# Protego

> Protego (protego.me) is a cybersecurity blog by Idan Ohayon, a Microsoft Cloud Solution Architect. It covers cloud security, zero trust architecture, AI security, Microsoft Azure, identity management, and DevSecOps. Content includes practical implementation guides, tool comparisons, and hands-on Terraform/Bicep examples written for security engineers and IT professionals.

Total articles: 111. License: Content is freely readable; please cite with attribution (CC BY 4.0).

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## Author

- [Idan Ohayon](https://protego.me/about): Microsoft Cloud Solution Architect, specializing in Azure, zero trust, AI security, and DevSecOps
- [LinkedIn Profile](https://www.linkedin.com/in/idan-o-21287486/): Idan Ohayon on LinkedIn
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## AI & Emerging Threats

- [Microsoft Copilot for Security: Six Months In, What Actually Works](https://protego.me/blog/microsoft-copilot-for-security-review-2026): Your SOC team activated Copilot for Security six months ago expecting AI-driven incident response. Some capabilities delivered real analyst time savings. Others produced confident-sounding summaries that were factually wrong. This review covers what Copilot actually accelerates in production SOC workflows, what still requires heavy prompt engineering, and where the token economics make it hard to justify at scale.
- [OWASP LLM Top 10 2025: What Changed and What It Means for Azure AI Deployments](https://protego.me/blog/owasp-llm-top-10-2025-azure-ai-implications): The OWASP LLM Top 10 2025 revision reshuffled the risk landscape: prompt injection dropped to second place, unbounded consumption is new, and system prompt leakage got its own category. If you run Azure OpenAI or AI Foundry workloads, every change maps to specific controls you either have or are missing. This guide breaks down each updated risk with Azure-native mitigations, detection queries, and the controls that actually close the gaps.
- [Secure AI Supply Chain: Verifying Models Before Deploying to Azure AI Foundry](https://protego.me/blog/secure-ai-supply-chain-model-verification-azure-foundry): A data scientist pulled a community model from the Foundry catalog and deployed it to a production hub. The model contained a pickle deserialization payload that executed under the hub managed identity, giving the attacker access to Key Vault and connected storage. This guide covers model provenance verification, automated scanning pipelines, registry hardening, and the Azure Policy controls that prevent untrusted models from reaching production compute.
- [What Is an AI Firewall? Runtime Protection for Enterprise AI in 2026](https://protego.me/blog/what-is-an-ai-firewall-runtime-protection-enterprise-ai-2026): AI firewalls inspect prompts and outputs in real time to block injection attacks, PII leakage, and jailbreaks that WAFs and NGFWs are blind to. Here is what they do, how leading vendors approach the problem, and how to evaluate one for your enterprise stack.
- [Prompt Injection in Enterprise AI Copilots: Detection and Prevention](https://protego.me/blog/prompt-injection-enterprise-ai-copilots-detection-prevention): An attacker embedded a hidden instruction in a SharePoint document, and M365 Copilot followed it during a summarization request, exfiltrating internal project names to an external URL. Prompt injection is the top attack vector against enterprise copilots, and most organizations have no detection in place. This guide covers the attack taxonomy, Azure AI Content Safety prompt shields, Defender for Cloud Apps policies, and the KQL queries that catch injection attempts in audit logs.
- [The Hidden Risk of AI Skills and MCP Servers: What to Check Before You Install](https://protego.me/blog/claude-code-skills-mcp-security-risks-2026): Installing a Claude Code skill or MCP server takes 30 seconds. Auditing one properly takes longer. With 36% of published skills containing security flaws and documented supply chain attacks already in the wild, here is what to inspect before you run anything.
- [AI Security Mistakes You Are Probably Making Right Now](https://protego.me/blog/ai-security-mistakes-developers-users-2026): From sharing API keys in chat to installing unvetted browser extensions, the most dangerous AI security mistakes are the ones that feel routine. This guide covers the six most common missteps, with real incident data and practical fixes for each.
- [Google Agent Garden Cyber Guardian: Build an AI SOC Agent with ADK](https://protego.me/blog/google-agent-garden-cyber-guardian-adk-security-agent): Google Agent Garden includes cybersecurity-oriented ADK samples and reference patterns for multi-agent security operations. This article uses the Cyber Guardian pattern to explain alert triage, log investigation, threat intel correlation, and playbook-driven response recommendations without treating the sample as a production SOC replacement.
