Microsoft Azure, like every major cloud provider, sells a simple message: move to the cloud and you gain stronger security. In a narrow sense, that promise is real. Microsoft runs hardened data centres, manages the hardware, patches the hypervisors, and exposes a mature set of security services on top. The physical and platform layers are no longer your problem.
The problem is that most breaches do not start with a failing disk or an unpatched hypervisor. They start higher up the stack – with mis-scoped roles, permissive storage accounts, chatty APIs, and data exports that were never meant to be permanent.
Cloud providers secure their infrastructure. Enterprises are expected to secure their data.
Once a record is stored in Azure, it is your identity model, access patterns, and data flows that determine whether that record remains controlled.
Azure will give you the tools: Defender for Cloud, Policy, Key Vault, and Entra ID. However, it will not decide where sensitive data is copied, who sees full production values, or how much detail ends up in logs and downstream systems.
You know where standard RBAC, network controls, and encryption end. You also know where the real risk begins: flat access to production data, permissive managed identities, verbose logging, and “temporary” exports that never get cleaned up.
DataStealth is designed for this layer. It does not replace Azure’s controls. It sits with them and focuses on one problem: discovering, classifying, and protecting the data itself across Azure, SaaS, and on-prem — so that even if someone reaches a workload, they do not gain cleartext access to what matters.
This guide focuses on the side you control: how to protect the data layer, and where DataStealth can help you do it in a consistent, controlled way.
Azure’s benchmark and guidance all start from the same point: you cannot secure data you have not identified.
In practice, data sits across:
Tools like Purview, Defender for Cloud, and tagging help, but they mainly cover resources that are already known and catalogued. Shadow data and dark data (e.g., exports, staging areas, debug buckets, oversized logs) often sit outside that view.
DataStealth’s discovery focuses on content, not just resource metadata:
For an Azure security team, this turns “discover and classify data” into concrete work:
Azure recommends encrypting data at rest and in transit, and managing keys in secure services such as Key Vault or Managed HSM. Those are necessary controls.
They are also container-level controls. Once an application, query, or pipeline decrypts data, anyone at that layer can usually see full values:
At that point, Azure is doing what it should. The exposure comes from how data is handled above the platform.
DataStealth introduces a data-layer control plane that sits on top of Azure’s foundations:
These controls are enforced where data actually moves:
You still rely on Azure for VNet design, NSGs, DDoS protection, and Defender for Cloud. DataStealth adds a second line of defence: if someone who shouldn’t reach an application or data store, they do not get full, readable records.
Azure’s guidance on keys and secrets focuses on using Key Vault or Managed HSM, controlling access through RBAC, and rotating keys regularly. Hard-coded secrets or ad-hoc key storage are treated as misconfigurations.
DataStealth is built to use that model, not replace it. Its cryptographic layer integrates with:
This adds practical control without fragmenting your approach:
This looks like:
You maintain Azure’s key management standards while gaining consistent, field-level protection across workloads.
Azure’s identity model revolves around Entra ID, Conditional Access, and RBAC. Done well, they give you strong control over who can connect to a resource and under what conditions.
Many issues appear after that first gate:
The resource-level decision (access to a database, storage account, or API) may be justified.
The data-level exposure is not. DataStealth narrows this gap by adding a second decision point:
The flow is straightforward:
This reduces the impact of insider misuse, credential theft, and RBAC mistakes. Access for operational reasons can remain in place, but the amount of sensitive data any individual can reconstruct is tightly limited.
Azure ties its platform to frameworks such as the Azure Security Benchmark and CIS. Defender for Cloud, Secure Score, and Policy help you keep configurations in line with those references.
Compliance teams, however, are not only interested in configuration. They care about:
DataStealth’s design supports that level of scrutiny:
For PCI, this can lower the number of Azure systems considered in full scope, because they handle tokens rather than PANs.
For GDPR, HIPAA, and regional data-protection laws, you can show clear answers for:
Azure provides platform-level assurance through configurations, logs, and certifications. DataStealth adds data-level assurance, ensuring how sensitive fields are treated throughout their lifecycle.
Most Azure estates are hybrid and multi-cloud. Typical patterns include:
Azure provides the network and platform components: VPN, ExpressRoute, hybrid networking, and secure deployment guidance for PaaS services. What it does not provide out of the box is consistent data handling across all these paths.
DataStealth adds that consistency:
Instead of using one tool per platform, you keep Azure handling infrastructure and identity, while DataStealth keeps data treatment uniform wherever it travels.
Azure’s security model is clear: Microsoft secures the cloud. Customers secure what runs in it, especially data, identities, and access patterns.
DataStealth helps you carry that responsibility in a structured way:
If you already invest in Azure hardening – Entra ID, VNets, Defender for Cloud, Sentinel – DataStealth is the natural next layer. It does not change how Azure works. It changes what people and systems can actually see once they get in.
The most effective way to understand DataStealth is to see how it operates in a real architecture and to ask the questions that matter to your team.
A demo and technical walkthrough will give you the opportunity to:
If you want a clearer view of how DataStealth works and how it would behave in your own Azure or hybrid layout, book a demo and technical Q&A session with the DataStealth team.
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