Microsoft Unified XDR and SIEM Solution Handbook E-Book

Raghu Boddu

• Herausgeber: Packt Publishing
• Kategorie: Fachliteratur
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 376

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2024

Beschreibung

Tired of dealing with fragmented security tools and navigating endless threat escalations? Take charge of your cyber defenses with the power of Microsoft's unified XDR and SIEM solution.
This comprehensive guide offers an actionable roadmap to implementing, managing, and leveraging the full potential of the powerful unified XDR + SIEM solution, starting with an overview of Zero Trust principles and the necessity of XDR + SIEM solutions in modern cybersecurity. From understanding concepts like EDR, MDR, and NDR and the benefits of the unified XDR + SIEM solution for SOC modernization to threat scenarios and response, you’ll gain real-world insights and strategies for addressing security vulnerabilities. Additionally, the book will show you how to enhance Secure Score, outline implementation strategies and best practices, and emphasize the value of managed XDR and SIEM solutions. That’s not all; you’ll also find resources for staying updated in the dynamic cybersecurity landscape.
By the end of this insightful guide, you'll have a comprehensive understanding of XDR, SIEM, and Microsoft's unified solution to elevate your overall security posture and protect your organization more effectively.

Leseprobe

Microsoft Unified XDR and SIEM Solution Handbook

Modernize and build a unified SOC platform for future-proof security

Raghu Boddu

Sami Lamppu

Microsoft Unified XDR and SIEM Solution Handbook

Copyright © 2024 Packt Publishing

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ISBN 978-1-83508-685-8

www.packtpub.com

To my wife, Deepthi – without you, this book wouldn’t be possible.

To my children, Avisha and Rishon – you are my life.

To my parents – you are the most beautiful memory inside my heart; you will always be remembered.

To all the cybersecurity professionals – this one is for you!

– Raghu Boddu

To my rock, Minna, whose unwavering support made this book possible.

To Eva and Mona, the joy in every page of our family story.

To our community, the guardians, and protectors of digital realms.

This book is yours as much as it is mine.

– Sami Lamppu

Foreword

The world of cybersecurity is constantly evolving and becoming more complex. Cyberattacks are becoming more frequent, sophisticated, and damaging, targeting organizations of all sizes and industries. Traditional security solutions, such as antivirus, firewalls, and endpoint protection, are no longer enough to defend against modern threats. Organizations need a new approach to security that is proactive, holistic, and intelligent.

This is where Microsoft’s unified XDR and SIEM solution comes in. Microsoft’s unified XDR and SIEM solution enables organizations to do the following:

Detect and respond to threats faster and more effectively, using advanced analytics, artificial intelligence, and automationGain visibility and insight into security posture and performance, using dashboards, reports, and alertsReduce complexity and cost, using a single platform that integrates with existing security tools and processesAchieve compliance and governance, using built-in policies, controls, and audits

Microsoft’s unified XDR and SIEM solution is not just a product but also a solution. It is designed to help organizations achieve their security goals and objectives, regardless of their size, industry, or maturity level. Whether you are an organization that is considering or evaluating Microsoft’s unified XDR and SIEM solution, a cyber professional who wants to enter the realm of XDR and SIEM, an enterprise architect who wants to understand Microsoft’s unified solution, a CISO looking for guidance who wants to see whether Microsoft’s unified XDR and SIEM solution is a fit for you before you adopt it, or an organization looking for guidance on modernizing your security posture, this book is for you.

This book is a perfect companion for anyone wanting to keep up with Microsoft security platform technologies, as well as anyone who wants to stay relevant in a career in cybersecurity. Cybersecurity is a rewarding and exciting career option for many reasons. Here are some of them:

Cybersecurity is in high demand: As cyberattacks become more frequent and sophisticated, organizations of all sizes and industries need skilled professionals who can protect their data, networks, and systems from cyber threats. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the employment of information security analysts is projected to grow by 33% from 2020 to 2030, much faster than the average for all occupations.Cybersecurity is well paid: Due to the high demand and the skills gap, cybersecurity professionals can command competitive salaries and benefits. According to ZipRecruiter, the average annual salary for a cybersecurity engineer in the United States is over $99,000, and the average annual salary for a cybersecurity analyst is over $76,000.Cybersecurity is diverse and dynamic: Cybersecurity is a broad and diverse field that encompasses many subfields, such as machine learning, computer vision, natural language processing, and robotics. Moreover, cybersecurity is applied in various industries, such as healthcare, finance, and manufacturing. Therefore, cybersecurity professionals can choose from a variety of topics and domains that interest them the most and enjoy the challenge and variety of their work.Cybersecurity is impactful and meaningful: Cybersecurity professionals play a vital role in protecting the privacy and confidentiality of sensitive data and personal information from cyberattacks and other threats. They also contribute to the security and stability of society and the economy, by preventing and responding to cyberattacks that could compromise national security, public safety, or critical infrastructure. Cybersecurity professionals can make a difference and have a positive impact on the world.