- [Azure AI Foundry Red Teaming: Evidence-Based Adversarial Testing Workflow](https://protego.me/blog/azure-ai-foundry-red-team-adversarial-testing): A practical Foundry-specific workflow for testing prompt injection, RAG document attacks, tool-use boundaries, guardrail configuration, local and cloud red-team scans, and privacy-safe tracing without relying on unsupported defect-rate thresholds.
- [Microsoft Purview for AI Governance: Classifying and Protecting AI Training Data](https://protego.me/blog/microsoft-purview-ai-governance-training-data): AI training pipelines bypass traditional DLP controls because they access data as bulk blob reads, not document downloads. This guide shows how to configure Microsoft Purview specifically for AI data scenarios: scanning training datasets, designing a label taxonomy for AI use cases, enforcing DLP policies against AI pipelines, and integrating with Azure AI Foundry.
- [MCP Server Hardening Case Study: Locking Down a Corporate Dev Environment](https://protego.me/blog/mcp-server-hardening-case-study-corporate): Most teams treat MCP servers as developer tooling. They are infrastructure, and the incident logs prove it. This guide walks through network isolation, authenticated gateways, Azure Policy governance, and KQL detection for enterprise MCP deployments, drawn from a real post-incident remediation.
- [Azure AI Foundry Security: Threat Model, RBAC, and Data Governance Controls (2026)](https://protego.me/blog/azure-ai-foundry-security-threat-model-rbac-governance): Azure AI Foundry introduces hubs, projects, and layered managed identities that fundamentally shift your Azure security model. This guide covers six critical threat scenarios: from cross-team data exfiltration to MI lateral movement, with correct RBAC design, data governance controls, and KQL queries for detection.
- [Azure AI Foundry Private Link Setup: Secure Azure OpenAI, AI Search, and Storage End-to-End](https://protego.me/blog/azure-ai-foundry-private-link-setup): Securing Azure OpenAI alone is not enough if Azure AI Search, Storage, or Key Vault still expose data over public paths. This guide shows how to build an end-to-end private Azure AI Foundry architecture using Private Link, Private DNS, and segmented subnets.
- [MCP Server Security: How to Protect AI Agents from Prompt Injection and Tool Abuse (2026)](https://protego.me/blog/mcp-server-security-guide-2026): Model Context Protocol (MCP) servers are RSAC 2026's hottest security topic. As 40% of enterprise apps embed AI agents by year-end, MCP is the attack surface no one is talking about. This guide covers prompt injection via tools, server impersonation, privilege escalation, real breaches at Postmark, GitHub, and Asana, and the controls that actually stop these attacks.
- [Non-Human Identities (NHI): The Hidden Security Crisis Powering AI Agent Attacks in 2026](https://protego.me/blog/non-human-identities-nhi-ai-agent-security-2026): Machine identities now outnumber humans 40–100:1 in enterprise environments. With AI agents minting thousands of new credentials daily, NHIs have become the fastest-growing and least-governed attack surface in cybersecurity. Here is what every security team needs to know.
- [AI Red Teaming: How to Test Your AI Systems for Security Vulnerabilities](https://protego.me/blog/ai-red-teaming-how-to-test-ai-systems-security): AI red teaming is the practice of proactively testing AI systems for security vulnerabilities and unsafe behaviors. Learn the methodology, tools like PyRIT and Garak, and how to integrate AI red teaming into your secure SDLC.
- [How to Secure Your OpenAI and Claude API Integration](https://protego.me/blog/securing-openai-claude-api-practical-guide): Most AI applications ship with exposed API keys, no rate limiting, and zero input validation. Here is the practical checklist for locking down your LLM API integration before something goes wrong.
- [The Four Attack Surfaces of AI Systems: Network, Prompt, Data, and Model](https://protego.me/blog/ai-security-attack-surfaces-network-prompt-data-model): AI introduces attack surfaces that traditional security tools were not built to handle. Understanding these four layers - and their distinct threats - is the foundation of any serious AI security strategy.
- [Microsoft Security Copilot: Complete Guide for Security Teams in 2026](https://protego.me/blog/microsoft-security-copilot-complete-guide-2026): Microsoft Security Copilot integrates AI into every layer of your security operations. Learn deployment, top use cases, and how it changes day-to-day work for security analysts and architects.
