The Azure Security Podcast  

A twice-monthly podcast dedicated to Security, Privacy, Compliance and Reliability on the Microsoft Cloud Platform. Hosted by Microsoft security experts Michael Howard, Sarah Young, Gladys Rodriguez and Mark Simos. Meet the team.

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  Episode 16 - November 11th, 2020 - [Azure Policy]

Michael Howard, Sarah Young and Mark Simos with guest Nick Fadziewicz who is a Principal Consultant at Microsoft working in the Azure and AI team.
In this episode we cover security news about Azure Datalake Storage Gen 2 ACLs, HDInsight and Azure Batch now support Private Link in preview, TLS protocol version support on Storage accounts, Azure Security Center vulnerability assessments and improved Kubernetes support, Azure Firewall DNS updates and more.
Of note is a free e-book "Azure for Architects 3rd Ed" is now available.

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  Episode 15 - October 28th, 2020 - [Azure Top 10 Security Practices]

Michael Howard, Sarah Young, Gladys Rodriguez and Mark Simos with guest Tom Quinn   ( ) who is a Principal Technical Specialist in Azure to about the Azure Top 10 Security Practices.
In this episode we cover exciting news about new preview features in IoT, Zero Trust, Azure Key Vault and Log Analytics, and Mark opines about VPN technology.

Tom's bio Tom Quinn currently works as an Azure Security and Compliance technology specialist for the Americas. He leads Azure security and compliance discussions and designs with MSFT’s major enterprise customers across various industries including G-SIFI banks and financial services institutions, healthcare, pharma, manufacturing, and government contractors.

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  Episode 14 - October 14th, 2020 - [Azure Security Benchmark]

Michael Howard, Sarah Young, Gladys Rodriguez and Mark Simos with guest Amrita Satapathy  ( ) who works in the Azure Security team.
In this episode we discuss Azure security news, including a new member to the Azure Key Vault family, immutable storage, PowerBI and private endpoints, Azure Security Center updates and Azure Top 10 Security practices. Finally, the team chats with Amrita about the Azure Security Benchmark project.

Amrita's bio Amrita is a Principal Program Manager in the Azure Security team with 15+ years of experience in successfully delivering ambitious, innovative services at cloud scale such as Azure Security, Azure Active Directory, Office 365, and Information Protection services. Amrita deeply enjoys diving into technical challenges and building solutions that improve the lives of customers and enterprises. Her latest such endeavor is Azure Security Benchmark which is helping Azure customers to accelerate their cloud adoption journey.

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  Episode 13 - October 7th, 2020 - [Azure Security News from Microsoft IGNITE 2020]

In this special episode we cover the Azure security, compliance and governance news that came out of Microsoft Ignite 2020.
Michael Howard and Mark Simos sit down with guest Cyril Voisin  ( ) who is the Chief Security Advisor for Europe, Middle East and Africa, based in Paris, France.
The topics covered include updated news on the Microsoft Defender suite, Key Vault, SQL Server, Kubernetes, Data Loss Prevention, Azure Security Center, Zero Trust, Microsoft Information Governance and much more.

Cyril's bio Cyril advises C-level executives and security leaders from leading public and private sector organizations in France, Italy, Middle East, and Africa, on strategic security, risk, and business change issues and opportunities with digital transformation.

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  Episode 12 - September 30th, 2020 - [Confidential Computing]

Michael Howard, Sarah Young, Gladys Rodriguez and Mark Simos with guest Aeva Black   ( ) who is an Open Source Program Manager in the Confidential Computing group at Microsoft.
In this episode we discuss current Azure security news for VMs, IoT, Azure Arc, Sentinel and more. Mark gives his analysis of the latest Microsoft Digital Defense Report and then Sarah and Michael talk to Aeva about the technology, benefits and future of Confidential Computing on Azure at various levels of the hardware and software stack. To be honest, Michael geeks out in this one... :)

If you're new to Confidential Computing on Azure, then you should listen to this episode because Aeva does a magnificent job laying out the why of Confidential Computing.

Aeva's bio Aeva Black is a radically queer geek and lifelong student of the dharma, a Linux user since the mid '90s, and has been an advocate for Open Source since 2003. They pioneered the creation of the OpenStack Bare Metal Cloud project while working at HPE, and have contributed to projects such as MySQL, Ansible, and Kubernetes. Today, they are the Open Source Program Manager for the Azure Confidential Compute team, Azure’s representative to the Confidential Computing Consortium’s Outreach Committee, and a member of the Kubernetes Code of Conduct Committee.

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  Episode 11 - September 16th, 2020 - [Microsoft Graph]

Michael Howard, Sarah Young, Gladys Rodriguez and Mark Simos with guest Yina Arenas   ( ) who is a Principal Group Program Manager in the Microsoft Graph Team.
In this episode we discuss recent Azure security news including TLS in IoT (again!), Log Analytics REST APIs, Azure Information Protection, Azure Monitor and Confidential Computing. We then talk to Yina about the vision behind Microsoft Graph and how it can be used to help build security and IT management solutions.