This book is written by two Microsoft MVPs, Raghu Boddu and Sami Lamppu, who are experts and practitioners in the field of cybersecurity. They have extensive experience and knowledge in implementing and managing Microsoft’s unified XDR and SIEM solution for various organizations and scenarios. They have also contributed to the Microsoft community by sharing their insights and best practices through blogs, webinars, podcasts, and events.

We hope that this book will help you to understand, appreciate, and adopt Microsoft’s unified XDR and SIEM solution and to achieve your security goals and objectives. We also hope that this book will inspire you to share your feedback and experience with us and the Microsoft community, contributing to security knowledge and innovation.

Rod Trent

Senior Program Manager – Advocacy, Microsoft Corporation

Contributors

About the authors

Raghavendra (Raghu) Boddu is a Microsoft Security MVP based out of Texas. He works as a technical director and leads security and threat practice at Edgile, a Wipro company. A visionary leader with more than two decades of IT experience, he has helped many customers as an advisor, specializing in cybersecurity, legacy migration and modernization strategies, multi-cloud/hybrid implementations, digital cloud transformation roadmaps, cloud-native architectures, and so on. He has earned two masters (an MSc in information services and an MSc in information technology). He is also PMP-certified, Agile Scrum-certified, and Six Sigma Green Belt-certified, and he holds Azure and AWS solution architect certifications. You can find his author profile on LinkedIn by searching for the username raghuboddu.

To my beautiful wife, Deepthi, and our incredible children, whose unwavering love and support made writing this book a reality. Writing a book demands huge dedication and constant energy; this journey would have been impossible without your belief in me and every sacrifice you made along the way. In loving memory of my mom and dad, whose hearts were stolen too soon by COVID-19. Your guiding lights forever illuminate my path, and your love remains a treasure beyond measure. And finally, to my exceptional co-author, Sami Lamppu, whose dedication and brilliance were instrumental in shaping this book. Your invaluable partnership and tireless efforts made this journey an unforgettable one.

Sami Lamppu is a cloud security lead at Netox, a Finland-based cybersecurity company. With over 20 years of IT experience, he is a distinguished expert in the field. He is not only a Microsoft Security MVP but also a passionate advocate for cloud security. For the past eight years, he has been specializing in cloud security, focusing on innovative solutions and strategies. His expertise extends beyond the cloud, encompassing multi-cloud and hybrid implementations, as well as on-premises environments.

He is the co-author of Entra ID Attack and Defense Playbook (formerly known as Azure AD Attack and Defense Playbook), and he blogs frequently, sharing his knowledge at https://samilamppu.com. He holds a bachelor’s degree in business information technology and holds of 50+ Microsoft certifications, dating back to Windows Server 2003 and Windows XP. You can find his author profile on LinkedIn by searching for the username sami-lamppu.

I dedicate this book to my cherished wife, Minna, and to our amazing children. Your unwavering support and love have made this journey possible. Thank you for making this dream a reality. Special thanks to my co-author, Raghu Boddu, whose collaborative spirit and shared passion breathed life into these pages. Your contribution has been invaluable, and I’m grateful for the opportunity to have worked alongside such a talented and inspiring partner.

About the reviewers

Thomas Naunheim is a cybersecurity architect at glueckkanja AG and a Microsoft MVP, from Koblenz, Germany. His principal focus is on identity and security solutions in Microsoft Azure and Microsoft Entra. Thomas shares his experience and research with the community as a blogger at cloud-architekt.net, and he is a speaker at conferences and co-author of Entra ID Attack and Defense Playbook. He is a member of the Azure Meetup Bonn and Cloud Identity Summit organization teams and is also co-host of the podcast Cloud Inspires.

Harri Jaakkonen is a Nordic security practice lead at Avanade and Microsoft Security MVP who lives in Finland. His principal focus is on identity and security solutions in Microsoft Azure and Microsoft Entra. He has over 28 years of experience in the field in various areas. Harri writes study guides and previews deep dives for the community at cloudpartner.fi.

Content contributors

Sakari Pajulampi: A review of the MDO and MDE sections in Chapter 3

Joosua Santasalo: Attack scenario simulation in Chapter 5

Armando Penumuri: A contribution to Chapter 10

Table of Contents

Prefacexv

Case Study – High Tech Rapid Solutions Corporationxxi

Introductionxxi

The current environmentxxi

A cloud environmentxxii

A hybrid cloud architecturexxii

User entitiesxxii

Collaboration with partnersxxii

End user devicesxxii

Server infrastructurexxii

An application landscapexxiii

An IoT/OT environmentxxiii

Security challengesxxiii

Management concernsxxiii

Challenges emphasized by security teamsxxiv

Concerns raised by CISOxxv

A recent incident response casexxvi

Summaryxxvii

Part 1 – Zero Trust, XDR, and SIEM Basics and Unlocking Microsoft’s XDR and SIEM Solution