- [On-Premises AI Security: Protecting Self-Hosted LLMs and GPU Infrastructure](https://protego.me/blog/on-premises-ai-security-self-hosted-llm-guide): Running AI on your own infrastructure gives you control over your data. It also means you own the security. Here is how to secure Ollama, vLLM, and other self-hosted AI deployments properly.
- [Public Cloud AI Security: Azure OpenAI, AWS Bedrock, and Google Vertex AI](https://protego.me/blog/public-cloud-ai-security-azure-openai-aws-bedrock-vertex): Cloud AI services come with strong security capabilities built in. Most breaches happen because those capabilities are never configured. Here is what to configure on each major platform.
- [AI Security in 2026: What Every Professional Needs to Know](https://protego.me/blog/ai-security-fundamentals-what-you-need-to-know-2026): AI security is becoming its own discipline. Whether you are a security professional, a developer deploying AI, or a leader making decisions about AI adoption, here are the fundamentals that matter.
- [OWASP Top 10 for Agentic AI Security 2026: Complete Enterprise Implementation Guide](https://protego.me/blog/owasp-top-10-agentic-ai-security-2026-enterprise-guide): The OWASP Top 10 for Agentic Applications 2026 defines critical security risks for autonomous AI agents. Learn how to protect your enterprise from prompt injection, rogue agents, and tool misuse with practical implementation strategies.
- [How to Secure Azure OpenAI Network Traffic: A Private Endpoint & Terraform Guide](https://protego.me/blog/secure-azure-openai-private-endpoint-terraform): Exposing Azure OpenAI via public networks is a security risk for enterprise data. Learn how to build a fully private architecture using Azure Private Link, disable public access, and deploy it all via Terraform.
- [AI Security: Risks You Need to Know and How to Mitigate Them](https://protego.me/blog/ai-security-risks-and-best-practices): As AI tools become common in enterprises, so do the security risks. Learn about prompt injection, data leakage, and how to use AI safely in your organization.
- [Automating Incident Response: How AI Can Help Your SOC](https://protego.me/blog/automating-incident-response-with-ai): Security teams are overwhelmed with alerts. Learn how AI and automation can help triage incidents, reduce response times, and let analysts focus on real threats.

## Zero Trust Architecture

- [Okta vs Microsoft Entra ID: Identity Provider Comparison (2026)](https://protego.me/blog/okta-vs-microsoft-entra-id-identity-provider-comparison): Okta and Microsoft Entra ID (formerly Azure AD) are the two dominant enterprise identity platforms. This comparison covers SSO, MFA, lifecycle management, pricing, and which IdP fits your environment.
- [Eliminate Your Domain Controller: A Practical Guide to Migrating to Microsoft Entra ID with Minimum Risk and Downtime](https://protego.me/blog/eliminate-domain-controller-migrate-to-entra-id-2026): A complete, phased playbook for retiring on-premises Active Directory and moving to a fully cloud-native Microsoft Entra ID environment. Covers devices, file servers, print, legacy LDAP apps, service accounts, certificate services, and the rollback gates that keep you safe at every step.
- [Conditional Access for Workload Identities: How to Protect Service Principals in Microsoft Entra ID](https://protego.me/blog/conditional-access-for-workload-identities-entra-id): Most teams protect users with Conditional Access but leave service principals exposed. This guide explains how to apply Conditional Access to workload identities in Microsoft Entra ID, where it helps, where it does not, and how to roll it out safely.
- [How to Block Downloads from Unmanaged Devices with Defender for Cloud Apps and Conditional Access](https://protego.me/blog/defender-for-cloud-apps-unmanaged-devices-block-downloads): If users need browser access to Microsoft 365 from personal devices but you do not want files freely downloaded, this guide is for you. Learn how to combine Microsoft Entra Conditional Access with Defender for Cloud Apps session controls to block, protect, or monitor downloads from unmanaged devices.
- [ZTNA vs VPN: Why Zero Trust Network Access Is Replacing Traditional VPNs in 2026](https://protego.me/blog/zero-trust-network-access-ztna-vs-vpn-complete-guide-2026): Traditional VPNs were built for a world where the network perimeter existed. ZTNA assumes breach and verifies every connection explicitly. Learn the architectural differences, migration path, and which solution fits your environment.
