AZURE ACCESS AND Security
AZURE ACCESS AND Security
AZURE ACCESS AND Security
For an interview related to Microsoft 365 or Azure Active Directory (Azure AD), here
are some important questions along with sample answers:
2. **What are the key differences between Azure AD and on-premises Active Directory?
**
These questions cover a range of topics related to Azure AD and Microsoft 365, and
providing detailed answers to them should help you prepare for your interview
effectively.
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Microsoft Entra ID, formerly Azure Active Directory (Azure AD), can be created within the
Azure portal. Here's how to set it up:
Prerequisites:
An existing Azure subscription. If you don't have one, you can sign up for a free trial
https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/free.
Steps:
1. Sign in to Azure Portal: Go to the Azure portal
(https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/get-started/azure-portal) and sign in using your
Microsoft account credentials.
2. Access Microsoft Entra ID Service:
o From the Azure portal menu, locate and select "Microsoft Entra ID."
3. Manage Tenants:
o Navigate to "Identity" > "Overview" > "Manage tenants."
4. Create a New Tenant:
o Click on "Create."
5. Configure Tenant Details:
o On the "Basics" tab, choose between:
Microsoft Entra ID: For managing identities within your organization
(internal users).
Microsoft Entra ID (B2C): For managing external user identities for
customer-facing applications.
o Select "Next: Configuration" to proceed.
6. Fill in Configuration:
o Enter your desired "Organization name."
o Choose a friendly name for your initial domain (it will use
<your_name>.onmicrosoft.com). You can add a custom domain later.
1. Regular Microsoft Entra ID: This is designed for managing the identities of users
within your organization (internal users). It allows you to control access to various
Microsoft resources and applications used by your employees.
2. Microsoft Entra ID (B2C): This tenant type caters to Business-to-Consumer (B2C)
identity management. It enables you to manage the identities of external users who
access your customer-facing applications. This is useful for scenarios where you
provide services or applications to external users who aren't necessarily part of
your organization.eg customer-facing apps.
How it works
In Microsoft's approach to managing mobile devices, Intune mainly uses
protocols or APIs available in mobile OSes to execute tasks, such as
enrolling devices. Enrollment lets IT personnel maintain an inventory of
devices that can access enterprise services. Other tasks include mobile
device configuration, certificates, Wi-Fi and VPN profiles, and compliance
reporting concerning corporate standards. Intune integrates with Azure AD
to provide access control capabilities. That provides the required tool set
for working toward a zero-trust environment
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With direct integration with Conditional Access via Azure AD, Intune can
enable IT administrators to check if a device complies with company
policies and only allow access to company data and apps when that device
is compliant.
Azure Active Directory (Azure AD) is a cloud-based directory and identity and
access management service provided by Microsoft. It gives users a centralized
directory to manage user identities, authentication, and authorization in the
Azure cloud environment, as well as other linked services and applications. It
extends the functionality of on-premises AD into the Azure cloud environment.
Azure AD offers a variety of features that help secure cloud-based applications,
ensure compliance, and streamline IT processes, including the following:
While Azure AD and Active Directory have distinct purposes and target different
environments, they share some common features. These include:
Active Directory and Azure AD also share some common objectives, including:
Improved security: Both offer security features, like MFA, to protect user
identities and control access.
Streamlined user experience: Both allow users to use one set of credentials
to access a large number of applications.
While both platforms share some common features, there are also some
differences between them. The core architectural difference between Active
Directory is that AD was designed for on-premises data centers and Azure AD was
designed for the Microsoft cloud. They also have some distinct differences in their
features, including:
Domain Services: Active Directory provides DNS, DHCP, NPS, Wi-Fi, and
VPN access, but Azure AD does not.
B2B and B2C: Azure AD manages access for external partners and
customer-facing applications while AD focuses on internal user
management.
Now that you know some of the similarities and differences, which do you use: AD
or Azure AD? This depends on your organization’s needs and infrastructure.
If instead, your organization primarily uses cloud services like Microsoft 365,
Azure, and other SaaS applications, Azure AD would be a better choice. It provides
seamless integration and centralized identity management for cloud services.
Azure AD will also scale with your cloud infrastructure to fit the needs of your
business as it grows.
Multifactor authentication is a process in which users are prompted during the sign-
in process for an additional form of identification, such as a code on their cellphone
or a fingerprint scan.
If you only use a password to authenticate a user, it leaves an insecure vector for
attack. If the password is weak or has been exposed elsewhere, an attacker could be
using it to gain access. When you require a second form of authentication, security is
increased because this additional factor isn't something that's easy for an attacker to
obtain or duplicate.
Microsoft Entra multifactor authentication can also further secure password reset.
When users register themselves for Microsoft Entra multifactor authentication, they
can also register for self-service password reset in one step. Administrators can
choose forms of secondary authentication and configure challenges for MFA based
on configuration decisions.
When users sign in to an application or service and receive an MFA prompt, they can
choose from one of their registered forms of additional verification. Users can
access My Profile to edit or add verification methods.