1

Introduction to Zero Trust3

Zero Trust and its history3

Why do we need Zero Trust?5

Zero Trust in security operations6

Zero Trust principles and architecture7

Zero Trust pillars10

A real-life example11

Case study analysis12

Future of Zero Trust12

Summary12

Further reading13

2

Introduction to XDR and SIEM15

Understanding XDR and SIEM15

What is XDR and how did it start?16

What is SIEM and how did it start?18

How does a SIEM solution work?19

What do these *DR acronyms mean?20

The benefits of having XDR and SIEM solutions in an enterprise22

XDR’s benefits and reasons to adopt it22

Why do we need to consider SIEM?24

How to choose the right XDR and SIEM tool26

Case study analysis28

Summary29

Further reading29

3

Microsoft’s Unified XDR and SIEM Solution31

What is Microsoft’s unified XDR and SIEM solution?32

Microsoft Defender XDR33

Microsoft Defender for Cloud33

Microsoft Sentinel33

Other relevant Microsoft Security solutions34

Microsoft Defender XDR overview (MDE, MDO, MDA, and MDI)35

Microsoft Defender XDR solutions36

MDE37

MDO41

MDA46

MDI52

Microsoft Entra ID Protection (formerly Azure AD Identity Protection)58

Use cases for Entra ID Protection60

Case study analysis60

Extending XDR capabilities to on-premises and hybrid cloud by leveraging MDC62

MDC key features62

Benefits of using unified XDR for on-premises, multi-cloud, or hybrid cloud scenarios67

Case study analysis71

Microsoft Sentinel – SIEM and SOAR74

Sentinel key features75

Microsoft Sentinel versus Microsoft Defender XDR76

Case study analysis77

XDR and beyond – exploring commonly used security solutions78

Microsoft Defender for IoT79

EASM80

MDTI81

Microsoft Copilot for Security82

Case study analysis83

Microsoft’s unified XDR and SIEM solution's benefits over non-MS solutions86

The future – Microsoft’s influence in cybersecurity88

The graphical Windows OS revolution88

Reshaping server technology with Windows NT88

Outlook and the transformation of email communication88

MS Office – standard in productivity software89

Internet Explorer – a chapter in web browsing89

The future – Microsoft’s rising influence in cybersecurity89

Summary89

Further reading90

Part 2 – Microsoft’s Unified Approach to Threat Detection and Response

4

Power of Investigation with Microsoft Unified XDR and SIEM Solution93

Understanding the basics of SOC94

Typical SOC roles95

Avengers of cybersecurity96

Traditional versus modern SOC operations97

SOC journey with Microsoft’s unified security operations platform98

Investigation in Microsoft Sentinel98

Investigation in Microsoft Defender XDR106

Microsoft Copilot for Security122

Integrations with other Microsoft security solutions and third-party tools125

Microsoft Defender XDR platform – Single pane of glass126

Microsoft Sentinel127

Third Party integrations128

Case study analysis130

Summary131

Further reading131

5

Defend Attacks with Microsoft XDR and SIEM133

An attack kill chain in XDR and SIEM134

Identity threat detection and response134

Microsoft Defender XDR’s automatic attack disruption135

An overview of Microsoft Defender XDR’s automatic attack disruption135

Automatic attack disruption key stages136

Deception capability in Microsoft Defender XDR138

Attack scenarios139

An identity-based supply chain attack in the cloud139

Business Email Compromise attack145

Human-Operated Ransomware150

A case study analysis159

Summary160

Further reading161

6

Security Misconfigurations and Vulnerability Management163

Introduction to security misconfigurations and vulnerabilities164

Security misconfigurations164

Vulnerabilities165

Vulnerability management framework165

How can Microsoft’s unified solution help to address this?168

Microsoft Defender Vulnerability Management168

Microsoft Defender for Cloud175

Microsoft Sentinel177

Microsoft Copilot for Security177

Integration with other tools179

ServiceNow integration179

Intune/MDE remediation (native integration capability)179

API integrations and automation179

Case study analysis180

Summary181

Further reading181

7

Understanding Microsoft Secure Score183

What is Microsoft Secure Score?183

Why do we need to monitor Secure Score?184

Azure secure score in MDC184

Identity secure score in Entra ID187

Microsoft Secure Score in Microsoft Defender XDR188

Understanding your score – how are scores calculated?192

How to assess and improve findings196

Addressing findings197

Integrations200

MDC secure score200

Microsoft Secure Score202

Case study analysis202

Summary203

Further reading203

Part 3 – Mastering Microsoft’s Unified XDR and SIEM Solution – Strategies, Roadmap, and the Basics of Managed Solutions

