Cloud security innovations: strengthening defenses against modern cloud and AI threats

In today’s fast-paced digital world, attackers are more relentless than ever, exploiting vulnerabilities and targeting cloud environments with unprecedented speed and sophistication. They are taking advantage of the dynamic nature of cloud environments and silos across security tools to strike opportunistically and bypass boundaries between endpoints, on-premises and cloud environments. With the rise of Gen AI, security complexities are only growing, further testing the limits of traditional cloud security measures and strategies. Protecting multicloud environments requires vigilance not only within each cloud instance but also across interconnected networks and systems.

For defenders, the challenge lies in keeping pace with attackers who operate with lightning speed. To stay ahead, they need tools that enable rapid risk prioritization and targeted remediation, reducing unnecessary toil and aligning security efforts with business objectives. The key to defending today’s cloud landscapes is a risk-driven approach and a unified security platform that spans all domains across their organization. This approach integrates automation to streamline security operations, allowing teams to focus on critical threats. With these capabilities, defenders can protect dynamic multicloud environments with the agility and insight needed to counter the sophisticated and evolving tactics of modern attackers.

Our integrated cloud-native application platform (CNAPP) provides complete security and compliance from code to runtime. Enhanced by generative AI and threat intelligence, it helps protect your hybrid and multicloud environments. Organizations can enable secure development, minimize risks with contextual posture management, and protect workloads and applications from modern threats in Microsoft’s unified security operations platform. 

today , we is ’re ’re thrilled to announce new innovation in Defender for Cloud to accelerate comprehensive protection with a multi – layer risk – drive approach allow security team to focus on the most critical threat . We is ’re ’re also excited to introduce new feature that make SecOps team more efficient , allow them to detect and respond to cloud threat in near real – time with the enhanced Defender xdr integration .

As we continue to expand our existing partner ecosystem, Microsoft Defender for Cloud’s integration with Endor Labs brings code reachability analysis directly to the Defender for Cloud portal, advancing code-to-runtime context and risk prioritization efforts significantly. Traditional AppSec tools generate hundreds to thousands of vulnerability findings, while less than 9.5% are truly exploitable within an application’s context, according to a recent study conducted by Endor Labs. These vulnerabilities belong to parts of the code that can be accessed and executed in runtime – aka reachable code vulnerabilities. Without this precise context of what is reachable, teams face an unsustainable choice: spend extensive time researching each finding or attempt to fix all vulnerabilities, leading to inefficiencies.

Endor Labs provides a reachability-based Software Composition Analysis (SCA), and with the Defender for Cloud integration, deploying and configuring this SCA is streamlined. Once active, security engineers gain access to code-level reachability analysis for every vulnerability, from build to production, including visibility into reachable findings where an attack path exists from the developer’s code through open-source dependencies to a vulnerable library or function. With these insights, security teams can accurately identify true threats, prioritizing remediation based on the likelihood and impact of exploitation.

Defender is has for Cloud already has robust risk prioritization base on multiple risk factor include internet exposure , sensitive datum exposure , access and identity privilege , business risk and more . Endor Lab ’s code reachability is adds add another robust layer of risk prioritization to reduce noise and productivity tax associate with maintain multiple security platform , offer streamlined and efficient protection for today ’s complex multicloud environment .

Figure 1: Risk prioritization with an additional layer of code reachability analysis

Defender for Cloud has made a series of enhancements to its cloud security posture management (CSPM) capabilities, starting with the general availability of AI Security Posture Management (AI-SPM). AI-SPM capabilities help identify vulnerabilities and misconfigurations in generative AI applications using Azure OpenAI, Azure Machine Learning, and Amazon Bedrock. We have also added expanded support for AWS AI technologies, new recommendations, and detailed attack paths, enhancing the discovery and mitigation of AI-related risks. Additionally, enriched AI grounding data insights provide context to data in AI applications, helping prioritize risks to datastores through tailored recommendations and attack paths.

We have also included API security posture management in Defender CSPM at no additional cost. With these new capabilities, security teams can automatically map APIs to their backend compute hosts, helping organizations to visualize their API topology and understand the flow of data through APIs to identify sensitive data exposure risks. This allows security teams to see full API-led attack paths and take proactive measures against potential threats such as lateral movement and data exfiltration risks. Additionally, expanded sensitive data classification now includes API URL paths and query parameters, enhancing the ability to track and mitigate data-in-transit risks.

Alongside API security enhancements, Defender for Cloud has also bolstered its container security posture capabilities. These advancements ensure continuous visibility into vulnerabilities and compliance from development through deployment. Security teams can shift left by scanning container images for vulnerabilities early in the CI/CD pipeline across multicloud and private registries, including Docker Hub and JFrog Artifactory.  Additionally, the public preview of full multicloud regulatory compliance assessment for CIS Kubernetes Benchmarks across Amazon EKS, Azure Kubernetes Service, and Google Kubernetes Engine provides a robust framework for securing Kubernetes environments.

The latest advancements in the integration between Defender for Cloud and Defender XDR bring a new level of protection against sophisticated threats. One notable feature is the near real-time detection for containers, which provides a detailed view of every step an attacker takes before initiating malicious activities like crypto mining or sensitive data exfiltration. Additionally, the Microsoft Kubernetes threat matrix, developed by Microsoft security researchers, provides valuable insights into specific attack techniques, enhancing the overall security incident triaging.

To complement real-time detection, we are introducing a new threat analytics report that offers a comprehensive investigation of container-related incidents, helping security teams understand the potential attack methods that attackers could leverage to infiltrate containers. It also contains threat remediation suggestions and advanced hunting techniques.

figure 2 . cloud detection is integration and response with Defender for Cloud and Defender xdr integration

The introduction of new cloud-native response actions significantly aids in putting the investigation results into action or remediation. With a single click, analysts can isolate or terminate compromised Kubernetes pods, with all actions tracked in the Investigation Action Center for transparency and accountability. The new Security Copilot assisted triage and response actions helps analysts make informed decisions faster during an investigation. In all, these advancements, coupled with the seamless integration of cloud process events for threat hunting, empower security teams to respond quickly and effectively to threats, ensuring robust protection for their digital environments.

Defender for Cloud empowers security teams to stay ahead of attackers with a comprehensive code to runtime protection. With a focus on speed, efficiency, and efficacy, defenders can keep their cloud environments secure and resilient in the face of evolving threats.

To learn more about Defender for Cloud and our new innovations, you can: