Azure is a scalable cloud platform that supports everything from virtual machines (VMs) and databases to AI-driven applications and enterprise networking. Its flexibility makes it a go-to choice for organizations, but with that flexibility comes security challenges like misconfigurations, unauthorized access, and evolving cyber threats. These can put your data and workloads at risk.
Staying secure in Azure means more than just enabling default settings—it also requires a multi-layered security strategy.
While there’s no shortage of advice online, filtering through it all can be time-consuming. To help, we’ve put together 9 essential Azure security best practices so you can focus on what matters most: effectively protecting your cloud environment.
Azure security: A refresher
Security in Azure isn’t something to bolt on later—it should be built in from the start. Apply Azure security controls at every stage of development, from the first code commit to deployment. Use infrastructure as code (IaC) to integrate security directly into your Azure environment, including software supply chain protections.
A key part of securing Azure is knowing your responsibilities under the shared responsibility model. While Azure provides built-in security controls, it’s up to your team to secure workloads based on the deployment model:
IaaS: You manage OS security, network security, application security, and identity protection.
PaaS: Azure handles infrastructure security, while you focus on securing applications and data.
Beyond deployment models, security requires active management of access controls, layered defenses, intrusion detection, data protection, and compliance. Aligning these areas with Azure’s security best practices helps prevent vulnerabilities before they become threats.
Azure Security Best Practices [Cheat Sheet]
This cheat sheet explores detailed aspects of Azure best practices, from role-based access control (RBAC) to cloud security posture management, that you can adapt to secure your Azure subscriptions.
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Best practices and recommendations to secure Azure
To ensure that your deployments are secure, follow these Azure cloud security best practices:
1. Train your teams on cloud security
Securing Azure goes beyond traditional perimeter defenses. Unlike on-premises environments, Azure operates on a shared responsibility model, where security is split between Microsoft and your organization. This means teams must stay proactive in securing workloads, managing access, and preventing misconfigurations.
To strengthen security, adopt a zero trust model—verify every request, enforce least-privilege access, and continuously monitor for threats. Tools like Microsoft Defender for Cloud and Azure Policy help automate security enforcement, but teams need to understand how to configure them effectively.
Because security gaps often come from misconfigurations, everyone interacting with Azure resources—not just security teams—should stay trained on best practices. Regular security reviews and cross-team collaboration ensure that evolving risks don’t go unnoticed.
If you’re shifting from on-premises security to cloud security, some major differences should factor into your Azure approach.
2. Define your security posture management process
New attack patterns emerge by the day in the cloud—which is why it’s critical to establish a process for maintaining your Azure security posture at all times. That’s where continuous monitoring comes in.
Continuous monitoring helps you prevent breaches and misconfigurations that would have otherwise gone unnoticed. To keep overhead low, pick a continuous monitoring solution that provides easy-to-implement configurations and offers customization for your organization’s needs.
You can also use tools like Microsoft Defender for Cloud to gain visibility into your Azure security posture. The secure score feature, for example, quantifies your security posture and serves as a starting point. Azure Policy further strengthens security by enforcing compliance rules and automatically applying security best practices across your environment.
Beyond that, incorporating specialized tools for cloud security posture management can strengthen your overall protection. Consider putting a process in place to remediate identified vulnerabilities as well.
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3. Integrate Azure’s native cloud security controls
Not sure how to implement a comprehensive security strategy for Azure? Start with quick wins by leveraging built-in security controls. These controls provide an immediate first line of defense against attacks, which allows you to strengthen your security from the start.
Azure comes with built-in security controls, and you can adjust them to fit your needs. Some of the most effective options include:
Microsoft Defender for Cloud for threat detection
Azure Firewall for network security
Microsoft Entra ID for identity and access management (IAM)
Fine-tuning these controls helps strengthen your defenses and keep your environment secure. Together, they can help you build your baseline security and protect against common attack vectors, like network infiltration and known vulnerability exploitation.
To simplify your processes, you can also consider extending your existing firewall capabilities to Azure during the initial adoption phase. For example, you could move your on-premises network devices to Azure as virtual appliances if you have portable licenses. Then, you can slowly migrate to more cloud-native or specialized solutions as applicable.
One reminder: to do your part in the shared responsibility model, spend some time mapping your application requirements to available security capabilities in Azure.
4. Streamline identity access management
IAM solutions are the foundation of cloud security. If they’re not in place, an attacker can essentially steal the keys to your kingdom through a compromised admin credential.