- [Entra ID Break Glass Account: Setup, Monitoring & Zero Trust Best Practices](https://protego.me/blog/entra-id-break-glass-account-setup-monitoring): A misconfigured Conditional Access policy can lock out every admin. Learn how to create, secure, and monitor break glass accounts in Microsoft Entra ID - the right way, including KQL queries and Azure Monitor alerts.
- [Microsoft Entra ID PIM: Complete Privileged Identity Management Setup Guide](https://protego.me/blog/microsoft-entra-id-pim-privileged-identity-management-guide): Privileged Identity Management (PIM) in Microsoft Entra ID implements just-in-time access for admin roles. This guide covers setup, approval workflows, access reviews, and integration with your zero trust strategy.
- [Microsoft Entra ID Conditional Access: Complete Setup Guide (2026)](https://protego.me/blog/microsoft-entra-id-conditional-access-setup): Set up Conditional Access policies in Microsoft Entra ID to control who can access your resources and under what conditions. Real-world examples included.
- [GitOps with ArgoCD: Managing Kubernetes the Right Way](https://protego.me/blog/gitops-with-argocd-kubernetes): GitOps makes Kubernetes deployments predictable and auditable, but it also concentrates deploy authority in your Git repo. Learn how to set up ArgoCD, plus the RBAC, secrets, and supply-chain controls a GitOps pipeline needs to stay secure.

## Cloud Security & Azure

- [Best Cybersecurity Training Platforms for Azure and Cloud Engineers (2026)](https://protego.me/blog/best-cybersecurity-training-platforms-azure-cloud-2026): A hands-on comparison of the top cybersecurity training platforms for Azure security engineers, SOC analysts, and DevOps teams in 2026: Pluralsight, Microsoft Learn, TryHackMe, Cybrary, and SANS, with certification roadmaps and budget justification strategies.
- [Azure Network Security Groups vs Azure Firewall vs Application Gateway: Decision Guide](https://protego.me/blog/azure-nsg-vs-firewall-vs-application-gateway-decision-guide): A team routes all traffic through Azure Firewall Premium at $1.84/hour, then discovers half their rules could have been NSG entries at zero marginal cost. Another team relies entirely on NSGs, then gets hit by a SQL injection that a WAF would have caught. This guide maps each service to the traffic layer it actually protects, provides side-by-side capability matrices, and gives you the decision framework for when to use each one alone or in combination.
- [CIEM vs CSPM: Understanding the Difference and Why You Need Both](https://protego.me/blog/ciem-vs-cspm-cloud-identity-security-comparison): Your CSPM dashboard shows a clean score while a compromised Lambda function silently reads S3 buckets across accounts, because CSPM does not model who can do what to your cloud resources. This guide draws the exact line between CSPM and CIEM, covers where each fails without the other, and gives you KQL queries, CLI commands, and a hardening checklist to operationalize both.
- [Azure DDoS Protection Standard: When You Need It and How to Configure It](https://protego.me/blog/azure-ddos-protection-standard-configuration-guide): Azure DDoS Network Protection costs roughly $2,944 per month and stops Layer 3 and Layer 4 volumetric attacks: UDP floods, SYN floods, DNS amplification. It does not protect against HTTP floods, Slowloris, or TLS exhaustion targeting your Application Gateway. This guide covers the exact scenarios where the cost is justified, how to configure the plan correctly in Bicep, what Adaptive Protection actually does in practice, and how to set up the metrics and alerts required to claim SLA credits after a mitigation event.
- [Defender for Cloud Apps (MCAS): CASB Configuration for Zero Trust](https://protego.me/blog/defender-for-cloud-apps-casb-zero-trust-configuration): Conditional Access secures the authentication gate but has no visibility into what users do inside cloud apps after sign-in, which OAuth apps hold delegated permissions to tenant data, or which unsanctioned SaaS tools are in use across the organization. This guide covers the complete Defender for Cloud Apps zero trust configuration: Cloud Discovery with Defender for Endpoint integration, Conditional Access App Control session policies, file-level DLP, and OAuth App Governance, with KQL queries to monitor enforcement from day one.
