At one time the idea of keeping data safe was keeping it close. But since the introduction and then the growth of cloud computing, the mentality has evolved. Nowadays, up to 60% of all company data is stored in cloud storage, with more sensitive information travels from on- to off-premises every single day. Unfortunately, increased cloud use doesn’t necessarily mean increased cloud confidence – around 60% of IT and security managers aren’t confident in their organization’s ability to safeguard cloud access.
The reality is that whether it’s stored on site or in the cloud, the data of business is constantly under attack by increasingly sophisticated cyber threats. But, there’s so much at to be lost: revenue loss and the disclosure of personal information about customers, reduction in business capabilities reputational damage and legal penalties for failing to meet regulatory standards are all real consequence of even the smallest breach. As such, organizations in every industry require effective strategies for immediately detecting and addressing threat anomalies in all of their forms and across their entire attack surfaces.
Microsoft Sentinel is designed to meet these needs.
What is Microsoft Sentinel?
Microsoft Sentinel (recently named Microsoft Sentinel) Microsoft Sentinel (recently renamed as Microsoft Sentinel) is an information and event management (SIEM) system that is also an instrument for security orchestration (SOAR), automation, and orchestration (SOAR). The Azure SIEM/SOAR solution is an all-encompassing approach to security of data, offering a bird’s eye perspective of all areas of your business, delivering intelligent security analytics for optimal detection of attacks, visibility of threats active hunting, and security response.
Cloud-native and capable of scaling to match any organization’s changing needs, Microsoft Sentinel is the culmination of years of experience in security of data, utilizing modern AI capabilities to provide modern businesses by delivering faster, more intelligent, large-scale intelligence – without the requirement to build infrastructure on-site or maintenance costs.
What Does Microsoft Sentinel Do?
A Microsoft Sentinel Service is a comprehensive solution to protect your company’s data. This one-stop solution aggregates information from every source across the enterprise, including applications, users, servers, and on-premises and cloud-based devices.
In the same way, Microsoft Sentinel is a complete security solution that is capable of the following functions:
Collecting Data
Every part of your business produces data, and fully realizing that data is the key to establishing a solid security posture. Microsoft Sentinel collects data from every data source, using it’s Log Analytics tool to save important events as well as other information for analysis in depth.
Detection of the threat
In putting your data under a microscope, Microsoft Sentinel applies Microsoft Analytics with continuously evolving threat intelligence to spot any unidentified security threats or suspicious activity inside the system. It also reduces the chance of encountering false positives. If potential threats are identified security teams are promptly alerted, and threats are categorised and listed for assignment and investigation.
Investigating Threats
Microsoft Sentinel allows you to be proactive by scouting for suspicious activities and investigating threats through detailed analysis of data that is correlated with multiple sources. AI-enhanced capabilities make it possible for you to extend threat detection to any business size.
Responding to threats
When your data is under attack, every second counts. Microsoft Sentinel includes automation options and built-in orchestrationto give immediate threat response capabilities.
What are some of the Elements of Microsoft Sentinel?
Although Microsoft Sentinel is a single, comprehensive security-intelligence solution, it is comprised of several different components. These nine fundamental elements comprise:
Analytics
Advanced analytics within Microsoft Sentinel uses the Kust Query Language (KQL) to allow users to create their own customized alter conditions. Alerts are categorised into ‘incidents’ representing possible dangers to be investigated and resolved which reduces the number of alerts to be evaluated in the hands of IT security experts.
Cases
Based on analytics that are defined by the user, Microsoft Sentinel collects all relevant evidence from investigations into specific cases, containing several alerts.
Community
Microsoft Sentinel has a dedicated and active community that is centered on the GitHub Microsoft Sentinel community page. This community includes vital resources for detections based on a myriad of data sources, in addition to security playsbooks, hunting questions, and much more.
Dashboards
Data visualization is an integral aspect in Microsoft Sentinel; built-in dashboards allow users to easily review information from a variety of data sources at a glance.
Data Connectors
As part of the wider Microsoft system, Sentinel integrates seamlessly with other Microsoft and Microsoft-partner solutions and products. This lets data be shared and integrated across multiple systems.
Hunting
Microsoft Sentinel uses proactive threat analysis enhanced with AI and ability to learn from machines in KQL to spot suspicious behavior and improve its effectiveness over time.
Notebooks
Integrations built-in to Jupyter Notebook allow direct access to valuable libraries and modules that can be used for embedded analytics as well as data analysis machine learning, visualization. This expands usability and increases the possibilities of applications for collected and stored data.
Playbooks
When alerts arise being aware of the actions to take could make the difference. Microsoft Sentinel includes playbooks detailing the exact actions to be taken in response security alerts. Azure Logic Apps further improve flexibility and customization by enabling customers to manage and orchestrate specific response tasks and workflows.
Workspace
Microsoft Sentinel groups data and information about configuration from various sources into containers referred to as Log Analytics Workspaces. These Workspaces include data-storage location information as well as data isolation according to access rights of the user as well as other.
What threats are thwarted through Microsoft Sentinel?
As a complete, single-stop SIEM/SOAR system, Microsoft Sentinel is effective in detecting, analyzing, and responding to the whole spectrum of threat actors and cyber attacks. While Sentinel can provide reliable protection against botnets, phishing attacks malware, and so on but it could be more essential in fighting some of the latest and most ingenious threats.
Microsoft Sentinel is a viable solution for:
Credential Stuffing
Security specialists continue advise users to switch their passwords. Yet, many people still use the same passwords to log into various accounts and devices and are especially at risk of bot-driven credentials attacks aimed at the theft of login credentials. Sentinel detects the warning signs of credential stuffing and other identity-based attacks, locking out threats and alerting responders.
Remote Work Attacks
With the introduction of new remote-work and hybrid-office employee expectations following the COVID-19 pandemic business data is no more exclusive to business networks and devices. Microsoft Sentinel extends vital security capabilities to remote locations to protect data at the places it’s most vulnerable.
Double Extortion Ransomware
One of the biggest threats to data security is double extortion ransomware attack where cybercriminals infiltrate the company’s systems and ask for payment in exchange of returning access to their rightful owners. Microsoft Sentinel uses a correlation engine built on machine learning algorithms that can be scaled to determine if security alerts can be linked to possible ransomware activity.
