Investigate alerts from Defender for Cloud workload protections
5 minutes
5 Questions
Microsoft Defender for Cloud provides workload protection capabilities that generate security alerts when potential threats are detected across your cloud resources. As a Security Operations Analyst, investigating these alerts is crucial for maintaining a robust security posture.
When an alert is …Microsoft Defender for Cloud provides workload protection capabilities that generate security alerts when potential threats are detected across your cloud resources. As a Security Operations Analyst, investigating these alerts is crucial for maintaining a robust security posture.
When an alert is triggered, it appears in the Defender for Cloud dashboard under the Security Alerts section. Each alert contains essential information including severity level (High, Medium, Low, or Informational), affected resource, attack tactics mapped to MITRE ATT&CK framework, and a detailed description of the detected activity.
To investigate alerts effectively, start by reviewing the alert details page. This page shows the full attack story, including related entities such as user accounts, IP addresses, processes, and files involved in the suspicious activity. The timeline view helps you understand the sequence of events leading to the alert.
Defender for Cloud correlates multiple alerts into security incidents when they appear to be part of the same attack campaign. This correlation reduces alert fatigue and provides a comprehensive view of the threat. You can examine the incident graph to visualize relationships between affected resources and understand the attack scope.
For deeper investigation, you can take several actions. First, examine the raw logs and events associated with the alert. Second, check the recommendations provided by Defender for Cloud for remediation steps. Third, use the Take Action tab to suppress similar alerts, trigger automated responses through Logic Apps, or create firewall rules.
Integration with Microsoft Sentinel enhances investigation capabilities by allowing you to create incidents, run playbooks, and leverage threat intelligence. You can also export alerts to your SIEM solution for centralized monitoring.
After investigation, mark alerts as resolved with appropriate classification (True Positive, Benign True Positive, or False Positive) to improve future detection accuracy and maintain accurate security metrics for your organization.
Investigate Alerts from Defender for Cloud Workload Protections
Why This Topic Is Important
Investigating alerts from Microsoft Defender for Cloud workload protections is a critical skill for Security Operations Analysts. These alerts help identify threats targeting your Azure resources, hybrid environments, and multi-cloud workloads. Understanding how to properly investigate these alerts ensures you can respond to security incidents effectively and protect organizational assets.
What Are Defender for Cloud Workload Protection Alerts?
Microsoft Defender for Cloud provides advanced threat protection for various workloads including:
• Defender for Servers - Protects Windows and Linux machines • Defender for Storage - Detects threats to Azure Storage accounts • Defender for SQL - Protects SQL databases and servers • Defender for Containers - Secures container environments • Defender for App Service - Monitors web applications • Defender for Key Vault - Protects secrets and keys • Defender for Resource Manager - Monitors management operations • Defender for DNS - Analyzes DNS queries
How Alert Investigation Works
Step 1: Access Security Alerts Navigate to Microsoft Defender for Cloud portal and select Security alerts from the menu. Alerts are displayed with severity levels: High, Medium, Low, and Informational.
Step 2: Review Alert Details Each alert contains: • Alert title and description • Affected resource • Attack timeline • MITRE ATT&CK tactics • Related entities and evidence • Recommended remediation steps
Step 3: Investigate Using the Investigation Graph The investigation graph visualizes relationships between the alert, affected entities, and related security events. This helps understand the full scope of potential compromise.
Step 4: Take Action Options include: • Trigger Logic App - Automate response workflows • Suppress similar alerts - Reduce noise from known benign activities • Create incident - Escalate to Microsoft Sentinel for deeper investigation • Change status - Mark as Active, Resolved, or Dismissed
Key Investigation Features
• Alert correlation - Related alerts are grouped together • Timeline view - Shows sequence of events • Entity mapping - Links alerts to users, IPs, files, and processes • Integration with Sentinel - Enables advanced hunting and incident management
Exam Tips: Answering Questions on This Topic
1. Know the Defender Plans: Understand which Defender plan protects which workload type. Questions often test your knowledge of which plan generates specific alert types.
2. Understand Alert Severity: High severity alerts typically indicate active attacks or confirmed malicious activity. Know how severity impacts investigation priority.
3. MITRE ATT&CK Framework: Be familiar with how alerts map to MITRE tactics and techniques. This is frequently tested in scenario-based questions.
4. Remediation Actions: Know the available response options for different alert types. Questions may ask which action is most appropriate for a given scenario.
5. Integration Points: Understand how Defender for Cloud alerts flow into Microsoft Sentinel and how this enables enhanced investigation capabilities.
6. Suppression Rules: Know when and how to create suppression rules for false positives or expected behavior in your environment.
7. Alert Status Management: Understand the difference between dismissing alerts, resolving them, and marking them as false positives.
8. Scenario Questions: When presented with a scenario, first identify the workload type affected, then determine which Defender plan is relevant, and finally select the appropriate investigation or remediation action.