8

Microsoft XDR and SIEM Implementation Strategy, Approach, and Roadmap207

XDR and SIEM assessment and implementation strategy207

Security assessments208

Security strategies209

Implementation approach and roadmap217

Adoption order218

What’s next?224

Case study analysis225

Summary227

Further reading227

9

Managed XDR and SIEM Services229

Managed services overview229

Security services230

How to select a provider232

Pros and cons of using managed services233

Generic MSSP framework in the Microsoft ecosystem235

Azure Lighthouse236

Microsoft Entra ID236

Multi-tenant management in Microsoft Defender XDR237

Content management in an MSSP scenario238

Case study analysis240

Summary241

Further reading241

10

Useful Resources243

Microsoft Unified XDR and SIEM Solution resources243

Microsoft Defender XDR243

Microsoft Sentinel244

Microsoft Defender for Identity244

Microsoft Defender for Office244

Microsoft Defender for Endpoint244

Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps245

Microsoft Defender for Cloud245

Non-Microsoft XDR and SIEM solutions245

XDR solutions245

SIEM solutions245

Managed XDR and managed SOC providers246

Cybersecurity Industry Reports 2023246

Community and third-party resources247

Some of the blogs247

Training248

Community tools and GitHub resources249

Books250

Security shows250

LinkedIn groups251

Thank you252

Index253

Other Books You May Enjoy264

Preface

This book unlocks the basics and importance of Zero Trust, XDR, and SIEM, and dives deep into Microsoft’s unified XDR and SIEM solution. You will learn about its powerful capabilities, holistic benefits, and real-world use cases. Plus, you will learn about individual defenders such as MDI, MDO, MDE, MDA, MDC, and Microsoft Sentinel.

Let's level up your security architecture! By the end of this book, you’ll be a Microsoft XDR and SIEM pro, understanding Microsoft’s unified approach and its power to break down silos and strengthen your defenses. This book is your one-stop guide to improving your security posture with ease. From early adopters to major players, the list of organizations embracing Microsoft’s unified XDR and SIEM solution is growing rapidly.

In this book, you will learn about the following:

The concepts of Zero Trust, XDR, and SIEM, and the importance of considering them to improve your security postureMicrosoft’s unified XDR and SIEM solution and the importance of adopting this unified solution and its holistic benefitsHow to elevate your security posture with the Microsoft Defender tools MDI, MDE, MDO, MDA, MDC, Sentinel SIEM, and SOARThe true capabilities of Zero Trust, XDR, and SIEM, and real-world use cases to improve your security posture with case-study-based learningHow Microsoft’s unified XDR and SIEM solution auto-disrupts some attacksHow to adopt Microsoft’s unified XDR and SIEM solution and some of the assessments and strategies worth consideringHow managed XDR and managed SOC services work and the importance of considering those managed services

Who this book is for

This comprehensive book is your one-stop guide to mastering Microsoft’s unified XDR and SIEM solution.

This book is ideal for the following people:

CISOs and IT executives, to help you make informed decisions about your security posture and streamline your security stack.Cloud security architects, to help you build a unified security strategy with Microsoft’s powerful tools.Anyone struggling with fragmented security solutions, as it helps to eliminate siloed architectures and achieve better security faster.This book is especially relevant in today’s remote work world. Many companies wrestling with a patchwork of security tools post-pandemic will find this guide invaluable. You will discover whether Microsoft’s unified solution offers the perfect fit for your organization, especially with the added incentive of bundled tools with licenses such as E5, A5, and so on. You will also enhance your ROI and build a robust, unified security architecture with confidence.Aspiring SOC analysts and Microsoft Security enthusiasts, this guide is for you! Fast-track your SOC career or dive into Microsoft Security with this comprehensive Microsoft unified XDR and SIEM solution book.

What this book covers

Chapter 1, Introduction to Zero Trust, lays the groundwork for understanding why XDR and SIEM solutions are crucial by delving into the concept of Zero Trust: its importance, principles, architecture, implementation considerations, and significance for security operations. We’ll explore these topics in detail with practical recommendations, building a solid foundation for your decision-making.

Chapter 2, Introduction to XDR and SIEM, dives deep into the world of XDR and SIEM, explaining their core functions and why they’re essential for modern cybersecurity. It explores their true capabilities, practical use cases, and implementation strategies, untangling buzzwords such as EDR, MDR, NDR, and SIEM along the way. Ultimately, it proposes a solution to break down siloed security architectures and streamline SOC operations, empowering analysts with improved triaging, investigation, and threat-hunting tools.

Chapter 3, Microsoft’s Unified XDR and SIEM Solution, dives deep into Microsoft’s unified XDR and SIEM solution, showcasing its seamless integration and benefits. It then explores each defender within Microsoft Defender XDR (MDE, MDI, MDO, MDA, and MDC) and Microsoft Sentinel, the SIEM and SOAR solution. Finally, it makes a compelling case for why adopting this unified approach can break down siloed security tools and propel your enterprise to a whole new level of protection.

Chapter 4, Power of Investigation with Microsoft’s Unified XDR and SIEM Solution, delves into how Microsoft’s unified XDR and SIEM solution empowers enterprises to revamp their SOC, streamlining daily operations and life cycle management. It explores the critical benefits this integration offers over traditional siloed technologies, enabling faster threat response and enhanced triaging, investigation, and remediation workflows.

