As an MSP or IT partner, Azure security isn't just a technical checkbox—it's a fundamental responsibility that directly impacts your business and your clients' operations. Unfortunately, we're witnessing an alarming increase in cases where Azure accounts are hacked or compromised, often with devastating consequences.

Security breaches in Azure can have significant repercussions for your business. As a member of the Microsoft Cloud Solution Provider program, you bear responsibility if your or your customers' Azure accounts are subject to hacking or unauthorized access. This responsibility extends beyond technical fixes to include potential financial liability and reputational damage.

The good news? Most Azure security breaches are preventable with the right practices and vigilance. Read on for five valuable tips to avoid the worst-case scenario and protect your Azure environment.

1. Use Cost Alerts to Monitor Unusual Usage

Cost Alerts are not just a financial management tool—they're an effective early warning system for security breaches. Unexpected spikes in Azure resource consumption often indicate unauthorized access or compromised accounts.

Why Cost Alerts Matter for Security

When attackers gain access to Azure accounts, they typically:

  • Spin up expensive virtual machines for cryptocurrency mining
  • Consume massive amounts of bandwidth for data exfiltration
  • Create numerous resources for botnet activities
  • Deploy resources in unusual regions

All of these activities generate cost anomalies that Cost Alerts can detect immediately.

Implementing Effective Cost Alerts

Configure three main types of cost alerts to receive warnings when Azure resources are used excessively or consumption exceeds predetermined limits:

1. Budget Alerts
Set monthly budgets for each subscription and receive notifications at 50%, 75%, 90%, and 100% of budget consumption.

2. Credit Alerts
Monitor Azure credit consumption for accounts using Microsoft sponsorships or credits.

3. Departmental Spending Quota Alerts
Track spending across departments or cost centers to identify anomalies in specific areas.

Best Practices for Cost Alerts

  • Restrict resource creation permissions: Only selected users should be able to create Azure resources
  • Investigate all anomalies: Always investigate significant or unexpected variations in consumption
  • Set conservative thresholds: Configure alerts to trigger early rather than late
  • Review alerts daily: Cost alerts are only effective if someone monitors and acts on them

Learn more about implementing cost alerts: Microsoft Cost Management Alerts Documentation

2. Set Up a Monthly Azure Spending Budget

While related to cost alerts, establishing a formal monthly consumption budget for Azure across multiple clients provides an additional layer of protection and accountability.

Benefits of Spending Budgets

A well-configured spending budget helps you:

  • Monitor customer spending patterns and quickly identify discrepancies
  • Detect potential unauthorized access through unusual spending increases
  • Establish baseline consumption patterns for each customer
  • Create accountability for Azure resource usage
  • Enable proactive conversations with customers about resource optimization

Setting Realistic Budgets

Base budgets on historical usage patterns with appropriate buffers for growth:

  • Review 3-6 months of historical consumption data
  • Identify normal month-to-month variation
  • Add 15-20% buffer for legitimate growth
  • Set alerts at multiple thresholds (not just 100%)
  • Review and adjust budgets quarterly

3. Regularly Review Owner and Azure Roles

Role assignments represent one of the most critical security configurations in Azure—and one of the most frequently neglected. Admin and owner roles that were appropriately assigned during initial setup may no longer be correct months or years later.

Why Regular Role Reviews Matter

Over time, role assignments drift due to:

  • Employee turnover (former employees retaining access)
  • Role changes (employees moving to different positions but keeping old permissions)
  • Temporary access grants that were never revoked
  • Over-permissioned initial configurations
  • Shadow IT creating unauthorized role assignments

Conducting Role Reviews

Implement a quarterly role review process:

Step 1: Inventory Current Roles
List all users with Owner, Contributor, and other elevated roles across all subscriptions and resource groups.

Step 2: Validate Business Need
For each elevated role assignment, confirm:

  • Is this person still employed?
  • Does their current job require this access?
  • Can they perform their duties with less privileged access?

Step 3: Apply Least Privilege
Start with predefined roles in Azure and adjust as necessary. Assign roles hierarchically and set "owner" roles only for relevant resources and resource groups, not entire subscriptions.

Step 4: Implement Just-In-Time Access
For administrative access, consider using Azure AD Privileged Identity Management (PIM) to provide temporary, time-limited elevated access rather than permanent role assignments.

Role Assignment Best Practices

  • Never assign Owner roles at the subscription level unless absolutely necessary
  • Use custom roles to provide precisely the permissions needed
  • Assign roles to groups rather than individual users for easier management
  • Document the business justification for all elevated role assignments
  • Require manager approval for Owner and Contributor role requests

4. Monitor and Improve Your Azure Secure Score

The Azure Secure Score is a powerful, built-in tool that helps visualize your security posture and measure workload security over time. Think of it as a credit score for your Azure security—a single number that represents your overall security health.

