AZ-500 Microsoft Azure Security Technologies Exam

Continuous Discovery and Risk-Based Prioritization of External Assets

Microsoft Defender External Attack Surface Management helps security teams keep an eye on any resources exposed to the internet. By using continuous discovery, it automatically inventories all internet-facing assets. This real-time visibility ensures you never miss a new or changed asset that might pose a risk. With this approach, organizations can track resources like web apps, APIs, and open ports without manual checks.

The continuous discovery feature of Defender External Attack Surface Management automatically inventories all internet-facing assets. It uses automated scans to find public endpoints, web applications, and open ports that might be at risk. This real-time visibility helps security teams spot missing or misconfigured resources quickly. Key capabilities include:

• Automated asset inventory: Gathers all public-facing resources.
• Continuous scanning: Checks for new or changed assets in near real time.
• Exposure reports: Highlights resources that might be vulnerable.

The risk-based prioritization feature uses threat intelligence to score each asset based on severity and exploitability. Assets with higher scores appear at the top of your remediation list, making it easier to focus on the biggest threats first. This process reduces noise and lets teams handle the most critical issues quickly. As scores update, alerts flow into Defender for Cloud to keep your security posture up-to-date.

Integrating with Microsoft Defender for Cloud creates a unified security workflow. Alerts and scores from External Attack Surface Management feed directly into Defender for Cloud dashboards. This enables continuous assessment of your external assets alongside internal resources. With a single pane of glass, teams can track progress, apply security policies, and automate responses based on the latest findings.

Deploying and configuring Defender External Attack Surface Management involves a few key steps. First, enable the service in Azure to start automatic asset discovery. Next, define your risk-scoring criteria to match your organization’s threat model and compliance needs. Finally, integrate the alerts into Defender for Cloud so you can assign tasks, set policies, and trigger automated remediations.

Conclusion

In this section, you learned how Microsoft Defender External Attack Surface Management provides continuous discovery of internet-facing assets and applies risk-based prioritization to help security teams focus on the most critical threats. You saw how threat intelligence scores guide remediation efforts and how alerts flow into Defender for Cloud for unified monitoring. The summary covered key features, integration steps, and deployment guidance to ensure that external Azure assets stay secure. By following these practices, organizations can maintain a strong security posture and respond quickly to new exposures.