Chapter 5, Defend Attacks with Microsoft’s Unified XDR and SIEM, examines the application of Microsoft’s unified XDR and SIEM solution in safeguarding organizations against cyber threats such as identity-based supply chain attacks in cloud, human-operated ransomware (HumOR), and business email compromise (BEC) attacks. Beyond a thorough analysis of the threat landscape, practical demonstrations of these tools’ effectiveness will be covered.

Chapter 6, Security Misconfigurations and Vulnerability Management, delves into the critical nature of security misconfigurations and vulnerabilities, outlining a high-level vulnerability management process and showcasing how Microsoft’s unified XDR and SIEM solution tackles these challenges head-on.

Chapter 7, Understanding Microsoft Secure Score, empowers you to strengthen your organization’s security posture by navigating effective strategies to boost your Secure Score and understanding the reasoning behind each recommendation.

Chapter 8, Microsoft XDR and SIEM Implementation Strategy, Approach, and Roadmap, guides you through successfully implementing Microsoft’s unified XDR and SIEM solution, highlighting crucial topics such as assessments, strategic considerations, and best practices for effective adoption and deployment.

Chapter 9, Managed XDR and SIEM Services, dives into the fundamentals and advantages of managed XDR and SIEM services, revealing how their effective management can shield you against a vast spectrum of cyber threats.

Chapter 10, Useful Resources, offers valuable resources to sharpen your skills in Microsoft’s unified XDR and SIEM solution, empowering you to defend your organization against evolving threats with confidence.

Conventions used

There are a number of text conventions used throughout this book.

Code in text: Indicates code words in text, database table names, folder names, filenames, file extensions, pathnames, dummy URLs, user input, and Twitter handles. Here is an example: “All alerts, incidents, and relevant data are synced between the solutions, and data is populated in Sentinel to the SecurityAlert and SecurityIncident tables.”

Bold: Indicates a new term, an important word, or words that you see onscreen. For instance, words in menus or dialog boxes appear in bold. Here is an example: “If you need to verify the MSSP’s permissions, they can be accessed from the Service providers blade in the Azure portal.”

Tips or important notes

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Case Study – High Tech Rapid Solutions Corporation

In this book we will consider a scenario of driving digital transformation and security enhancement at High Tech Rapid Solutions Corp (a fictional company name we will use throughout this book).

Introduction

High Tech Rapid Solutions Corp, a global leader in manufacturing and distribution, has 60,000 employees spread across multiple office locations on three continents. The company management understands the need to modernize their security operations, leverage modern cloud-based technologies, and enhance current security measures. Before the COVID-19 pandemic, they had a more traditional approach and had been less attracted toward remote work. However, the COVID-19 pandemic forced the company to quickly adapt remote work practices, leading to major improvements needs in the company security practices and technologies. This new situation led to a reevaluation of High Tech Rapid Solutions Corp security measures, prompting the organization to consideration of a security monitoring strategy and architecture to address their security needs and tackle the challenges caused by their siloed architecture.

Alongside the security landscape changes, High Tech Rapid Solutions Corp faces challenges in driving its new technology initiatives. The adoption of modern cloud-based technologies requires careful planning, time, dedicated resources, and a workforce equipped with the necessary skills. The organization understands how important it is to find new and retaining existing professionals who can effectively implement and manage their planned transformation initiatives. The company does manage its Security Operations Center (SOC) by itself and does not leverage any service provider's managed services in this area, even though it has been under consideration.

Furthermore, the pandemic presented unique challenges to High Tech Rapid Solutions Corp, accelerating the need for a cloud-first strategy. The company appointed a new Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) to the management team in order to guarantee the secure adoption of modern cloud-based technologies. CISO, who provides extensive experience in the cloud security domain, plays a key role in supporting the company's strategy, security teams, and business to maintain security as the top priority.

The current environment

High Tech Rapid Solutions Corp operates in a dynamic environment, characterized by diverse technologies and platforms. The key aspects of its current environment are as follows.

A cloud environment

Currently the company is operating in a multi-cloud environment, leveraging both Azure and AWS for its cloud infrastructure and business needs. This strategic adoption allows the company to benefit from the unique security features and capabilities offered by each cloud provider, while ensuring strong data protection across its operations.

A hybrid cloud architecture

Currently the company maintains a hybrid cloud architecture, combining on-premises infrastructure with cloud resources. This approach enables this company to maximize security controls and compliance requirements, while capitalizing on the scalability, agility, and cost-effectiveness of the cloud.

User entities

They have a hybrid identity architecture in place that allows seamless authentication and authorization for employees, granting them secure access to resources and applications across the hybrid cloud environment.

Collaboration with partners

High Tech Rapid Solutions Corp collaborates with external partners to drive business growth and innovation. To establish secure collaboration, the company extends its identity management capabilities to partners by leveraging Entra ID External ID (former Azure Active Directory) B2B collaboration and cross-tenant capabilities, enabling partners to access specific resources and collaborate within designated workflows.

