Alerts, Incidents, and Automated Responses

In today’s complex security environment, managing alerts, investigating incidents, and automating responses are essential for protecting an organization from advanced threats. Microsoft Azure provides a suite of tools and services for Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) and Security Orchestration, Automation, and Response (SOAR) that allow security teams to efficiently handle these tasks.

In this guide, we’ll go through key Azure tools and features for setting up and managing alerts, incidents, investigations (SIEM), and automated responses (SOAR), focusing on their creation, configuration, management, and monitoring from a security perspective.

1. Overview of Alerts, Incidents, and Automated Responses in Azure

Key Azure Services Used:

Azure Sentinel: A cloud-native SIEM and SOAR service providing security insights, threat detection, investigation, and automated response capabilities.
Azure Monitor: Tracks performance and operational data, useful for setting up alerts and monitoring for abnormal activity.
Microsoft Defender for Cloud: Provides security recommendations, alerts, and advanced threat protection across Azure resources.
Azure Logic Apps: Enables automation workflows, useful for SOAR integration to automate responses to security incidents.

Core Concepts:

Alerts: Generated from various Azure services or custom rules, indicating potential security issues.
Incidents: Grouped security alerts that represent a possible threat to the environment, with contextual information for investigations.
Investigations (SIEM): The process of analyzing and correlating alerts to detect threats and understand their impact.
Automated Response (SOAR): Automatic actions triggered by incidents or alerts, designed to mitigate threats, reduce response time, and improve security posture.

2. Setting Up Alerts in Azure

Alerts are the foundation of any security monitoring system, as they provide the initial signals that trigger an investigation. In Azure, alerts can be generated through Azure Monitor, Microsoft Defender for Cloud, and Azure Sentinel.

Creating and Configuring Alerts in Azure Monitor

Go to Azure Monitor:

Open the Azure Portal and go to Azure Monitor > Alerts > New alert rule.

Define Alert Conditions:

Set the scope (resource) for the alert, such as virtual machines, databases, or network security groups.
Choose a Signal or Condition that specifies what activity triggers the alert (e.g., CPU usage exceeding a threshold, unusual IP access, or a failed login attempt).

Configure Action Groups:

Set up Action Groups to define how notifications will be sent when the alert is triggered.
Action Groups can send notifications via email, SMS, or other integrations, and can also trigger Logic Apps to automate responses.

Define Alert Severity and Details:

Assign a Severity level (0 to 4) and provide additional metadata to categorize and prioritize the alert based on the level of risk.

Example: Configuring an Alert for Unusual Sign-In Activity

Scope: Azure Active Directory (AAD).
Condition: Multiple failed login attempts in a short period.
Action Group: Notify the security team and trigger a Logic App for an automated response (e.g., disable user account temporarily).

Creating and Configuring Alerts in Microsoft Defender for Cloud

Go to Defender for Cloud:

In the Azure Portal, navigate to Microsoft Defender for Cloud > Inventory > Security alerts.

View and Configure Security Alerts:

Defender for Cloud generates built-in security alerts based on abnormal activity patterns, such as unusual user behavior or malware detection.
Alerts are automatically classified by severity and provide remediation steps.

Connect to Azure Sentinel (Optional):

Link Defender for Cloud with Azure Sentinel to centralize and correlate alerts for deeper analysis.

3. Incident Management and Investigations in Azure Sentinel (SIEM)

Azure Sentinel enables comprehensive incident management, allowing you to investigate alerts, correlate them into incidents, and respond to them effectively. Incidents are collections of correlated alerts, representing a broader threat.

Setting Up Incident Creation and Investigation in Azure Sentinel

Go to Azure Sentinel:

In the Azure Portal, navigate to Azure Sentinel and select your workspace.

Connect Data Sources:

Integrate data from Azure resources (e.g., AAD, Defender for Cloud, Office 365) and third-party sources. This provides Sentinel with a broad range of data to detect threats.
Use Connectors in Sentinel to ingest logs and data streams from these sources.

Define Analytics Rules:

Go to Analytics > Create to set up Analytics Rules for automatically generating incidents from specific alerts.
You can use built-in templates or custom KQL (Kusto Query Language) rules to define specific patterns to detect.
Set up thresholds, correlation rules, and trigger conditions for incident creation.

