Control: 4.2.1 Ensure that Microsoft Defender for SQL is set to 'On' for critical SQL Servers

Description

Enable "Microsoft Defender for SQL" on critical SQL Servers.

Microsoft Defender for SQL is a unified package for advanced SQL security capabilities. Microsoft Defender is available for Azure SQL Database, Azure SQL Managed Instance, and Azure Synapse Analytics. It includes functionality for discovering and classifying sensitive data, surfacing and mitigating potential database vulnerabilities, and detecting anomalous activities that could indicate a threat to your database. It provides a single go-to location for enabling and managing these capabilities.

Remediation

From Azure Console

1. Go to SQL servers
2. For each "critical" server instance (e.g. production SQL servers)
3. Click on the Security Center blade
4. Click configure, next to 'Microsoft Defender for SQL:`
5. Set Microsoft defender for SQL is toggled to On

From Powershell

Enable Advanced Data Security for a SQL Server:

Set-AzSqlServerThreatDetectionPolicy -ResourceGroupName <resource group name>
-ServerName <server name> -EmailAdmins $True

Note:

• Enabling 'Microsoft Defender for SQL' from the Azure portal enables Threat Detection
• Using Powershell command Set-AzSqlServerThreatDetectionPolicy enables Microsoft Defender for SQL for a SQL server

Default Value

By default, Microsoft Defender for SQL is set to Off.