- [Cloud Incident Response Playbook 2026: Azure Sentinel, Defender XDR, and KQL](https://protego.me/blog/cloud-incident-response-playbook-azure-2026): Responding to a security incident in the cloud is fundamentally different from on-premises IR. There is no physical access to affected machines, resources spin up and disappear in minutes, and the blast radius of a compromised identity can span an entire tenant in seconds. This playbook walks through the full NIST incident response lifecycle applied to Azure environments, with concrete KQL triage queries for Microsoft Sentinel, Defender XDR containment actions, evidence collection from Azure-native forensics sources, and a post-incident review framework. Whether you are handling a compromised service principal, an insider data exfiltration event, or a mass resource deletion, this guide gives you the exact commands, queries, and decision points to work through each phase systematically.
- [SOC 2 Type II Audit Preparation for Cloud Companies: 90-Day Checklist 2026](https://protego.me/blog/soc2-type2-audit-preparation-cloud-guide-2026): Most SOC 2 guides explain the framework. Almost none explain how to actually prepare for an audit when you run infrastructure on AWS or Azure. The gap between understanding the Trust Services Criteria and producing 12 months of auditor-ready evidence is where cloud companies fail. Auditors do not want your policy documents. They want log exports, access review records, penetration test reports, and proof that every control operated continuously, not just on the day the auditor arrived. This guide delivers a week-by-week 90-day preparation timeline, cloud-specific evidence collection for both Azure and AWS, a table of all five Trust Services Criteria mapped to the exact evidence auditors request, and the seven most common gaps that derail Type II opinions. Whether you are starting your first SOC 2 program or fixing a failed audit cycle, this is the operational guide you need.
- [Threat Hunting in Microsoft Sentinel: KQL Queries and MITRE ATT&CK Methodology 2026](https://protego.me/blog/threat-hunting-microsoft-sentinel-kql-guide-2026): Most security operations teams are reactive: they wait for an alert, investigate, and close. Threat hunting flips that model. A hunter starts with a hypothesis about attacker behavior, goes looking for evidence of that behavior in telemetry before any alert fires, and either confirms or disproves the hypothesis. In Microsoft Sentinel, that process is powered by KQL queries against your Log Analytics workspace, structured around the MITRE ATT&CK framework to ensure coverage maps to real attacker techniques. This guide walks through the full threat hunting cycle, eight production-ready KQL queries mapped to specific ATT&CK technique IDs, how to use Sentinel's dedicated hunting interface, how to build a hypothesis from threat intelligence, and how to convert a successful hunt finding into a permanent detection rule. Whether you are standing up a hunting program or deepening an existing one, this is the practical workflow.
- [Azure Landing Zone Security Baseline: Step-by-Step Implementation](https://protego.me/blog/azure-landing-zone-security-baseline-2026): The CAF accelerator deploys the scaffolding but leaves the security controls unconfigured. This guide covers the specific steps needed after the accelerator runs: policy assignments with correct effects, management group RBAC design, the logging baseline, and network controls that must be explicitly enforced.
- [Microsoft Purview Information Protection: Complete Setup Guide](https://protego.me/blog/microsoft-purview-information-protection-setup-guide): Pattern-matching DLP fails when sensitive data has no recognizable format. This guide covers a complete Purview Information Protection deployment: label taxonomy design, service-side auto-labeling, DLP policies that use labels as conditions, and Endpoint DLP for managed devices.
- [Container Security in Azure: AKS + Defender for Containers Complete Guide](https://protego.me/blog/aks-container-security-defender-for-containers-2026): Most AKS clusters deployed between 2020 and 2022 have no Pod Security Admission, overly permissive RBAC, and Defender for Containers disabled. That combination is not theoretical risk: a single privileged pod or unscanned image with a critical CVE is all it takes for a container escape to become a full cluster compromise. This guide covers the full security stack for production AKS workloads.
- [Azure Key Vault Best Practices 2026: Access Policies, RBAC, and Rotation](https://protego.me/blog/azure-key-vault-best-practices-2026): Most teams configured Key Vault with access policies years ago and never revisited. Azure RBAC is now the recommended model, and starting with Key Vault API version 2026-02-01 it is also the default for newly created vaults. This guide covers migration, rotation automation, network hardening, and detection queries that close the gap.
- [Build an Autonomous Phishing Triage Agent with Azure Logic Apps and MCP Servers](https://protego.me/blog/azure-logic-apps-autonomous-agent-phishing-triage-tutorial): Azure Logic Apps Standard is moving toward agentic automation patterns, including preview support for exposing workflows as MCP servers and agent-style orchestration. This tutorial walks through a phishing triage reference architecture that checks URLs against VirusTotal, reads user risk scores from Microsoft Graph, and writes a structured verdict back to Microsoft Sentinel.