End user devices

High Tech Rapid Solutions Corp operates in a diverse device landscape that supports both Windows and macOS platforms. The following aspects outline the current device environment:

Windows devices: Windows devices form the majority of the organization’s device ecosystem. Approximately 80% of the devices within the organization run on Windows operating systems.macOS devices: The company recognizes the need to take care user preferences and are having macOS devices in its device catalog as well These devices, comprising approximately 20% of the overall device inventory, are equipped with security features and management tools to maintain consistent security standards across platforms.Mobile phones: The company operates on diverse platforms such as iOS and Android.

Server infrastructure

High Tech Rapid Solutions Corp maintains a diverse server infrastructure to support its operations. The server landscape includes a mix of Windows and Linux servers, with the majority being Windows-based.

An application landscape

High Tech Rapid Solutions Corp’s applications are distributed across both on-premises and cloud environments. While legacy applications may still reside on-premises, they prefer modern technologies and cloud-native architectures for new application development, incorporating strong security measures to protect sensitive data and protect against cyber threats.

An IoT/OT environment

In the company’s IoT/OT environment, Internet of Things (IoT) devices are integrated with traditional Operational Technology (OT) to optimize operations. Interconnected sensors and machines collect real-time data from production to supply chain, feeding into centralized analytics for quick decision-making. The main challenge with IoT/OT environment is that it is lacking proper security monitoring and visibility to the environment from monitoring point if view is limited.

Security challenges

High Tech Rapid Solutions Corp has identified the following security-related challenges for their multi-cloud environment:

Siloed security architecture: High Tech Rapid Solutions Corp’s existing security infrastructure consists of disparate products that operate in isolation, resulting in limited visibility, missing threat intelligence, and inefficient incident response capabilities.Incomplete security insights: The lack of centralized security monitoring and analytics hinders the ability to correlate and analyze security events, making it difficult to identify security threats and vulnerabilities promptly.Inefficient threat response: The absence of a unified security platform and standardized processes undermines the effectiveness and agility of High Tech Rapid Solutions Corp’s incident response, leading to delays in containing and mitigating security incidents. Currently, they use a legacy Security and Information Management System (SIEM) and is keen to modernize SIEM with a cloud-based solution.Regulatory compliance: High Tech Rapid Solutions Corp must adhere to industry-specific regulations and compliance frameworks. Ensuring continuous compliance with standards presents challenges in terms of data protection, access controls, and security audits.

Management concerns

Management is especially concerned about the following specific areas and several possible attack scenarios, based on the history they have had with breaches:

Lack of visibility and control in an IoT/OT environment: High Tech Rapid Solutions Corp’s IoT/OT environment includes a wide range of devices and systems with varying security controls. This lack of standardized visibility and control makes the environment difficult to monitor and they are lacking of managing potential security vulnerabilities and incidents effectively.Lack of visibility on internet-exposed digital assets: High Tech Rapid Solutions Corp doesn’t have a clear understanding of its digital assets that are reachable from the internet, as well as the possible weak configurations on them. Their digital assets includes domains, subdomains, web applications, cloud services, APIs, and IoT devices. The compliance and regulatory requirements that the organization must adhere to in different regions and industries mandate strict security standards and best practices, protecting customer data and intellectual property.A Threat Intelligence (TI) data (feed) does not exist: High Tech Rapid Solutions Corp’s security teams don’t have TI data available, which can lead to a situation where they don’t have full visibility of potential attack vectors, and they are incapable of prioritizing the most critical threats and vulnerabilities. In addition, the company wasting valuable time and resources on false positives and irrelevant alerts, often missing key indicators of compromise and early warning signs of breaches. As it struggles to keep up with constantly developing security threats, High Tech Rapid Solutions Corp risks losing reputation, customer trust, and revenue due to data breaches and downtime.

Challenges emphasized by security teams

High Tech Rapid Solutions Corp’s security team raised some concerns and challenges that they faced during the last year:

