Managing multiple workspaces or diverse security environments might be demanding for security operations analysts. However, as part of the SC-200 Microsoft Security Operations Analyst exam, learners must understand how to investigate multi-workspace incidents effectively. It is an integral part of leveraging Microsoft 365 Defender to protect enterprise systems.
A workspace, ideally, is a container that houses data related to your security application. In multi-workspaces, where there are multiple independent environments with different datasets, incident investigation can be a daunting task. But with Microsoft 365 Defender, you can seamlessly navigate through each workspace, efficiently identifying and probing potential security threats.
Identifying Incidents in Multi-Workspaces
In security operations, incident identification is the initial step in the incident response process. The Sentinel, Microsoft’s advanced security information and event management(SIEM) system, in combination with XDR capabilities of Microsoft 365 Defender, provides an effective way to detect threats across multiple workspaces.
The Sentinel provides a separate and independent view for each workspace, thus simplifying the identification of incidents in multi-workspaces. It processes countless data sources, including logs and system events, in search of suspicious activities that might indicate a security incidence.
To view incidents in your various workspaces in Sentinel, use the following navigation path:
Azure portal > Azure Sentinel > Incidents.
Investigating Incidents in Multi-Workspace Environments
After identifying potential security incidents across your workspaces, you’ll need to investigate them further to understand their nature, scope, and potential impact. The effective investigation process includes the following key stages:
1. Understanding the Incident Context
Microsoft 365 Defender affords you an “Incident Page” for each identified incident. This page provides you with rich information about the particular incident, including a summarized description, timeline, alert evidence, and related entities such as users, hosts, IPs, and URLs. Understanding the context of the incident is critical to shaping your response strategy.
2. Perform Deep Dives
The ‘Advanced hunting’ feature in the Microsoft 365 security center provides a powerful tool for performing in-depth investigations in a multi-workspace environment. You can run complex queries (Kusto Query Language) across large and diverse data sets in your multiple workspaces to isolate relevant events and entities.
Advanced Hunting Page Navigation:
Microsoft 365 Security Center -> Advanced Hunting
3. Alerts Correlation
Within a multi-workspace environment, the correlation of alerts from different workspaces can help to better understand how an incident propagates over the network. Such correlation aids in detecting lateral movement of a threat actor within your system.
Comparison of Multi-Workspace vs Single Workspace Incident Investigation
| Comparison Aspect | Multi-Workspace | Single Workspace |
| Incident Context Analysis | Understanding the context of the incident might require navigating through multiple workspaces | All incident-related information is contained within a single workspace |
| Deep Dives | Require running queries across multiple data sets and workspaces | The queries are run within a single data set |
| Alert Correlation | Might involve correlating alerts from different workspaces | All alerts correlation is done within a single workspace |
Investigating multi-workspace incidents forms the backbone of the Incident Response Lifecycle in the SC-200 Microsoft Security Operations Analyst exam. Understanding how to leverage the various tools and capabilities of the Microsoft 365 defender is essential in managing and effectively responding to threats within complex multi-workspace environments.
Practice Test
True or False: In multi-workspace incidents, data is merged from multiple workspaces.
- True
- False
Answer: True
Explanation: Multi-workspace incidents involve data merged from multiple workspaces, each workspace can pertain to different parts of the organization.
What is the first step in investigating multi-workspace incidents?
- a) Analyzing alert data
- b) Closing all irrelevant alerts
- c) Generating a new alert
- d) Validating the incident
Answer: d) Validating the incident
Explanation: Before proceeding with the investigation, the validity of the incident needs to be confirmed.
True or False: Multi-workspace incidents are not related with Microsoft 365 Defender.
- True
- False
Answer: False
Explanation: Multi-workspace incidents are a part of Microsoft 365 Defender which is designed to auto-heal affected assets.
In investigating multi-workspace incidents, what is the purpose of performing a full investigation?
- a) To gather evidence
- b) To identify irrelevant alerts
- c) To schedule security update
- d) All of the above
Answer: a) To gather evidence
Explanation: Performing a full investigation is important to gather evidence about the incidents and understand its extent and impact.
True or False: Investigation graph is not used in multi-workspace incident investigation.
- True
- False
Answer: False
Explanation: Investigation graph provides a visual representation of the set of entities related to an alert, which is helpful in multi-workspace incident investigation.
What is the primary purpose of alerts in multi-workspace incidents?
- a) System updates
- b) Identifying security threats
- c) Disaster recovery
- d) Network performance tracking
Answer: b) Identifying security threats
Explanation: Alerts are primarily designed to identify potential security threats in multi-workspace setup.
Which tool is used to remediate incidents in multi-workspace incidents?
- a) Microsoft 365 Defender
- b) Excel
- c) SQL Server
- d) PowerShell
Answer: a) Microsoft 365 Defender
Explanation: Microsoft 365 Defender is a tool used to remediate threats by auto-healing affected assets.
True or False: There is no need to notify stakeholders after resolving a multi-workspace incident.
- True
- False
Answer: False
Explanation: Stakeholders should be notified after resolving a security incident to maintain transparency and keep them updated on the security status.
Which of the following is NOT a typical step in investigating multi-workspace incidents?