- [Threat Modeling Azure Logic Apps Autonomous Agents Before You Ship to Production](https://protego.me/blog/azure-logic-apps-autonomous-agent-threat-model-enterprise): Agentic automation with Azure Logic Apps and MCP servers introduces trust boundaries that do not exist in traditional playbooks: an LLM sits between your trigger and your actions, MCP servers extend its reasoning context, and your alert data enters an inference endpoint. This is a practical threat model covering prompt injection, MCP server trust, managed identity scoping, and a production readiness checklist.
- [Why Agentic AI in Azure Logic Apps Changes SOC Automation (And When Not to Use It)](https://protego.me/blog/azure-logic-apps-autonomous-agent-vs-soar-playbooks): Every mature Logic Apps SOAR playbook eventually becomes a 47-step branching tree that nobody fully understands. Agentic automation patterns replace parts of that tree with an LLM reasoning loop and approved MCP tools. This piece shows the real difference, covers where agents beat playbooks, and makes the case for when playbooks still win.
- [GitHub Advanced Security: Complete Enterprise Setup and Optimization Guide](https://protego.me/blog/github-advanced-security-enterprise-setup-guide-2026): Most GitHub security deployments fail within 90 days due to alert backlog, not lack of features. The rollout sequence matters more than configuration: secret scanning first, code scanning with the default query suite, then dependency review. This guide covers enterprise-scale deployment across GitHub Code Security, GitHub Secret Protection, Defender for DevOps integration, and alert triage that actually works.
- [Shadow AI in Enterprise: Detecting and Governing Unauthorized AI Usage](https://protego.me/blog/shadow-ai-enterprise-detection-governance-2026): Your Conditional Access policies almost certainly have a gap for consumer AI tools. ChatGPT, Claude.ai, and Gemini fall through blocks designed for cloud storage because they are categorized differently in most CASB and proxy rule sets. This guide shows how to find exactly what AI traffic is leaving your environment and enforce policy before an auditor does it for you.
- [Terraform Security Scanning: Checkov vs Trivy vs Terrascan Compared](https://protego.me/blog/terraform-security-scanning-checkov-vs-terrascan-vs-tfsec): A storage account with allow_nested_items_to_be_public = true slipped through a tfsec scan because a developer had suppressed the check three months earlier without removing the annotation after the risk was resolved. This guide compares Checkov, Trivy (the tfsec successor), and Terrascan across rule coverage, false positive rate, custom rule authoring, and CI/CD integration to help you build a pipeline that actually catches misconfigurations before they reach production.
- [Azure Firewall Premium vs Standard: When the Upgrade Is Worth It](https://protego.me/blog/azure-firewall-premium-vs-standard): Azure Firewall Standard blocked dozens of known-bad IPs during a red team engagement and missed the C2 channel entirely: it was HTTPS to a clean domain. Standard tier reads the TLS SNI header and stops there. This guide maps exactly what each tier detects, where the coverage gaps are, what the upgrade costs in practice, and the decision criteria that actually matter for regulated and unregulated workloads.
- [Microsoft Security Score: How to Actually Improve It (Not Just Game It)](https://protego.me/blog/microsoft-security-score-improvement-guide-2026): A tenant can jump from 45% to 78% in two weeks by accepting risk on 47 recommendations and excluding resources from scope without changing a single security control. This guide separates genuine hardening from score manipulation, maps which recommendations deliver real attack surface reduction, and provides the KQL queries and implementation sequence to build a credible 90-day improvement program.
- [Microsoft Defender for Identity vs Defender for Endpoint: What They Actually Cover](https://protego.me/blog/defender-for-identity-vs-defender-for-endpoint): Defender for Identity sees everything in the authentication layer and nothing after a user logs on. Defender for Endpoint sees everything on the endpoint and nothing in the Kerberos or LDAP layer. This guide maps the exact coverage boundaries, overlap zones, common configuration gaps, and the KQL queries you need to correlate both products in Defender XDR.
- [Microsoft Defender for Cloud 2026: New Features Deep-Dive](https://protego.me/blog/defender-for-cloud-2026-new-features): The early 2026 release wave is the largest update to Defender for Cloud since the product rebranded from Azure Security Center. Copilot for Security integration, the AI workloads protection plan, and revamped DevOps security all shipped within weeks of each other, with integration work left entirely to the operator. Here is what actually changed and what you need to configure.
