Lion Cipher Lab
Secure a new Azure subscription: the baseline (admin MFA, Defender for Cloud secure score, spend guardrails)
- Cloud Security
- Intermediate
- ~60 min
- Free · no account required
Why it matters
The first hour on a brand-new cloud account decides whether it becomes a launchpad or a liability. Attackers scan for freshly created cloud tenants with no MFA and a wide-open admin login; automated bots try leaked or guessed admin credentials within minutes. At the same time, a beginner's most common cloud injury is not a breach — it is a surprise bill from leaving something running. This lab walks the exact Azure baseline Microsoft itself recommends: lock the admin door with MFA, turn on Defender for Cloud so you can see your security posture as a single 'secure score', fix a real…
What you'll learn
- Microsoft Azure fundamentals (subscription, tenant, Entra ID)
- enforcing multifactor authentication for admins
- Microsoft Defender for Cloud and the secure score
- reading and remediating a security recommendation
- cloud spend guardrails (budgets and cost alerts)
- avoiding a surprise cloud bill
Steps in this lab
- The words you're about to hear, in plain English
- Read this before you sign up: how NOT to get a surprise bill
- Create your free Azure account
- Guardrail: set a budget with an email alert
- Lock the admin door: turn on MFA with security defaults
- Know the grown-up alternative: Conditional Access (context, no cost)
- Turn on Microsoft Defender for Cloud (the free foundational tier)
- Read your secure score — and understand what it's really telling you
- Fix at least one recommendation (the point of the whole lab)
- Wrap up and tear down — leave nothing that can bill