AZ-500 Microsoft Azure Security Technologies Exam
Are you a guardian of your domain? Lean how to leverage your aptitude in security to protect Microsoft Azure technologies, with a goal of earning the Microsoft Certified: Azure Security Engineer Associate certification!
Practice Test
Expert
Practice Test
Expert
Secure networking
Plan and implement security for virtual networks
Virtual networks in Azure act like isolated networks in the cloud. By using subnets, you can divide your network into smaller segments. This approach supports micro-segmentation and enforces the principle of least privilege for workload communication.
Network security groups (NSGs) and application security groups (ASGs) provide granular control over traffic. With NSGs, you define allow or deny rules based on source, destination, port, and protocol. ASGs let you group VMs by application tier, simplifying rule management.
Additional services like Azure Firewall, Azure DDoS Protection, and Azure Bastion help protect virtual networks. Important points include:
- Stateful packet inspection by Azure Firewall
- Always-on DDoS protection
- Secure remote access with Azure Bastion
Together, these ensure that virtual network traffic is both filtered and monitored.
Plan and implement security for private access to Azure resources
Securing private access ensures traffic never traverses the public internet. Service endpoints extend your virtual network into Azure services, while private endpoints assign a private IP to a PaaS resource. Both methods enforce resource isolation and reduce exposure.
VNet peering and Azure Private Link enable direct network connections between VNets or to partner services. These features maintain low latency and high security:
- VNet peering: seamless, high-speed connectivity
- Private Link: direct access to Azure PaaS over a private endpoint
- Service endpoints: route traffic over the Azure backbone
Complementary features like private DNS zones ensure correct name resolution. You can also use Azure Firewall Manager to centrally manage private access policies, keeping configurations consistent across multiple virtual networks.
Plan and implement security for public access to Azure resources
When resources must be internet-facing, security must be layered. Azure Application Gateway with its Web Application Firewall (WAF) inspects HTTP(S) traffic for common threats. It also provides URL-based routing, SSL offload, and session affinity.
Azure Front Door offers global load balancing and edge-level security. By using WAF rules at the edge, it blocks threats closer to the user. Key features include:
- Fast global failover
- SSL termination at the edge
- Managed rule sets for OWASP vulnerabilities
To defend against volumetric attacks, combine Azure DDoS Protection with Azure Firewall. Configure rate limiting, custom WAF rules, and logging. This ensures that public endpoints remain robust against both network and application-level threats.
Conclusion
In this section, we covered how to secure Azure virtual networks, ensure private connectivity, and protect publicly exposed resources. Virtual network security relies on micro-segmentation with NSGs, ASGs, Azure Firewall, and DDoS protection. Private access uses service endpoints, private endpoints, and Private Link to keep traffic off the internet. Public access security uses Application Gateway WAF, Azure Front Door, and layered DDoS defenses for safe internet exposure. Together, these strategies create a comprehensive secure networking posture in Azure.
Study Guides for Sub-Sections
Network Security Groups (NSGs) and Application Security Groups (ASGs) are crucial tools for managing network security in Azure. Network Security Groups act as a virtual firewall, c...
Service endpoints are used to improve security for Azure services by extending the virtual network's private address space over the Azure backbone network. This means that traf...
Transport Layer Security (TLS) is a critical component in securing applications as it encrypts the data exchanged between users and servers. TLS ensures that sensitive information,...