Understanding Identity Protection

Azure Active Directory (Azure AD) Identity Protection is a cloud-based security solution that provides comprehensive visibility into sign-in risks and the ability to remediate them automatically. It leverages Microsoft's intelligence and machine learning to detect anomalous activities, helping you protect your organization's identities and resources from advanced threats.

Key Features and Benefits

  • Risk-Based Conditional Access: Dynamically enforce access policies based on user and sign-in risk levels.
  • Identity Protection Reports: Gain insights into user risk, sign-in risks, and remediation activities.
  • Automated Remediation: Configure policies to automatically reset passwords or require multi-factor authentication (MFA) for risky users.
  • User Risk Policies: Protect against compromised credentials by responding to risky user sign-ins.
  • Sign-in Risk Policies: Protect against high-risk sign-ins originating from unfamiliar locations or infected devices.
  • Vulnerability Management: Identify and remediate vulnerabilities like unpatched systems and insecure configurations.

Implementing Identity Protection

Implementing Azure AD Identity Protection involves configuring policies and integrating with other Azure AD features. Here’s a step-by-step overview:

1. Enabling Identity Protection Features

Before diving into policy configuration, ensure that Identity Protection is enabled and configured for your Azure AD tenant. This typically involves assigning the appropriate Azure AD Premium P2 licenses.

2. Configuring User Risk Policies

User risk policies are designed to protect against compromised credentials. You can set policies that trigger actions when a user is detected as having a medium or high risk.

Example Policy Settings:

  • Users: All users, specific groups, or exclude groups.
  • Conditions: User risk level (medium, high).
  • Access Controls: Grant access, block access, require MFA, require password change, require MFA and password change.
  • Enforcement: Enable for reporting or enforcement.

For a medium user risk, you might require users to change their password and perform MFA. For a high user risk, you might require both actions immediately.

3. Configuring Sign-in Risk Policies

Sign-in risk policies focus on the context of the sign-in event itself. These policies can help mitigate risks associated with unfamiliar locations, anonymous IP addresses, or malware-infected devices.

Example Policy Settings:

  • Users: All users, specific groups, or exclude groups.
  • Conditions: Sign-in risk level (medium, high, low).
  • Access Controls: Grant access, block access, require MFA, require multi-factor authentication and custom controls.
  • Enforcement: Enable for reporting or enforcement.

A common strategy is to require MFA for medium sign-in risks and block high sign-in risks.

4. Leveraging Identity Protection Reports

The Identity Protection reports provide crucial insights into your security landscape. Regularly review these reports to understand trends, identify compromised accounts, and assess the effectiveness of your policies.

  • User risk events: See all detected user risk events.
  • Risky users: View users who have detected risk.
  • Risky sign-ins: Analyze sign-ins that were detected as risky.
  • Vulnerabilities: Identify potential security weaknesses.

5. Integrating with Conditional Access

Azure AD Identity Protection works seamlessly with Azure AD Conditional Access policies. This allows you to create granular access controls that respond to real-time risk detections. For instance, you can configure a Conditional Access policy that grants access to sensitive applications only if the user and sign-in risks are low.

// Example of a Conditional Access policy snippet (conceptual)

if (userRiskLevel >= 'Medium' || signInRiskLevel >= 'Medium') {

requireMFA();

requirePasswordChange();

}

Best Practices

  • Start with Reporting: Begin by enabling policies in "Report-only" mode to understand the impact before enforcing them.
  • Phased Rollout: Gradually roll out enforcement policies to pilot groups before applying them to all users.
  • User Communication: Educate your users about Azure AD Identity Protection and what to expect when a risk is detected (e.g., MFA prompts, password reset).
  • Regular Review: Continuously monitor reports and adjust policies as your threat landscape evolves.
  • Integrate with SIEM: Forward Azure AD Identity Protection logs to your Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) solution for broader security analysis.

By implementing Azure AD Identity Protection, you can significantly strengthen your organization's defenses against credential theft, account takeovers, and other identity-based attacks.