The finance department noticed some suspicious activities in their mailboxes, the creation of suspicious mail rules, and a few confidential emails leaking outside their department.The SOC team noticed many incidents, and they are confident that handling certain vulnerabilities would fix these incidents and reduce the number of incidents/alerts, but they struggling to gain visibility on the vulnerabilities.The SOC team has limited resources, which leads to triage, investigation, and remediation challenges, and these delays cause escalations to senior management (i.e., lack of auto-remediation and mitigations).The SOC team spends long hours fulfilling management ad hoc reporting needs.Management is concerned about the SOC team’s inability to promptly address vulnerabilities and misconfigurations, which is attributed to the absence of a defined process and a dedicated vulnerability management team.The HR department raised concerns to the security team about unauthorized users accessing their apps or servers.Management initiated cost reduction strategies across the organization and allocated limited funds to the security team, asking them to reduce their cost, reduce the headcount, and submit Return on Investment (ROI) for any proposals, while simultaneously enhancing their security.The existing security team is not ready to adopt new technologies and needs training and guidance for new initiatives.The security team noticed too many users responding to spam messages and noticed URL clicks, and management asked the team to control these activities and train end users.Management asked the security team to keep an extra eye on certain assets, as well as terminate employees and contractors/vendors.The security team noticed too many false positives and spent a lot of time addressing these.The SecOps team struggles to track apps in the organization and control them.The SecOps team don’t have enough knowledge about the Entra ID application consent framework and on how new and existing application registrations and permissions should be evaluated.The SOC team doesn’t have active security monitoring for on-premises identities.The SecOps team doesn’t have active security posture management for their cloud or on-premises resourcesHigh Tech Rapid Solutions Corp operations runs in three different continents, and some employees travel between office locations, factories, and so on. For the SOC team, it’s complicated to identify false/positive and true/positive logins with the current security monitoring solutions.In a multi-cloud environment, High Tech Rapid Solutions Corp has been struggling to deploy agents on all servers.High Tech Rapid Solutions Corp’s SecOps team has been failing to identify possible attack paths to cloud resources.

Concerns raised by CISO

The following are the concerns raised by the CISO:

Attacks on M365 collaboration workloads (BEC): As High Tech Rapid Solutions Corp extensively use various collaboration tools, such as Microsoft Teams and SharePoint Online, it needs to address potential data leaks, phishing attempts, and other security risks associated with cloud-based collaboration. Additionally, the organization is concerned about the growing threat of Business Email Compromise (BEC) attacks, where cybercriminals target employees through email communications to compromise sensitive data, initiate fraudulent financial transactions, or gain unauthorized access to company resources. Mitigating the risks posed by BEC attacks has become one of the top priorities for the company, as these attacks can lead to severe financial and reputational consequences.Ransomware attacks: High Tech Rapid Solutions Corp is increasingly concerned about the rising threat of ransomware attacks. The potential impact of a successful ransomware attack on its critical data and operations is a major risk. The organization seeks robust security measures and proactive incident response capabilities to prevent, detect, and respond effectively to ransomware incidents. Ransomware attacks, combined with the potential threat of BEC attacks, have emphasized the need for a comprehensive and layered security approach. High Tech Rapid Solutions Corp aims to implement advanced threat detection and prevention solutions, conduct regular security awareness training for employees, and enforce strict access controls to minimize the risk of ransomware and BEC attacks.

A recent incident response case

The company faced a targeted BEC attack six months ago that had a financial impact on business, and they want to detect and prevent similar attacks from happening in the future.

The BEC attack on High Tech Rapid Solutions Corp contained the following phases:

Initial reconnaissance:

The attacker gained information about the company and identified key personnel through company’s websites and LinkedIn.

A phishing email:

The attacker needed credentials to get access to the environment, and one of the most common ways is to do so is by some form of phishing email. On this occasion, they used a spearphishing attachment (T1566.001 in MITRE ATT&CK https://packt.link/eOJcm) that included a malicious attachment. By clicking the link, the user believed that they were logging into a Microsoft sign-in page and entered their credentials.

Persistence and exfiltration:

After gaining access to the target user’s mailbox, the attacker created a forwarding rule to the mailbox for data exfiltration.

Financial fraud:

The actual victim of this attack was a procurement manager who believed that the email (marked as Important and Confidential) urging for immediate payment came from CFO.

Impact:

As a result of the successful BEC attack, the following occurred:

The financial team transferred a significant sum of money to the attacker’s account, thinking it was a legitimate payment.The real vendor who should have received this payment but did not receive it, contacted the company to inquire about the overdue invoice.The financial team realized it had been scammed, but it was too late to recover the funds, as they had already been transferred to an overseas account.The company suffered a financial loss, damage to its reputation, and potential legal consequences for failing to secure sensitive financial transactions.

To prevent such attacks in the future, the company is committed to strengthening its security environment security posture, focusing on implementing robust email security measures, employee training, and verification protocols for financial transactions.

Summary

This case study will be explored throughout the book in the different chapters, focusing on how High Tech Rapid Solutions Corp can benefit from leveraging Microsoft’s unified XDR and SIEM solution to address security challenges.

Part 1 – Zero Trust, XDR, and SIEM Basics and Unlocking Microsoft’s XDR and SIEM Solution

This part breaks down the basics of Zero Trust, XDR, and SIEM, and explains why you should think about using both XDR and SIEM together, especially Microsoft’s unified XDR and SIEM solution. It’s like having a security toolbox with all the right tools for the job, making it easier to protect yourself from cyber threats.

This part has the following chapters:

Chapter 1, Introduction to Zero TrustChapter 2, Introduction to XDR and SIEMChapter 3, Microsoft’s Unified XDR and SIEM Solution

1

Introduction to Zero Trust

In this chapter, the goal is to understand what Zero Trust is and the history behind it. In today’s rapidly evolving digital landscape, the adoption of Zero Trust has become imperative. Its role in bolstering security operations cannot be overstated as it introduces a proactive and layered approach to cybersecurity. Various Zero Trust architectures and principles have emerged in the cybersecurity realm, emphasizing continuous verification and restricted access. We will consider a compelling case study that will further exemplify the transformative power of Zero Trust, showcasing how it effectively addresses complex security challenges, providing organizations with a resilient and adaptable defense against modern threats.