- [AZ-500 vs SC-200 vs SC-300: Microsoft Security Certifications Compared 2026](https://protego.me/blog/az-500-vs-sc-200-vs-sc-300-microsoft-security-certifications): AZ-500, SC-200, and SC-300 are the three Microsoft security certifications people compare most often. AZ-500 retires on August 31, 2026, while SC-200 and SC-300 have newer skills outlines. This guide breaks down what each exam covers, who it is for, and which order to study them in.
- [Best CSPM Tools for AWS in 2026: Top 6 Compared](https://protego.me/blog/best-cspm-tools-aws-2026): Running workloads on AWS means you need Cloud Security Posture Management that understands AWS-native services, IAM relationships, and attack paths specific to the AWS environment. Here are the six best options evaluated.
- [CrowdStrike vs Microsoft Defender for Endpoint: EDR Comparison 2026](https://protego.me/blog/crowdstrike-vs-microsoft-defender-for-endpoint-edr-comparison): CrowdStrike Falcon and Microsoft Defender for Endpoint are the two dominant EDR platforms in enterprise security. This comparison covers detection quality, performance, cost, and which fits your environment.
- [Microsoft Sentinel vs Splunk: SIEM Comparison for 2026](https://protego.me/blog/microsoft-sentinel-vs-splunk-siem-comparison): Microsoft Sentinel and Splunk dominate SIEM shortlists. This comparison covers architecture, query languages, detection quality, cost models, and which platform fits modern security operations.
- [Wiz vs Orca Security vs Lacework/FortiCNAPP: CSPM Comparison (2026)](https://protego.me/blog/wiz-vs-orca-vs-lacework-cspm-comparison): Choosing the right CSPM platform shapes your entire cloud security posture. This side-by-side comparison of Wiz, Orca Security, and Lacework/FortiCNAPP covers architecture, detection quality, pricing model, market context, and which fits your environment.
- [Flexible Federated Identity Credentials in Entra ID: Secure GitHub Actions and Terraform Cloud Without Secret Sprawl](https://protego.me/blog/flexible-federated-identity-credentials-entra-github-terraform): Standard workload identity federation works well until your trust rules start multiplying across branches, workflows, and environments. This guide explains how flexible federated identity credentials in Microsoft Entra ID reduce that sprawl for GitHub Actions and Terraform Cloud, with practical examples and guardrails.
- [Best CSPM Tools 2026: Defender for Cloud vs Wiz vs Orca vs Prisma Cloud](https://protego.me/blog/best-cspm-tools-2026-defender-for-cloud-vs-wiz-vs-orca-vs-prisma-cloud): The CSPM market is reshuffling. Wiz mindshare dropped from 26.6% to 15.4% this year as buyers evaluate alternatives. This head-to-head compares Microsoft Defender for Cloud, Wiz, Orca Security, and Palo Alto Prisma Cloud across detection depth, agentless coverage, cost, and native cloud integration, with a buying guide for each profile.
- [Microsoft Sentinel to Defender Portal Migration Guide (2026-2027)](https://protego.me/blog/microsoft-sentinel-defender-portal-migration-guide-2026): Microsoft Sentinel is generally available in the Microsoft Defender portal, and the Azure portal experience is scheduled to lose support after March 31, 2027. Every Azure security team needs a migration plan. This guide covers the unified portal's architecture, what changes for analysts, migration steps for workbooks and analytics rules, and the gotchas that will slow you down.
- [DevSecOps: How to Integrate Security into Your CI/CD Pipeline in 2026](https://protego.me/blog/devsecops-integrating-security-into-cicd-pipelines-2026): Shifting security left means more than running a scanner in your pipeline. Learn how to build security gates, automate threat detection, and create a DevSecOps culture that catches vulnerabilities before they reach production.
- [Azure Policy vs Microsoft Defender for Cloud: Which Enforces What?](https://protego.me/blog/azure-policy-vs-defender-for-cloud-difference): Azure Policy and Defender for Cloud both flag security issues - but they solve different problems. Here is the clear breakdown of what each does, where they overlap, and which to use for governance vs security posture.
