Making sense of your Azure Secure Score

According to a recent study by the Government’s Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, two in five businesses reported having cybersecurity breaches or attacks in the last 12 months. Of these, one in five respectively ended up losing money, data or other assets. With security breaches happening more frequently, it’s increasingly important that your business stays resilient.

When it comes to improving your business’s security, Microsoft has got your back. They invest over $1billion in security annually. Want to learn what this means for you? Discover four ways Azure can improve your security in our recent blog post.

One of the tools Microsoft has created is the Azure Secure Score, which has been designed to sit at the heart of your security. Microsoft created the Azure Secure Score to help give you guidance on their security best practices.

Firstly, what is the Microsoft Azure Secure Score?

All Microsoft Azure customers have access to a Secure Score that can be located within the Security Center. Your Secure Score will help you to not only gain an understanding of your current Azure security but also identify ways in which you can improve your overall security posture. Your score will be displayed as a percentage, making it easy to understand and measure.

But how is your score calculated? The Secure Score considers your entire Azure security set-up and analyses what controls you’ve enabled and set up. The percentage itself is calculated using the formula below. You can find out more about how this is calculated on Microsoft’s website.

Alongside your score, you’ll have a list of recommended actions that can help improve your security rating. The recommendations will highlight the maximum score you’re able to achieve for each control and how those improvements could potentially increase your overall Secure Score. Thus, allowing you to identify which improvements will have the biggest impact on your overall security. It’ll also show you the number of resources affected by each control and each resource’s impact on your overall score.

How to start improving your Azure Secure Score

Whilst Microsoft provides a list of recommended improvements along with the impact they will have on your overall score, these improvements are simply based on best practices and won’t always be the best option for your business. It is therefore important that you really take some time to interpret the recommendations in the context of your business or speak to an expert about it (Psst… That’s us!).

When looking to improve your score, it’s best to work with an Azure Expert MSP to help you identify which Microsoft recommendations are best aligned with your organisations policies.  As an Azure Expert MSP, we’ve helped numerous businesses improve their security, and we can help you too.

We’re currently running Secure Score workshops where our experts will analyse your security and help you create an enhancement plan. Want to find out more? Talk to our experts and sign up today.