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  Episode 10 - September 2nd, 2020 - [Threat Hunting with Microsoft Threat Protection]

Michael Howard, Sarah Young, Gladys Rodriguez and Mark Simos with guest Tali Ash   ( ) who works in the Microsoft Threat Protection team in Israel.
In this episode we cover current Azure security news. Sarah talks about the recent New Zealand DDoS attacks. Michael talks about vulnerabilities in wolfSSL impacting Azure Sphere. Mark explains what he's been up to around Zero Trust and Gladys explains some Azure Bastion changes and Azure Sentinel Ninjas. We then talk to Tali about threat hunting with Microsoft Threat Protection.
On a sidenote, this podcast was recorded in two chunks owing to timezone issues and Michael used the wrong microphone during the intro and news. He thought he was using his flashy mic, but he accidently used a webcam mic instead! He will be more attentive from now on!

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  Episode 9 - August 19th, 2020 - [Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification]

Michael Howard, Sarah Young, Gladys Rodriguez and Mark Simos with guest Maryam Rahmani   ( ) who works with the Microsoft Security Partner Development Team, helping partners secure public sector customers. 
In this episode we cover the latest Azure security news and Mark chats about the role of threat models and shared responsibility in Azure. Maryam then discusses the Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification (CMMC) and the role it plays in protecting Dept. of Defense (DoD) contractors from cyber attacks.

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  Episode 8 - August 5th, 2020 - [Azure Network Isolation]

Michael Howard, Sarah Young, Gladys Rodriguez and Mark Simos with guest Randy Campbell  () a Principal Consultant at Microsoft with a long history working in networking on Azure.
In this episode we cover the latest Azure security news. Gladys discusses some IT training available from Microsoft to help people looking for IT positions in the wake of COVID-19 job-related issues. Michael then talks to Randy about the history of network isolation in Azure, as well as some DNS gotchas when using private endpoints.

If your job has been affected by COVID-19, or you know someone who has been affected, please go to the Microsoft JobSeeker link below.

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  Episode 7 - July 22nd, 2020 - [Identity]

Michael Howard, Sarah Young, Gladys Rodriguez and Mark Simos with guest Ryen Macababbad  () a Senior Security Architect Manager at Microsoft.
In this episode we cover the latest Azure security news, Gladys discusses some security research findings about weak security caused by companies rushing to deploy solutions for their remote workers and finally, Sarah interviews Ryen about topics relating to identity, multi-factor authentication, the human element of security, why running many security agents on a computer is bad, password-less authentication and much more.

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  Episode 6 - July 8th, 2020 [Incident Response and Compromise Recovery]

Michael Howard, Sarah Young and Gladys Rodriguez with guest Jay Yuzwenko () who focuses on cybersecurity in the Asia-Pacific region for Microsoft.
In this episode we cover the latest Azure security news and then Sarah dives right in and discusses incident response and compromise recovery with respect to Azure, hybrid and on-prem scenarios.

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  Episode 5 - June 24th, 2020 [Azure Security Questions]

Michael Howard, Sarah Young, Gladys Rodriguez and Mark Simos with guest David Sanchez  ()
In this episode we speak to David Sanchez, an Azure Global Black Belt, about recent security issues raised by customers. Topics includes DDoS, scaling, network isolation, bots and crypto-miners.

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  Episode 4 - June 10th, 2020 [CosmosDB Security]

Michael Howard, Sarah Young and Mark Simos with guests Thomas Weiss  ( ) and Tony Voellm ( )  from the CosmosDB Security team.
In this episode we speak to Thomas and Tony about CosmosDB security; we cover the basics of CosmosDB, encryption of data at rest, authentication, authorization, network isolation and monitoring. We also cover some near-term updates for client-side encryption and data-plane RBAC.

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  Episode 3 - May 27th, 2020 [Azure Security Center]

Michael Howard, Sarah Young, Gladys Rodriguez and Mark Simos and guest Yuri Diogenese.  ( )
In this episode Michael and Sarah chat about their experiences clearing the AZ-500 Azure Security Exam. Gladys talks more about Zero Trust, and Mark discusses his work on the Cloud Adoption Framework. Finally, Michael interviews Yuri Diogenes about some new Azure Security Center features announced at Microsoft Build.

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  Episode 2 - May 13th, 2020 [Container Security]

Michael Howard, Sarah Young, Gladys Rodriguez and Mark Simos and guest Michael Withrow.
In this episode Sarah chats to Michael Withrow about in-depth container security on Azure.

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  Episode 1 - April 30th, 2020 [Hello, World!]

Michael Howard, Sarah Young, Gladys Rodriguez and Mark Simos.
In this episode, we introduce the hosts and discuss Azure Security Center's ability to scan containers for malware as well as new Confidential Computing VMs that support Intel's SGX enclave technology.

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