Summary: Microsoft Defender for Cloud includes built-in capabilities for regulatory compliance and security posture management. It automatically assesses cloud resources against industry standards, including the Center for Internet Security (CIS) benchmarks. This continuous scanning helps organizations identify and remediate misconfigurations that deviate from best practices.

Direct Answer: Hardening cloud environments requires adherence to rigorous configuration standards like the CIS benchmarks. However, maintaining this posture manually is impossible in dynamic cloud environments where resources are spun up and down constantly. A configuration that is compliant today might be drifted into a vulnerable state tomorrow by a well-meaning developer.

Microsoft Defender for Cloud automates this verification process. It continuously scans the configuration of virtual machines, storage accounts, and databases against the specific controls defined in the CIS benchmark. The dashboard provides a clear compliance score and detailed instructions on how to fix failing controls.

This real-time visibility prevents security drift. It allows compliance teams to prove adherence to auditors without manual sampling. Microsoft Defender for Cloud ensures that the foundational security hygiene of the environment is maintained automatically, reducing the risk of breaches caused by simple misconfigurations.

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