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Introduction
Computer attacks through Viruses and Malware are quite problematic these days. We use an antivirus to deactivate a virus and transfer data to more secure places. Despite all of these, data is still at risk. Virtual Machines are considered to be one of the solutions to minimise the risk associated with various computer activities. They aren't restricted to a single local computer. This is what makes them special. They are ideal for cloud applications. Microsoft Azure offers various products and services to set up and run virtual machines on the cloud. Developers can build security-enhanced, compliant solutions to protect virtual machines from viruses and malware and secure network traffic.
Virtual Machine
A virtual machine can be thought of as a computer within a computer. There are similar to a physical computer in all possible ways. They have a CPU and memory to store data and can connect to the internet too. In other words, VMs are software machines with physical servers but exist only as code. Although VMs work inside another computer, they do not interfere with the activities of the host computer’s operating system. It is completely independent. This way, the virtual machines can have an operating system different from that of the host system.
Azure VM
Azure VMs are flexible and scalable computing resources available on-demand. It gives the user the flexibility of virtualisation without having to buy and maintain the physical hardware on-premises. However, regular maintenance of the Azure VM, such as configuring, patching, and installing the software, is necessary. Azure Virtual Machines can be used for the following.
To develop and test applications with specific configurations.
To run various applications on the cloud on-demand.
Azure VMs also works as an extended data centre to be connected to an organisation’s network.
Azure VM Security
Since Azure virtual machines give us the flexibility of virtualisation without having to maintain the physical hardware, the assurance that the data is protected and safe in highly secure data centres is necessary. Security for Virtual machines can help with encrypting sensitive data, Help protect virtual machines from viruses and malware, help secure network traffic and identify and detect threats. Let us see the different security recommendations for Azure VM security.
Security Recommendations
General recommendations
Following are some of the general recommendations to secure VMs.
Recommendation
Description
For custom-built VM images, apply the latest updates.
Install the latest updates for the operating system for all applications that are a part of the image.
Backup VMs
Azure Backup help protect application data with minimal operating costs. It protects the VMs that run Windows and Linux.
Use multiple VMs for greater availability.
An increase in the number of VMs can increase the availability of the application.
Adopt a business continuity and disaster recovery (BCDR) strategy.
Azure Site Recovery provides options to support business continuity,
Keep the VM s up-to-date
Use update management solutions in Azure Automation to manage updates regularly.
Identity and Access Management
Identity and access management is a security discipline that allows only the right entities to utilise the right resources when required, without interference. IAM comprises the processes that enable administrators to assign a single digital identity to each entity, authenticate and authorise them to access resources, and monitor those identities.
Centralising Virtual Machine authentication is a recommended feature. We can centralise VM authentication using the help of the Azure Active Directory authentication.
Data Security
Recommendation
Description
Encrypting data and OS disks
Azure Disk Encryption encrypts Windows and Linux disks that cannot be read without appropriate keys. This protects stored data from unauthorised access.
Limiting installed software
Install only the required software for successful solutions.
Secure keys and secrets
Manage secrets and keys more securely by providing application managers with a secure and centrally managed option. Azure Key Vault can be used to store keys and secrets.
Use antivirus and antimalware
Azure can use external antimalware software to protect its VMs from malicious files, adware, and other threats.
Monitoring
Monitoring critical applications and business processes that rely on Azure resources is an important task done to evaluate the availability, performance, and operation. The Azure Monitor provides a complete set of features to monitor Azure resources. A variety of monitoring tasks can be performed. It provides Activity logs and VM insights to analyse them. Performance issues with a virtual machine can lead to service can violate the security principle of availability.
Networking
Virtual machine networking mimics the physical network by combining hardware and software network resources to construct a single administrative unit. Restricting access to the management port is one of the recommendations to secure VMs. Attackers scan public cloud IP ranges for open management ports and attempt to take advantage of common passwords and known unpatched vulnerabilities. The Just-in-time VM access can lock down inbound traffic to a VM and reduce unwanted attacks. Limit network access and control the number of exposed endpoints. This can be done using Network security groups.
Available Services
The services available to secure Azure Virtual Machines are shown below.
Azure Active Directory
Azure Active Directory is a fully managed multi-tenant service that offers identity and access management capabilities for applications running on Azure and in an on-premises setup. The Azure Active Directory helps control the access to the virtual machines for different users or user groups. While assigning a virtual machine to a user, a particular rule is associated with them. That defines the level of access permitted to the user on the virtual machine. All resource types have three essential roles.
Owner - They have complete access to all the resources and can control other users' access.
Contributor - They can create or make changes to the resources but do not have the power to grant any user access.
Reader - They can only view the Azure Resources in use.
Azure Security Center
Azure Security Centre helps prevent, detect, and respond appropriately to security threats by offering increased visibility and control over the security of Azure deployments. A complete view of the security state of the Azure resources can help users set security policies by deploying and managing controls from Microsoft and its partners. It can find advanced threats using analytics-driven detection and comprehensively view the total security posture. It also delivers a report on the VM configuration health and prioritised security alerts to track the most critical information.
Managed Service Identity
Managed Service Identity helps secure access to the VM configuration files. There are two types of managed identities:
A system-assigned managed identity, which, when enabled, creates an identity for the instance in the Azure AD tenant trusted by the subscription of the instance. The credentials are then provisioned onto the instance. The lifecycle of a system-assigned identity depends on the Azure service instance. When the Azure Resource Manager receives a request to enable a system-assigned managed identity on a VM, it creates a service in Azure AD for the identity of the VM.
A user-assigned managed identity creates an identity in the Azure AD tenants. It is created as a standalone resource. After the identity creation, it can be assigned to one or more Azure service instances.
Others
Other security features are:
Network Security Groups to filter network traffic to Azure VMs.
Azure Key Vault to securely store secrets and keys.
Antimalware for protection against malicious malware directed to VMs.
Azure Disk Encryption to encrypt OS and data disks of Azure VMs through the use of the BitLocker feature in Windows.
Frequently Asked Questions
What are the various components associated with Azure VMs?
Virtual networks, Subnets, IP addresses, Network Security Group, Network Interface Card and a Storage account, are the key components of a virtual machine in Azure. Service Healing monitors the health of the VMs, and if any issue is found, there is an option for auto-recovery.
What are Network Security Groups?
NSGs are a set of rules used to filter the traffic to and from Azure resources in an Azure virtual network. The two main NSG rules are inbound and outbound rules. Using these two rules, it is also possible to block the internet from accessing the VM.
What are the key features of Azure Key Vault?
Azure Key Vault solves the problem of storing keys, certificates and secrets. It provides a secure way to store sensitive information. It can store the keys in a software-protected or hardware secured by a hardware security module mechanism. It can monitor the usage of the key vault and the people who have access to the keys with detailed log analysis.
Conclusion
This article has extensively discussed the concept of Security in Azure Virtual Machines. We briefly learnt about Azure VMs and moved on to see some security recommendations and the services available on Azure to secure the VMs.
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