipalName | where Count > 5
Feature | Scheduled Analytics Rules | Microsoft Incident Creation Analytics Rules |
---|---|---|
Customization | Full (Query, thresholds, schedules, etc.) | Limited (Pre-defined by Microsoft) |
Objective | User defined based on specific needs | Generic, covers common known threat patterns |
Data Sources | Multiple, including custom logs | Pre-set by Microsoft |
Incident Creation and Grouping | Customizable by the user | Automated based on Microsoft’s criteria |
Maintenance | Requires regular review and tuning | Managed by Microsoft, updated regularly |
Ideal For | Custom threat detection scenarios | Quick deployment, known threats |
Designing and configuring analytics rules requires a deep understanding of your organization’s security needs and the capabilities of Azure Sentinel. By following best practices for rule creation and ensuring rules are regularly reviewed and updated, a security operations analyst can significantly enhance the threat detection and response capabilities of their organization.
[Note: The information provided is based on the functionalities available up to the knowledge cutoff date and may be subject to change or update by Microsoft.]
Analytics rules in Microsoft Sentinel can be created using the Azure portal, but they can also be created and managed through API calls, PowerShell scripts, and templates.
D) Threshold
The types of analytics rules in Microsoft Sentinel are Scheduled, Microsoft Security, and Fusion. There is no dedicated “Threshold” type of analytics rule.
Analytics rules in Microsoft Sentinel can utilize machine learning models for anomaly detection and other advanced analysis techniques.
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While creating a Scheduled analytics rule, you need to define the rule logic (query), alert severity, and rule name. The MITRE ATT&CK tactics and description fields are optional.
When configuring an analytics rule, you can define the severity of the generated alerts (Low, Medium, High, or Informational).
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Analytics rules can be configured to create incidents and determine the frequency at which alerts should be generated. Assigning incidents to specific users and automatically resolving incidents are done through different mechanisms, not directly through analytics rules.
Fusion analytics rules leverage multiple low-fidelity alerts from different data sources to detect complex multi-stage attacks.
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Scheduled analytics rules can be set to trigger on log data, including Azure Activity logs and data ingested from third-party solutions. They do not directly trigger on alerts or threat intelligence indicators.
When designing analytics rules, it’s crucial to consider the potential impact on resources and performance to ensure that the rules are efficient and do not overload the system.
A) Group related alerts into single incidents
Incident settings within an analytics rule let you group related alerts into single incidents based on predefined criteria, improving the management of related alerts. Setting the owner, defining trigger frequency, and auto-escalation are not part of the incident settings directly within the analytics rule configuration.
Analytics rules are used to detect and alert on specific security-related events in the data collected by Sentinel.
The two types of analytics rules available in Sentinel are built-in rules and custom rules.
Built-in analytics rules are a set of pre-configured rules that cover a range of security scenarios and are designed to identify threats that are commonly encountered in the security landscape.
Custom analytics rules are rules that you create and configure to suit the unique security requirements of your organization. You can use custom analytics rules to detect threats and security issues that are specific to your environment.
The process for designing a custom analytics rule involves defining the logic that will be used to identify a specific security event or issue, configuring the rule to collect data from the relevant data sources, and setting up the appropriate alerting and notification mechanisms.
The query language used in analytics rules in Sentinel is used to define the logic that will be used to identify security-related events in the data collected by Sentinel. This language is designed to be flexible and powerful, allowing you to specify complex conditions and filters that can help you to identify specific types of threats or security issues.
Examples of built-in analytics rules in Sentinel include rules for detecting brute force attacks, malware infections, suspicious account activity, and other common security scenarios.
To test an analytics rule in Sentinel, you can use the built-in query testing tool to run the rule against a sample data set and verify that it is detecting the events and issues that you expect.
Alert thresholds are used to specify how frequently an alert should be triggered by an analytics rule. By configuring the alert threshold, you can control how often you receive alerts for a particular security issue.
To ensure that your custom analytics rules in Sentinel are effective, you should monitor the data collected by Sentinel to identify any false positives or false negatives that may be occurring. You can then adjust the rules as needed to improve their accuracy and effectiveness. Additionally, you can leverage the resources and best practices available in the Sentinel community to learn about new threats and techniques for detecting them.
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