Run an Investigation:

When an incident is created, open it in Incidents > Investigate.
Use Sentinel’s Investigation Graph to visualize the sequence of events, view related entities, and pivot to view details like IP addresses, users, or devices involved.
Analyze alerts within the incident to determine the root cause and potential impact.

Example: Creating a Rule to Detect Suspicious PowerShell Activity

Data Source: Azure Log Analytics or Windows Event Logs (integrated via connectors).
Rule Logic: Use KQL to define a query for unusual PowerShell activity:

   SecurityEvent
   | where EventID == 4688
   | where CommandLine contains "PowerShell" and CommandLine contains "-encodedCommand"

Response: Configure the rule to generate an incident, and tag it as High Severity.

4. Automated Response Using Azure Sentinel Playbooks (SOAR)

For SOAR (Security Orchestration, Automation, and Response) capabilities, Azure Sentinel uses Playbooks. Playbooks are automation workflows built with Azure Logic Apps that can automatically respond to incidents or alerts.

Creating and Configuring a Sentinel Playbook for Automated Response

Go to Azure Sentinel:

In Sentinel, navigate to Automation > Create > Playbook.

Design Playbook Workflow:

Create a Logic App workflow, choosing Azure Sentinel Incident trigger as the first step.
Add actions based on the alert or incident, such as:
- Send Email: Notify the security team.
- Isolate VM: Quarantine a compromised virtual machine.
- Disable User Account: Temporarily disable a user’s account in Azure AD.

Add Conditions and Logic:

Use conditions based on incident severity or specific alert criteria to customize the response. For example, set a condition to only trigger if the incident severity is High.

Test and Deploy:

Test the Playbook to ensure it responds correctly. Deploy it in Sentinel and associate it with specific analytics rules or incidents.

Example: Automatically Responding to a Phishing Attack

Incident Trigger: Incident is triggered for a high-severity phishing email detected.
Playbook Actions:

Send an alert to the security team.
Extract sender information and add it to a blacklist in Microsoft Defender for Office 365.
Disable the affected user’s account in Azure AD until further investigation is complete.

5. Monitoring and Managing Azure Security Incidents

Azure provides various tools for monitoring security incidents and managing them through continuous threat detection and response.

Monitoring Incidents in Sentinel

Centralized Incident Management:

In Azure Sentinel, go to Incidents to see an aggregated view of all security incidents across your Azure environment.
Filter incidents by severity, time, or type to prioritize response efforts.

Investigate Incident Details:

Select an incident to see linked alerts, affected resources, and user accounts.
Use the Investigation Graph to track the progression of an attack, providing insights for containment and remediation steps.

Reporting and Metrics:

Use built-in reporting dashboards to track incident response metrics, such as mean time to detection (MTTD) and mean time to response (MTTR).
Create custom workbooks in Sentinel to visualize incident trends and response effectiveness.

Continuous Improvement with Sentinel’s Hunting Capabilities

Sentinel’s Hunting feature allows proactive threat hunting to identify emerging threats.

Create Custom Hunting Queries:

Write custom KQL queries to search for suspicious activity in logs and identify patterns that might indicate a threat.

Automate Hunts:

Save hunting queries and set up alert rules for continuous monitoring.

Example: Monitoring for Lateral Movement

Create a hunting query in Sentinel to look for suspicious lateral movement based on unusual login locations or access to high-privilege accounts:

   SecurityEvent
   | where EventID == 4624
   | where AccountType == "Service"
   | summarize Count = count() by AccountName, Computer, IpAddress
   | where Count > threshold

Azure’s SIEM and SOAR capabilities, powered by Azure Sentinel and integrated with Defender for Cloud, Azure Monitor, and Logic Apps, allow organizations to detect, investigate, and respond to security incidents effectively. By leveraging automated workflows, custom alerting rules, and advanced investigation tools, Azure enables security teams to streamline their processes,

reduce response times, and improve overall security posture.

Key Takeaways

Alerts: Define signals for suspicious activities using Azure Monitor, Defender for Cloud, or custom Sentinel analytics rules.
Incident Management: Use Azure Sentinel to investigate, analyze, and correlate alerts into actionable incidents.
Automated Response: Implement SOAR with Sentinel Playbooks, using Logic Apps to automate incident responses and mitigation actions.
Proactive Threat Hunting: Utilize Sentinel’s hunting features and custom queries to proactively search for emerging threats.

By integrating these tools and capabilities, security experts can build a resilient Azure environment capable of handling complex security threats with efficiency and precision.