When you use Microsoft Entra ID (Azure’s cloud-native IAM service) with role-based access control (RBAC), you can grant granular access to Azure resources. Be sure to stick to the principle of least privilege and the zero-trust approach when assigning access permissions through RBAC, though. These security models restrict permissions to allowed activities on specific resources, preventing attackers from gaining broader access, even if they compromise a user’s credentials.
You can also leverage multi-factor authentication (MFA) to add on an additional security layer. But if that’s not enough, take things one step further by implementing just-in-time (JIT) or context-aware access control. This way, you can assign administrative access to a user for a specific activity during a designated time frame. After that, admin access automatically expires.
5. Enable JIT VM access
Leaving VMs open to inbound traffic increases the risk of unauthorized access since attackers constantly scan for exposed ports, looking for vulnerabilities to exploit. JIT VM access reduces this risk by restricting access to a limited time based on approved requests. Instead of keeping ports open 24/7, JIT locks them down by default and grants temporary access only when necessary.
Privileged identity management enables JIT by requiring users to request access under specific conditions, such as time limits and allowed IP addresses. Admins then review and approve only necessary requests, enforcing stricter control over VM access. This approach limits persistent exposure to threats like brute-force attacks and unauthorized remote access.
Implementing JIT in Azure Security Center strengthens security and ensures that users can access resources only when they need to. For greater visibility, log and audit every request so your teams can more easily track and investigate access patterns.
6. Encrypt data in transit and at rest
Attackers constantly target data, which makes encryption essential. Without it, unauthorized users can intercept or access sensitive information.
To counter this threat, Azure offers built-in encryption that protects data that’s both at rest and in transit. This ensures that even if attackers gain access, they can’t read your data without the decryption keys.
Azure also automatically applies encryption across your cloud resources to secure storage, databases, and network communication. Services like Azure Storage and SQL Database encrypt data at rest using Microsoft-managed or customer-managed keys. For data in transit, enabling Transport Layer Security protects communication between applications, users, and cloud services.
However, encryption alone isn’t enough—it requires proper management to remain effective. Regularly auditing encryption settings, rotating keys, and enforcing encryption policies for all sensitive data can help you ensure ongoing protection. These proactive measures also reduce the risk of exposure and strengthen security across your Azure environment.
7. Implement network security groups and application security groups
Securing your network is just as important as protecting your data. Without proper controls, attackers can move through your cloud environment, targeting exposed resources.
That’s where network security groups (NSGs) and application security groups (ASGs) come in. NSGs act like firewalls, allowing or blocking traffic based on rules you define, while ASGs help you manage security at the application level by enforcing policies that control communication between multiple applications. Together, they ensure that only authorized communication occurs, which prevents unauthorized access while maintaining efficient operations.
NSGs in particular let you control inbound and outbound traffic to your VMs, subnets, and other resources in the cloud. Instead of manually configuring each VM, you can apply security rules at scale, reducing human error and improving efficiency. ASGs take this a step further by grouping VMs with similar functions, which makes it easier to apply consistent security policies. This is especially useful in large cloud environments where managing individual resources becomes a challenge.
By using these security groups, you can create strong boundaries around your applications and data centers to limit exposure to potential threats. Pairing them with identity-based access controls, such as Microsoft Entra ID, adds another layer of security to ensure that only authorized users and services can access critical systems.
8. Perform regular security audits
Security isn’t a one-time setup—it’s an ongoing process. Without regular audits, vulnerabilities can slip through, leaving your Azure environment exposed.
Auditing helps you catch misconfigurations, unauthorized access, and potential threats before they become major problems. The key is to focus on the right areas: user access, network activity, and data protection.
Regular audits are especially important for organizations that use DevOps, where security gaps can appear in CI/CD pipelines, container configurations, and code repositories. Without proper monitoring, these vulnerabilities can go unnoticed. Automating audits and enabling real-time monitoring can help you detect threats early and prevent potential breaches before they escalate.
It’s also important to review who has access to critical resources and ensure that only necessary permissions remain. To do this, you can use Azure’s monitoring tools to track access and remove unnecessary privileges, especially for high-risk accounts. Additionally, be sure to rotate credentials in Azure key vaults regularly and enforce strict security measures to prevent exposure.
When reviewing your Azure network, you should check your firewall rules and NSGs to ensure that only approved traffic flows through. A single misconfigured rule could create an entry point for attackers, putting your resources at risk.
