Framework of security best practices from Microsoft, previously called Azure Security Benchmark, which Defender for Cloud assigns as its default standard.
Also called MCSB, Azure Security Benchmark.
Read more: Microsoft Learn
In the Ultra Transcenders books
Each book explains Microsoft cloud security benchmark in context, with comparison tables and the common traps.
Terms in this definition
- Standard deployment type
A Foundry deployment type billed per token that keeps processing of prompts and responses inside the Azure geography of the resource, meeting data residency needs at lower volumes.
Related terms
- Foundational CSPM
The no-cost posture tier of Defender for Cloud, which supplies Secure Score, recommendations and the Microsoft cloud security benchmark. Attack paths, AI-SPM and threat protection are not part of it.
- NS controls
Within the Microsoft cloud security benchmark, the domain for network security, including NS-9 (connect privately), NS-8 (detect and disable insecure protocols) and NS-2 (secure cloud services using network controls).
- Security control mapping
Working out how the regulatory controls you are bound by correspond to the Microsoft cloud security benchmark. The Cloud Adoption Framework then has you find what's missing, review the platform and services, and close remaining gaps with custom policy initiatives.
- Security policies (Defender for Cloud)
The page in Defender for Cloud environment settings for assigning standards (MCSB, regulatory or custom) to an Azure subscription, AWS account or GCP project. Only initiatives can be added there, never individual policy definitions.
- Security recommendations (Defender for Cloud)
Guidance from Defender for Cloud on fixing a resource that has failed a control in an assigned standard, MCSB by default. Every recommendation tackles one issue on its own.
- Security standard
A collection of controls and the logic used to assess them in Microsoft Defender for Cloud. Examples include benchmarks like the Microsoft cloud security benchmark, regulatory frameworks and controls an organisation defines itself.