Understanding Azure Secure Score

Azure Secure Score analyzes your Azure configuration across multiple dimensions:

  • Identity and access management
  • Data security
  • Network security
  • Application security
  • Endpoint security
  • Infrastructure security

For each category, Secure Score identifies specific recommendations with point values based on their security impact. Your total score reflects how many recommendations you've implemented.

Using Secure Score Effectively

Establish a Baseline
Record your current Secure Score and scores for each customer environment. This baseline enables you to track improvement over time.

Prioritize High-Impact Recommendations
Focus on recommendations with the highest point values first—these typically represent the most significant security improvements.

Create Remediation Plans
For each recommendation, determine:

  • Technical requirements for implementation
  • Potential business impact
  • Required resources and timeline
  • Customer approval needs

Track Progress Over Time
Review Secure Score monthly and track improvement trends. Celebrate wins and identify persistent challenges.

Secure Score Best Practices

  • Set a minimum acceptable Secure Score for all customer environments (recommend 70%+)
  • Include Secure Score in quarterly business reviews with customers
  • Offer security improvement services based on Secure Score recommendations
  • Use Secure Score as a selling point for proactive security management

5. Monitor Changes in the Azure Activity Log

The Azure Activity Log provides a comprehensive audit trail of all operations performed on Azure resources. This log is your security camera system—it records who did what, when, and where across your entire Azure environment.

What Activity Logs Reveal

Activity Logs capture critical security-relevant events:

  • Resource creation, modification, and deletion
  • Role assignment changes
  • Network security group rule modifications
  • Virtual machine start/stop operations
  • Storage account access changes
  • Failed authentication attempts
  • Unusual API calls

Implementing Effective Activity Log Monitoring

Configure Log Retention
By default, Activity Logs are retained for only 90 days. Export logs to a Log Analytics workspace or Storage Account for long-term retention (recommend 12+ months for security and compliance).

Create Alert Rules
Configure alerts for suspicious activities:

  • Role assignment changes (especially Owner and Contributor)
  • Network security group modifications
  • Resource creation in unusual regions
  • Bulk resource deletions
  • Changes outside normal business hours

Build Security Dashboards
Create dashboards that visualize:

  • Failed authentication attempts over time
  • Resource creation by user and region
  • Role assignment changes
  • High-risk operations

Establish Review Processes
Implement regular activity log reviews:

  • Daily review of critical alerts
  • Weekly review of high-priority activities
  • Monthly comprehensive audit

Bonus Tip: Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) is Non-Negotiable

You already know this: Multi-factor authentication (MFA) cannot be optional in any Azure environment. However, what many partners don't realize is that Azure includes MFA capabilities, but it's up to you to ensure it's activated for all users.

Why MFA Matters

According to Microsoft, MFA blocks over 99.9% of account compromise attacks. Compromised credentials remain the most common attack vector, and MFA is the single most effective defense against this threat.

Implementing Comprehensive MFA

If you remember nothing else from this article, remember this: Activate MFA on all Azure accounts and logins for both your own organization and your clients—no exceptions.

MFA Implementation Checklist:

  • Enable MFA for all admin and privileged accounts (priority one)
  • Roll out MFA to all users across all customers
  • Use conditional access policies to enforce MFA
  • Require MFA for Azure Portal access
  • Implement MFA for API and automation accounts where possible
  • Educate users on MFA best practices
  • Provide multiple MFA method options (authenticator app, phone, hardware token)

Turning Security Into Services

Each of these five security practices represents an excellent opportunity for MSPs and IT partners to deliver value and generate revenue through managed security services for Azure.

Consider offering tiered Azure security services:

Essential Security Package:

  • MFA implementation and enforcement
  • Cost alerts configuration
  • Monthly spending reports

Professional Security Package:

  • Everything in Essential, plus:
  • Quarterly role reviews and optimization
  • Azure Secure Score monitoring and remediation
  • Activity log monitoring with basic alerting

Premium Security Package:

  • Everything in Professional, plus:
  • 24/7 security monitoring and response
  • Advanced threat detection
  • Dedicated security dashboard
  • Monthly security reports and business reviews

Conclusion

Azure security requires vigilance, expertise, and consistent effort. The increasing frequency of Azure account compromises makes security not just a best practice but a business imperative.

By implementing these five essential security practices—Cost Alerts, spending budgets, role reviews, Secure Score monitoring, and Activity Log analysis—along with comprehensive MFA, you significantly reduce your risk of security breaches and demonstrate professional due diligence to your customers.

Remember: As a Microsoft partner, Azure security is your responsibility. Don't wait for a breach to implement these practices. Start today by assessing your current security posture and addressing the highest-risk gaps first.

The investment you make in Azure security today will prevent far greater costs—financial, reputational, and operational—tomorrow.

Source: Cloud Factory Insights