It empowers you to investigate activities and files to discern the risk level associated with them, and finally, facilitate the remediation of any security issues.

Table of Contents

Understanding Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps

This is a Cloud Access Security Broker (CASB) that supports different deployments, including log collector mode, Azure Active Directory (Azure AD) Conditional Access App Control mode, and reverse proxy. The valuable insights into data and user behavior across your cloud services give you visibility and control over your environment.

Identifying Security Risks

Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps leverages billions of daily inputs from diverse sources such as endpoints, user activities, files, and more. These disparate data sources are unified in their system where they implement behavioral analytics and anomaly detection to understand normal versus risky behavior.

Security alerts can be categorized under the following broad types:

  1. Anomalous behavior: This includes risky behaviors such as mass download by a user or multiple failed login attempts.
  2. Privileged account activity: This involves potentially risky activities performed by privileged accounts.
  3. DLP policy violation: This includes alert regarding potential data leaks.
  4. Compliance violation: Any issues that may lead to non-compliance with industry regulations.

Investigating Security Risks

Once you have identified the security risks, you can deep dive into the details provided by Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps to investigate further. For instance, you can see who are the users associated with the alert, their past activities, and other pertinent details.

Following are the steps to investigate a risk detected by the system:

  1. In the activity log, filter out the activity or user you want to investigate.
  2. After filtering, choose a specific activity to see more details.
  3. A pop-up will show details associated with the activity including users, device info, IP address, date and time of activity, and other specifics.
  4. If the issue seems dangerous after investigation, you can create a policy to monitor similar future activities.

Remediation of Security Risks

Remediating security risks is the final step in securing your cloud application environment. Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps allows you to implement remedial actions for identified risks.

Actions you can take for instance-made alerts include:

  1. Suspend user: If you detect a user involved in a suspicious activity, you can suspend their account.
  2. Require user to sign in again: To verify the user, you can force them to sign in again.
  3. Make user change password: If you suspect the user’s password is compromised, compel them to change the password.
  4. Reset user session: If you find a user session suspicious, you can reset it.

Conclusion

Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps provides a comprehensive way to identify, investigate, and remediate any security risks in your cloud environment. It is a crucial tool for any Microsoft Security Operations Analyst preparing for the SC-200 exam.

Practice Test

True or False: Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps helps identify and remediate human-related security risks only.

  • True
  • False

Answer: False.

Explanation: Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps identifies and mitigates both human and machine-related security risks. It’s not limited to human-related security risks only.

Which of these features does Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps offer?

  • A. Data loss prevention
  • B. Investigating risky OAuth apps
  • C. Threat protection
  • D. All of the above

Answer: D. All of the above

Explanation: Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps offers all these features, enabling robust cloud security.

True or False: Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps is unable to identify unsanctioned SaaS apps.

  • True
  • False

Answer: False.

Explanation: One of the features of Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps is its ability to detect unsanctioned SaaS applications in your network.

What kind of threat protection does Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps provide?

  • A. Threat intelligence feeds
  • B. UEBA-driven anomaly detection
  • C. Threat investigation support
  • D. All of the above

Answer: D. All of the above

Explanation: Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps provides all the threat protection features listed, making it a well-rounded cloud security solution.

True or False: Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps is not available for hybrid cloud environments.

  • True
  • False

Answer: False.

Explanation: Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps is indeed available for hybrid cloud environments, offering robust security solutions across various platforms.

In Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps, what is the role of the Control feature?

  • A. Monitor usage
  • B. Investigate data breaches
  • C. Set policies and alerts
  • D. Both A and B

Answer: C. Set policies and alerts

Explanation: The Control feature in Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps enables setting proactive policies and alerts to detect and respond to potential threats.

True or False: You can use Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps to investigate data exposure incidents.

  • True
  • False

Answer: True.

Explanation: Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps allows you to investigate data exposure incidents and curb potential data breaches.

Which one of these is not a feature of Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps?

  • A. Automated policy enforcement
  • B. Risky OAuth investigation
  • C. Threat investigation and remediation
  • D. Intranet Firewall

Answer: D. Intranet Firewall

Explanation: While A, B, and C are features of Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps, an Intranet Firewall is not part of its capabilities.

True or False: Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps can help discover the Shadow IT in your organization.

  • True
  • False

Answer: True.

Explanation: Shadow IT are those systems, solutions, and software used within an organization without explicit organizational approval. Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps can definitely help to discover Shadow IT.

Can Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps investigate application-level activities?

  • Yes
  • No

Answer: Yes.

Explanation: With its Cloud Discovery feature, Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps can provide organizations visibility into application-level activities.

Interview Questions

What is Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps?

Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps is a Cloud Access Security Broker (CASB) solution that offers information protection for your cloud applications. It provides visibility, controls data travel, and investigates cyber threats to prevent data leakage.

What are the key functions of Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps?

The key functions include threat protection, data leak protection, control over data access, compliance management, and visibility into cloud apps & services. It can identify, investigate, and remediate cloud threats including malware and ransomware.

How does Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps help in identifying security risks?

It identifies security risks through cloud discovery analytics, threat intelligence, risky OAuth apps analytics, and continuous assessment of environments’ cybersecurity settings.

What is the purpose of the Cloud Discovery Dashboard in Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps?

The Cloud Discovery Dashboard provides a summary and trend data of all cloud apps used in your organization. It allows you to understand cloud usage patterns, analyze high-risk usage, and take actions to mitigate potential risks.

Can Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps investigate risk across all cloud apps?

Yes, it can investigate cloud resources, users, and data across all cloud domains and provide actionable cybersecurity intelligence and forensic data.

How does Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps remediate security risks?

Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps remediates security risks by providing granular control over data access, usage, and transfer through policy enforcement. It can set up activity policies, anomaly detection policies, data protection policies to control apps’ behavior and remediate risks.

What is the role of anomaly detection policies in Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps?

Anomaly detection policies identify risk patterns and possible indicators of compromise that trigger an alert. These alerts allow security operations teams to investigate and remediate security issues.

Can Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps detect malware in real-time?

Yes, Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps has a threat protection feature that detects a variety of threats in real-time, including malware.

How does Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps maintain compliance in the cloud?

It maintains compliance by giving detailed information about the compliance of cloud apps based on a broad range of regulatory certification and industry standards.

Is it possible to integrate Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps with other security solutions?

Yes, Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps can be integrated with other security solutions such as Microsoft Information Protection for advanced threat protection and data loss prevention.

How is data secured while being uploaded to cloud apps in Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps?

The data is secured through encryption methods that protect information in transit and at rest.

What type of apps can be controlled through the Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps?

Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps can control both sanctioned and unsanctioned apps to ensure data security and compliance.

Does Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps support automation for incident response?

Yes, Defender for Cloud Apps supports automation using playbooks which can respond to specific activities or alerts automatically to enhance incident response capabilities.

Can Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps detect threats from both managed and unmanaged devices?

Yes, threats can be detected and controlled from both managed and unmanaged devices, ensuring comprehensive coverage.

What type of visibility does Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps provide into your cloud environment?

It provides complete visibility into your cloud environment including user activity, cloud resource configurations, network traffic, and suspicious activities.

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