- a) Validating the incident
- b) Gathering additional evidence
- c) Defining security policies
- d) Determining the scope of compromise
Answer: c) Defining security policies
Explanation: While important, defining security policies is not a part of the specific process of investigating multi-workspace incidents.
True or False: Incidents cannot re-open automatically even after closing.
- True
- False
Answer: False
Explanation: Incidents can re-open automatically if new related alerts are raised in the system.
Which report can be used to investigate multi-workspace incidents?
- a) Sales reports
- b) Incident reports
- c) Salary reports
- d) Performance reports
Answer: b) Incident reports
Explanation: Incident reports encapsulate all the information and details about the incident which helps in the investigation process.
True or False: Consulting with subject matter experts is unnecessary in the investigation process.
- True
- False
Answer: False
Explanation: Consulting with subject matter experts is often necessary to gain deeper understanding or clarity about specific technical aspects related to the incident.
Which entity in Microsoft 365 defender is primarily leveraged to investigate multi-workspace incidents?
- a) Teams
- b) SharePoint
- c) Exchange
- d) None of the above
Answer: a) Teams
Explanation: Teams, being a collaborative tool, often serves as a platform where alerts are raised and shared for investigation of multi-workspace incidents.
What can help in tracking the progress of an ongoing investigation in multi-workspace incidents?
- a) Notes
- b) Emails
- c) Daily meetings
- d) Project management tools
Answer: a) Notes
Explanation: Notes can be used to document all the findings, steps followed and progress made during the investigation.
True or False: In a multi-workspace setting, new alerts related to an ongoing incident are included automatically.
- True
- False
Answer: True
Explanation: If an ongoing incident matches the new alert rule, it will be included in the same incident automatically, helping in keeping the investigation focused and accurate.
Interview Questions
What are multi-workspace incidents in Microsoft 365?
Multi-workspace incidents in Microsoft 365 refer to security incidents that involve resources or user activities across multiple workspaces.
How does Microsoft Defender for Endpoint handle multi-workspace incidents?
Microsoft Defender for Endpoint provides a unified security operations experience. It allows the investigation of threats and remediation of security incidents spanning multiple workspaces.
What tool in Microsoft Security Center allows you to investigate multi-workspace incidents?
The Incidents & Alerts tool available in Microsoft Security Center allows users to initiate and manage investigations of multi-workspace incidents.
What is the purpose of investigating multi-workspace incidents?
The purpose of investigating multi-workspace incidents is to identify and understand an attack more comprehensively. This investigation can uncover the roots of the attack, identify all impacted assets, and remediate them to prevent similar future incidents.
What actions can be taken to contain a multi-workspace security incident?
Measures include limiting user access, quarantining or isolating affected devices, deleting malicious emails from mailboxes, and running advanced hunting queries to find related indicators of compromise.
Can an automated remediation process be implemented for multi-workspace incidents?
Yes, using tools like Azure Security Center and Microsoft Power Automate, automated responses to certain types of security incidents across multiple workspaces can be created.
What type of view does Incidents & Alerts in Microsoft Security Center provide?
The Incidents & Alerts in Microsoft Security Center provides a unified view of alerts related to all workspaces. It allows security teams to correlate related alerts and track the entire scope of a multi-workspace incident.
How does Microsoft 365 Defender assist in investigating multi-workspace incidents?
Microsoft 365 Defender draws on signals from Microsoft Defender for Endpoint and Microsoft Defender for Office 365, correlating alerts into incidents. This makes it easier for security teams to investigate multi-workspace incidents as complete chains of events.
Can multi-workspace incidents be associated with advanced hunting queries?
Yes, advanced hunting queries can be used in conjunction with multi-workspace incidents to further investigate and identify compromised entities, attack origins, and other related threats.
How are multi-workspace incidents reflected in the Microsoft 365 Compliance Center?
The Microsoft 365 Compliance Center provides a full incident view including all related alerts, source materials, and data that help in understanding the full impact of the incident across multiple workspaces.
Can Microsoft 365’s advanced threat protection (ATP) capabilities contribute to managing multi-workspace incidents?
Yes, Microsoft 365 ATP capabilities provide integrated protection against sophisticated attacks, malware, and phishing attempts, allowing you to streamline multi-workspace incident investigation and remediation.
How would you prevent future similar multi-workspace incidents?
Prevention measures can include enhancing security policies, providing user training, implementing stricter access controls, improving threat detection capabilities, and conducting regular security audits.
How important is the role of threat intelligence in managing multi-workspace incidents?
Threat intelligence plays a key role in managing multi-workspace incidents. It provides valuable insights about threat actors, their tactics, techniques, and procedures (TTPs), which can be utilized to identify, understand, and mitigate security incidents spanning multiple workspaces.
Is it possible to export data related to multi-workspace incidents for external investigation?
Yes, data related to multi-workspace incidents can be exported from Microsoft 365 to third-party tools like a SIEM (Security Information and Event Management system) for further investigation.
What are the different security levels involved in the management of multi-workspace incidents in Microsoft 365?
Microsoft 365 provides different security levels including tenant, workload, and item levels. For multi-workspace incidents, security operations are usually carried out at the tenant level to handle incident investigation and remediation over multiple workspaces.
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