The following additional forms of verification can be used with Microsoft Entra
multifactor authentication:
Microsoft Authenticator
Authenticator Lite (in Outlook)
Windows Hello for Business
FIDO2 security key
OATH hardware token (preview)
OATH software token
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SMS
Voice call
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/entra/fundamentals/
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o What is Microsoft Entra ID?
o New name for Azure AD
o Identity fundamentals
o Introduction to identity and access management (IAM)
First steps
o Create a Directory
o Add a custom domain name
o Associate an Azure subscription
o Add your privacy info
o Add company branding
o Rename Azure AD
o Get the most out of documentation
Users, groups, and licenses
Microsoft Copilot for Security + Microsoft Entra
Quick security wins
Support and help
Reference
https://k21academy.com/microsoft-azure/admin/azure-active-directory-azure-ad/
1) External resources, such as Microsoft Office 365, the Azure portal, and thousands of other
SaaS applications.
2) Internal resources, such as apps on your corporate network and intranet, along with any cloud
apps developed by your own organisation.
If we have a traditional on-premise setup with AD and want to integrate it with Azure Entra ID so
that we can manage access to the Cloud application, we can do it easily by using AD Connect.
In layman’s terms, the Microsoft Entra ID is not an extension of an on-premises directory. Rather,
it’s a copy that contains the same objects and identities.
It manages access through user accounts, which have a username and a password. Users can
be organized into different groups, which can have different access privileges for individual
applications. Identities from Microsoft or third-party software as a service (SaaS) can also be
created for cloud applications to grant user access.
To connect users to SaaS applications, Microsoft Entra ID uses SSO which allows each user to
access the full suite of applications they have permission for, without having to repeatedly log in
each time. It creates access tokens (that may be created with expiry dates) that are stored locally
on employee devices.
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Premium P1
Premium P2 licenses
Features of Azure Entra ID
Application Management: It Manages your cloud and on-premises apps using
services like Application Proxy, the My Apps portal, single sign-on, and Software
as a Service (SaaS) apps.
Authentication: Users can manage Azure Entra ID self-service password reset
feature, Multi-Factor Authentication, custom banned password list, and smart
lockout.
Azure Active Directory for developers: It builds apps that can sign in all the
Microsoft identities, and fetch tokens to call Microsoft Graph, and other Microsoft
or custom APIs
Business-to-Business: You can manage your guest users and external partners
while also maintaining control over your own corporate data at the same time.
Business-to-Customer (B2C): With Azure Entra ID users can customize and
control how others sign up, sign in, and manage their profiles when using their
apps.
Managed identities for Azure resources: Provide your Azure services with an
automatically managed identity in Azure Entra ID that can authenticate any Azure
Entra ID-supported authentication service, including Key Vault.
Reports and monitoring: Users can gain insights into the security and usage
patterns in their working environment.
Privileged identity management (PIM): This feature includes access to
resources in Azure Entra ID and Azure, including some other Microsoft Online
Services, like Microsoft 365 or Intune. Users can manage, control, and monitor
access within their organization.
Identity protection: Detect potential vulnerabilities affecting your organization’s
identities, configure policies to respond to suspicious actions, and accordingly take
appropriate steps to resolve them.
Identity governance: Manage your organization’s identity through employee,
business partner, vendor, service, and app access controls.
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Also Read Azure ExpressRoute vs VPN, to know the major differences between them.
Creating And Managing Users & Groups In Azure AD
There are many ways to add users and groups to Azure Active Direct.
By syncing from an on-premises Windows Server Entra ID using AAD Sync. This
is how most enterprise customers will get their users added to the directory and
requires some additional server configuration on-premises to setup.
Manually using the Azure Management Portal.
Using PowerShell and the Azure Active Directory cmdlets
Programmatically using the Azure Entra ID Graph API. This is an extremely
powerful option that essentially gives you full control of how users are added to the
directory.
Also Check: Our blog post on the Microsoft Azure Administrator certification exam az
104: Everything you need to know
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Role-based access control (RBAC) helps you manage who has access to Azure
resources, what they can do with those resources, and what areas they have
access to.
RBAC is an authorization system built on Azure Resource Manager that provides
fine-grained access management of Azure resources.
We can segregate duties and the amount of access to the users in a team that
they need to perform their tasks using RBAC.
It’s a best practice to grant users the least privilege to get their work done.
A
Q.1 What is Azure Active Directory?
Q.2 What is difference between Azure Active Directory and Active Directory?
Active Directory (AD) is a Microsoft directory service that is primarily used for
managing and organizing resources in a networked environment. It stores user
accounts, groups, machines, and other network objects in a centralized database.
AD supports various critical functions, including authentication, authorization, and
domain services. Administrators can use it to restrict user access to resources,
enforce security policies, and manage user permissions. AD also makes
administration easier by allowing the deployment of group rules to specify settings
across several machines, providing consistent setups and network security. Overall,
Active Directory is critical in Windows-based environments for simplifying user
management, improving security, and optimizing network administration.
Azure Active Directory (Azure AD) is a Microsoft cloud-based service that falls under
the Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) category. SaaS refers to the internet-based
distribution of software applications in which the provider hosts and administers the
underlying infrastructure, which includes servers, databases, and networking. With
Azure AD, enterprises can use the SaaS model to access and use Microsoft's
identity and access management features without having to manage the underlying
infrastructure. User authentication, access control, single sign-on, and connection
with other SaaS apps are among the features and functionalities provided by Azure
AD. As a result, Azure AD is categorized as a SaaS solution under the Microsoft
Azure cloud platform.
Active Directory Domain Services (AD DS) makes advantage of Domain Name
System (DNS) name resolution services to allow clients to discover domain
controllers and the domain controllers that host the directory service to communicate
with one another.