Category Archives : Security

20

May

I’m announcing that Azure has achieved adherence to the EU Cloud Code of Conduct (EU Cloud CoC), developed for cloud providers to align with the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). The EU Cloud CoC is the first GDPR code of conduct that has received the European Data Protection Board (EDPB) positive opinion, which was followed by final approval led by the Belgian Data Protection Authority. The EU Cloud CoC also marks the 100th compliance offering for Azure, more than any other cloud provider, providing customers a high level of assurance through controls, evidence, and verification.

The EU Cloud CoC serves as a basis for implementing the requirements of Article 28 of the GDPR for cloud providers acting as business-to-business processors under the GDPR. Because the EU Cloud CoC is approved by the EDPB, Azure customers can use Azure’s adherence to help demonstrate their own GDPR compliance, as well as cite it as a risk mitigator in a GDPR Data Protection Impact Assessment (DPIA). Article 40 of the GDPR specifically encourages the creation of codes of conduct, so as “to contribute to the proper application of the regulation.” SCOPE Europe acts as the independent monitoring body of the EU Cloud CoC.

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25

Mar

The Regulatory Compliance dashboard in Azure Security Center is an excellent tool for helping organizations understand their compliance posture relative to industry standards. Reporting on compliance with specific standards is obviously critical for regulated customers, though tracking compliance status is also relevant to many other organizations who want to align with industry-defined best practices. Many of our customers use compliance frameworks as the basis of their organizational security model.

Azure Security Center improves your organization’s overall compliance readiness. By performing ongoing assessments, Azure Security Center provides rich, actionable insights and reports to simplify your regulatory compliance journey.

Several significant upgrades have recently been released to the compliance management experience in Azure Security Center, including Azure Security Benchmark integration with Secure Score, a new section for downloading audit certification reports, integration of shared responsibility model details into the product, and Workflow Automation functionality.

Azure Security Benchmark

Azure Security Benchmark is now fully integrated into the regulatory compliance dashboard as the default standard, available to all Azure Security Center customers for free. Azure Security Benchmark comprises the canonical set of controls that Microsoft defines and recommends as a security baseline, aligned with industry frameworks and customized to Azure and cloud environments.

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