You can also use monitoring tools to perform security audits and real-time threat detection. Solutions like Azure Monitor, Log Analytics, and Microsoft Sentinel can help you track user activity, identify anomalies, and provide insights into potential vulnerabilities.
9. Deploy a defense-in-depth security model
Defense-in-depth, or layered, security focuses on implementing comprehensive security controls at different layers of your architecture—such as at the application layer, the operating system layer, the network layer, and the access control layer.
Simply put, a defense-in-depth security approach eliminates a single point of failure. Even if security measures fail at one level, the next layer can block the attack vector.
Here’s how you can strengthen different layers of your Azure environment:
For network security: Take advantage of multiple services, such as Azure Firewall, network security groups, and distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) protection.
For the data layer: Consider the security of data at rest and in transit by using encryption and certificates.
For the application layer: Put appropriate processes in place for code review and testing, starting at the code layer, in addition to other considerations like API management and web application firewalls.
For threat detection and prevention: Use services like Microsoft Defender for Cloud, Azure Advanced Threat Protection, and Microsoft Sentinel to proactively detect and prevent threats.
If you do discover a breach, immediately take action according to your incident response processes. After you remediate the threat, you can then rely on Azure Backup, Azure Site Recovery, and Azure Archive Storage to bring your applications back online without missing a beat.
Concerned about compliance? Native tools like Azure Policy and Azure Blueprints (which offer resource locks) can give you peace of mind.
Top Azure security challenges you’ll need to prep for
Even if you have strong security measures in place, challenges still exist. Attackers are always looking for weaknesses, and misconfigurations or overlooked gaps can put your cloud environment at risk. However, knowing what to expect can help you stay ahead and build a more secure system.
Here are some of the biggest Azure security challenges you’ll need to prepare for:
Misconfigurations: Designing one wrong security policy can expose sensitive data or leave critical resources unprotected, which is why staying on top of your configurations is essential. Perform regular audits and use automated security tools to help you catch these issues before they turn into serious problems.
Unauthorized access: Weak IAM controls make it easy for attackers to break in. The best defense is to tighten access—so be sure to enforce MFA, use Microsoft Entra ID to manage roles, and regularly review permissions to ensure that no one has more access than they actually need.
Data exposure: This happens when encryption is weak, storage accounts remain open, or access policies aren’t strict enough. To prevent leaks, encrypt data at rest and in transit, limit access to only those who need it, and keep a close eye on storage security settings.
Insider threats: These mostly come from excessive access, which leads to mistaken or intentional harm by employees or contractors. To combat this, it’s best to keep permissions strictly role-based to limit unnecessary privileges. A well-monitored system also helps you spot unusual behavior early, and setting up alerts allows you to immediately see any suspicious actions before they escalate into bigger issues.
Insecure APIs: APIs keep services connected, but weak authentication or poor security can make them vulnerable. Because of this, it’s essential to secure APIs with proper authentication, enforce rate limiting to prevent abuse, and run regular security testing to catch vulnerabilities before attackers exploit them.
Compliance and regulatory risks: Each industry has its own security and compliance requirements. Stay compliant by using Azure Policy and auditing logs and by applying security best practices that align with regulations.
Advanced persistent threats: Skilled attackers use long-term, stealthy techniques to infiltrate networks—but you can detect and respond to threats faster with Azure Sentinel and security monitoring tools.
DDoS attacks: These attacks can overwhelm your resources, causing downtime and service disruptions. However, you can protect your workloads with Azure’s DDoS protection services, which automatically detect and mitigate attacks before they cause damage.
Wiz: The simplest way to protect your Azure workloads
We’ve covered nine best practices to help you strengthen your cloud security—but staying ahead of threats also requires the right tools. Securing your Azure workloads doesn’t have to be complicated, though.
This is where Wiz comes in. It simplifies Azure security by giving you complete visibility into your cloud environment. Unlike traditional security tools, it works without agents, using a 100% API-based approach to scan every workload—VMs, containers, serverless, and PaaS—in minutes. This means no installation headaches or performance slowdowns.
Beyond detecting risks, Wiz also helps you prioritize and fix security issues faster and identifies hidden threats, such as misconfigurations that combine to create serious vulnerabilities. Plus, its automation ensures that security teams get the right alerts and can track fixes in real time.
Keeping your workload secure shouldn’t be overwhelming. Download Wiz’s Azure security best practices cheat sheet today for more clear, actionable steps to help you strengthen your defenses and reduce risks.
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