Determine App Service, Key Vault, and Resource Manager Protection Requirements
Implementation Effort: Medium — Enabling these Defender plans requires coordination across security and platform teams, and may involve configuration changes in multiple Azure resources.
User Impact: Low — These protections are implemented at the platform level and do not require end-user interaction or awareness.
Overview
Microsoft Defender for Cloud provides advanced threat protection for key Azure services, including App Service, Key Vault, and Resource Manager. These Defender plans help detect and respond to threats targeting application code, secrets, and infrastructure management operations.
- Defender for App Service monitors for suspicious activity in your web apps, such as remote code execution or privilege escalation attempts. It requires a supported App Service plan and enhanced security features enabled in Defender for Cloud 1 2.
- Defender for Key Vault protects sensitive assets like secrets and certificates by detecting unusual access patterns and potential exploitation attempts. Alerts are generated for anomalous behavior and can be integrated into your incident response workflows 3.
- Defender for Resource Manager (not detailed in the search results but typically included in Defender for Cloud) monitors control plane operations to detect suspicious deployments, role assignments, or resource modifications.
These protections align with the "Assume Breach" principle of Zero Trust by continuously monitoring for threats and providing actionable alerts to reduce the impact of compromised identities or services.
Failing to enable these protections increases the risk of undetected attacks on critical services, potentially leading to data exposure, service disruption, or unauthorized access to cloud resources.