This chapter will cover the following main topics:

Zero Trust and its historyWhy do we need Zero Trust?Zero Trust in security operationsZero Trust principles and architecturesReal-life examplesCase study analysis

Zero Trust and its history

When we hear Zero Trust for the very first time, it sounds interesting, right? It’s very common for many to start thinking the following:

What is Zero Trust? Is this a product we need to implement?How soon can we install and configure it?Does Zero Trust mean don’t trust anything or anyone? Then what about our daily work routine? Will there be any impact on the business?What about the tools/products we have in place? Is it compatible with other products in place? Do we need to replace these tools?Do we need special skill set resources? Is any training needed?Why is almost everyone talking about Zero Trust? Is this something that just started or is it gaining momentum?

To start with, Zero Trust is not a product; it’s a security framework and a strategic approach to secure an organization and harden its attack surface. This model assumes that no user or device is inherently trusted, irrespective of the origination (an external or internal network). Before we get into the details, let’s look at the history (see Figure 1.1).

Figure 1.1 – Zero Trust history

So, looking at the history, it’s very clear that when Zero Trust started a long way back, a few companies initiated their Zero Trust journey when some of their workloads started shifting outside of the traditional network perimeter. Then, with bring your own device (BYOD) and software as a service (SaaS) gaining momentum due to the Covid-19 pandemic as remote working increased, threats expanded along with other factors, such as technology advances and situations forcing organizations to shift from a traditional environment to a modern one.

Why do we need Zero Trust?

The Covid-19 pandemic has been a game changer. The Covid-19 outbreak forced almost all companies to adopt remote working aggressively (whether they liked it or not) and that changed the threat landscape, such as the nature of attacks, types of attacks, frequency, and exposure. Few companies thought they would expose only some of their sensitive digital estates beyond the firewall. This fast-phased transition to remote working has left many organizations struggling to implement the needed infrastructure and they have ended up with siloed architecture.

Figure 1.2 – Traditional versus Zero Trust comparison

At one point, there were clear boundaries for the virtual private network (VPN) where more focus was on the external side of it, but things have changed with the Covid-19 pandemic; threat risk has expanded to pretty much all of the enterprise, including operational technology (OT) and the Internet of Things (IoT). With that, almost all organizations started thinking about implementing remote work for their employees for business continuity, and honestly, we were personally impressed with how quickly things changed. Many start-ups, small- to mid-sized companies, took this seriously (probably as a lifetime opportunity), invested heavily, and benefited from this.

During the pandemic, organizations tried adopting security tools quickly to protect their digital estates. In most cases, they ended up with siloed architecture, and that led to conflicts in the architecture and design. For example, collaboration and productivity teams prefer open/unrestricted guest management with self services, identity and access teams preferred managed identities with a governance model, network and infrastructure teams preferred established remote access and remote desktop solutions, while collaboration teams used video conference solutions with a direct connection and SaaS-based solutions.

They invested a lot of money and time in implementing, training, monitoring, and so on. But even after that, they still reached a stage that many do and faced one or more of the following issues (these are just a few):

Still seeing some threats happeningManaging too many portals to maintain day-to-day security operationsA few things are out of controlNot able to quickly react, which is very time-consuming for triage, investigation, and remediationFinding resources and providing training for themControlling who has access to whatLimited visibility or insights into what’s going onTrying to reduce the risk of data breachesFailing to establish a certain level of trust at each access pointProviding adaptive and continuous protection

Tip

It is never too late to adopt the Zero Trust security model.

So, in short, with Zero Trust, instead of assuming only things beyond the firewall need to be verified and everything behind the firewall is safe, this model assumes there is a breach and that nothing should be trusted, and it verifies each and every request regardless of where it originates. The core fundamental rule is: never trust, always verify, and continuously assess.

Zero Trust in security operations

Now let’s see how Zero Trust is related to security operations (SecOps). As we know, SecOps is nothing but security and operations. Some of the core responsibilities include security monitoring, alerting, orchestration, defense, and incident response. In general, SecOps teams use a variety of tools and techniques to harden the organization’s attack surface. Adopting a Zero Trust strategy helps SecOps to create or establish a more secure environment that can withstand attacks.

It’s very important for the SecOps team and management to have end-to-end visibility on security with advanced optimized logging, analytics, and monitoring. Zero Trust architecture can provide visibility, which helps to mitigate threats effectively.

An effective security operations center (SOC) should be designed to deliver continuous protection, detection, prevention, and mitigation of threats for all attack surfaces.

User Entity Behavior Analytics (UEBA) provides powerful insights and helps to detect advanced threats based on user behavior.