Overview of Azure Database Security
Securing your data is paramount. Azure offers a robust set of security features designed to protect your database workloads from a wide range of threats. This documentation provides a comprehensive guide to understanding and implementing these security measures across various Azure database services, including Azure SQL Database, Azure Database for PostgreSQL, Azure Database for MySQL, and Azure Cosmos DB.
Key security pillars for Azure databases include:
- Network Security: Controlling access to your database from the network.
- Authentication & Authorization: Verifying user identities and controlling their permissions.
- Data Encryption: Protecting data at rest and in transit.
- Threat Detection: Identifying and responding to anomalous activities.
- Auditing & Monitoring: Tracking database events and activity.
- Compliance: Meeting regulatory and industry standards.
Network Security
Network security is the first line of defense, controlling who and what can connect to your database instances. Azure provides several mechanisms to achieve this:
- Firewall Rules: Restrict access to your database server by allowing connections only from specified IP addresses or IP address ranges.
- Virtual Network Service Endpoints: Securely connect your Azure database services to an Azure Virtual Network (VNet) using the VNet’s native IP address space. This ensures that traffic between your VNet and the database service stays entirely within the Azure network backbone.
- Private Endpoint: Provides a secure, dedicated network path to your Azure database service within your VNet. This offers enhanced security by eliminating public internet exposure and allowing granular network access control.
- Azure Private Link: A technology that enables you to access Azure PaaS services, such as Azure Database for PostgreSQL, MySQL, and SQL Database, and Azure managed or customer-owned services, from within your Azure Virtual Network using a private IP address.
Authentication & Authorization
Once network access is secured, it's crucial to verify user identities and grant appropriate permissions.
- Azure Active Directory (Azure AD) Authentication: Leverage Azure AD for centralized identity and access management. This allows you to manage database users and groups using your existing Azure AD identities, enabling single sign-on (SSO) and multi-factor authentication (MFA).
- SQL Authentication: Use traditional username and password authentication for specific scenarios, though Azure AD authentication is generally recommended for enhanced security and manageability.
- Role-Based Access Control (RBAC): Define granular permissions for users and applications at various scopes (subscription, resource group, or database instance) to ensure the principle of least privilege.
- Database Roles: Within the database itself, use database roles to group users and assign specific permissions to tables, views, stored procedures, and other database objects.
Data Encryption
Protecting the confidentiality of your data is critical, both when it's stored and when it's being transmitted.
- Transparent Data Encryption (TDE): TDE encrypts data files (data and log) at rest. This is enabled by default for most Azure database services.
- Always Encrypted: A client-side encryption feature that protects sensitive data stored in databases. It ensures that sensitive data is encrypted before it is sent to the database and is only decrypted by the application or authorized users.
- SSL/TLS Encryption: Encrypts data in transit between your application and the database server, preventing eavesdropping and man-in-the-middle attacks. Ensure that client connections are configured to enforce SSL/TLS.
- Dynamic Data Masking: Limits sensitive data exposure by masking it to non-privileged users. This can be applied to specific columns containing sensitive information like credit card numbers or personally identifiable information (PII).
Threat Detection
Azure provides intelligent threat protection to help you identify and respond to potential threats in real-time.
- Azure Defender for SQL: Offers unified security management and threat protection capabilities across your SQL servers and databases. It includes features like vulnerability assessment, advanced threat protection, and data discovery and classification.
- Anomaly Detection: Azure SQL Database and Azure Database for PostgreSQL/MySQL can detect anomalous database activities, such as unusual login attempts, suspicious query patterns, or unusual data access.
- Vulnerability Assessment: Scans your database for security vulnerabilities and provides recommendations on how to fix them.
Auditing & Monitoring
Comprehensive auditing and monitoring are essential for understanding database activity, diagnosing issues, and demonstrating compliance.
- Azure SQL Auditing: Logs database events and writes them to an audit log in Azure Blob Storage, Azure Log Analytics, or Azure Event Hubs. This allows you to track who is accessing your data and what they are doing.
- Azure Monitor: Collects and analyzes telemetry data from your Azure databases. You can create alerts based on performance metrics or diagnostic logs to be notified of potential issues.
- Diagnostic Logs: Enable detailed logging for your database services to capture various events, which can then be analyzed in Azure Monitor or exported to other destinations.
Compliance
Azure database services are designed to help you meet a wide range of industry and regulatory compliance requirements.
- Azure Compliance Offerings: Azure adheres to numerous global, regional, and industry-specific compliance standards, including GDPR, HIPAA, PCI DSS, ISO 27001, and more.
- Compliance Manager: A Microsoft Purview solution that helps you manage your organization's compliance needs and continuously demonstrate compliance with various regulations.
- Data Governance: Implement policies and controls to ensure data privacy, integrity, and security in line with compliance mandates.
By effectively utilizing these Azure security features, you can build a robust and secure environment for your critical database workloads.