Integrity of Microsoft Azure Security in Question?

In a Blog published by CRN, the integrity of Microsoft Azure’s Security was put in question. Their title, “8 Biggest Microsoft Azure Security Issues you Need to Know About” sets out to question Microsoft’s infrastructure. We read through each of the 8 security issues and found them to be misleading. Here are our findings:

1. CRN claims that Microsoft puts a “Greater focus on applications than infrastructure: While Microsoft has shifted the conversation, via marketing, more to Azure apps, their infrastructure continues to be subject to new security enhancements and features.
2. They claim that “Azure blob storage is common target of hackers”: Their example of malicious links and compromised PDFs are the actual attack, not the hosting platform (Blob storage), which could be any publicly accessible endpoint (i.e. web servers). Azure BLOB storage is easier and cheaper to set up compared to AWS storage, so it is more prevalent.
3. It is stated that, “Azure firewall is less mature, but easier to deploy”: Azure offers a range of firewalls technologies (Network Security Groups, Azure Firewall, Web Application Firewall) all of which are ‘mature’. (https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/firewall/overview)
4. They suggest that Azure is, “Subject to lots of identity-based attacks”: Microsoft identity-based offerings (O365, Azure AD) are used by a large fraction of corporations. Because they have achieved a larger market share than other CASB tools, they are subject to more attack attempts – it goes with the territory. AWS does not gain a more secure posture through obfuscation.
5. They claim that, “Azure deployments tend to be IT-centric, not cloud centric”: “A lot of the IaaS deployment in Azure tends to be IT-centric rather than cloud-centric” – Yes, I wonder where their PaaS/SaaS solutions fit in?
6. Their source states that Microsoft is “More frequently targeted with malware”: This slide contradicts itself.
7. They state that there are, “Ports that haven’t been properly secured”: This slide contradicts itself.
8. In conclusion, they say that Microsoft, “Has reputation of being more proprietary in nature”: ???

Summary: This blog is likely an ad. I hope that you found this information helpful. If you would like more information on Azure’s Infrastructure and how Project Hosts adds security and compliance at the PaaS and SaaS levels, contact: Info@projecthosts.com