- [How to Secure Terraform Remote State in Azure Storage Account](https://protego.me/blog/terraform-remote-state-azure-storage-security): Terraform state files contain plaintext secrets, resource IDs, and access keys. Learn how to lock down your Azure Storage backend with Managed Identity, private endpoints, RBAC least privilege, and blob versioning - with full Terraform code examples.
- [Kubernetes Security Best Practices 2026: Hardening Your K8s Cluster](https://protego.me/blog/kubernetes-security-best-practices-2026): Kubernetes misconfigurations drive a significant share of cloud security incidents. This guide covers full-depth hardening: RBAC design, Pod Security Standards, default-deny network policies, secrets management, image supply chain, runtime detection, audit logging, common failure modes, and a managed-vs-DIY tradeoff framework, with practical YAML examples throughout.
- [Azure DevOps Pipelines: Complete Beginner's Guide (2026) with YAML Examples](https://protego.me/blog/azure-devops-pipelines-beginners-guide): Learn how to set up your first CI/CD pipeline in Azure DevOps. This hands-on guide walks you through creating build and release pipelines with real examples.
- [Getting Started with Azure Bicep: Infrastructure as Code Made Simple](https://protego.me/blog/azure-bicep-infrastructure-as-code-getting-started): Azure Bicep makes deploying Azure resources easier than ARM templates. Learn Bicep syntax, modules, secure Key Vault references, least-privilege deployment identities, and how it compares to Terraform for Azure-only teams.
- [Terraform Best Practices: Lessons from Real-World Team Projects](https://protego.me/blog/terraform-best-practices-for-teams): Terraform best practices from real production incidents: module versioning, least-privilege provider credentials, policy-as-code gates before apply, and the team workflow checklist that prevents drift and state corruption.
- [Infrastructure Drift: How to Detect It and What to Do About It](https://protego.me/blog/infrastructure-drift-detection-remediation): Infrastructure drift silently reopens attack surface: an open security group, a public bucket, a loosened firewall rule. How to detect, triage, and fix it.
- [Cloud Security Fundamentals: A Beginner's Guide](https://protego.me/blog/cloud-security-fundamentals-beginners): New to cloud security? This beginner's guide covers the shared responsibility model, the five core pillars (IAM, network, data, logging, incident response), a getting-started checklist, and the mistakes that trip up almost everyone starting out.

## Cybersecurity Fundamentals

- [Strix With Local LLMs: My MacBook Test](https://protego.me/blog/strix-local-llm-ollama-macbook-test): I tested Strix with Qwen3-VL, Gemma 4, and Devstral Small 2 through Ollama on an M5 MacBook. Here is what worked, what failed, and why.
- [Acronis Cyber Protect vs Veeam vs Rubrik: Ransomware Backup Comparison (2026)](https://protego.me/blog/acronis-cyber-protect-vs-veeam-vs-rubrik-ransomware-backup-comparison): Acronis Cyber Protect, Veeam, and Rubrik solve ransomware backup in three genuinely different ways: integrated anti-malware, broad platform coverage, and architecture-level immutability backed by a real warranty. Here is what actually separates them.
- [The keyv npm Worm: What It Means for Your CI/CD Pipeline](https://protego.me/blog/keyv-npm-worm-supply-chain-attack-cicd-pipeline): A compromised maintainer account let a self-propagating worm spread through 400+ npm packages in 30 minutes, hiding its command infrastructure inside an Ethereum smart contract. Here is how it worked and what to actually check in your pipeline.
- [Why People Are Leaving Google Drive for Zero-Knowledge Storage](https://protego.me/blog/leaving-google-drive-zero-knowledge-storage): Gemini reads your Drive files by default, and Google's scanners have permanently locked people out over false positives. Here is what zero-knowledge encryption actually changes, and how NordLocker and NordPass close the gap.
- [I Ran an Autonomous AI Hacker on My Own Site: An Honest Strix Review](https://protego.me/blog/strix-ai-pentester-honest-review): I pointed Strix, the most popular open-source AI penetration testing agent, at my own website. It found nothing, cost about $17 in tokens, and got my Anthropic key auto-disabled. Here is the honest account: how it works, what it takes to run, why blackbox results are shallow, and what an AI pentest really costs.
- [Google Ads Disapproved for "Compromised Site": How to Fix It](https://protego.me/blog/google-ads-compromised-site-how-to-fix): Your Google Ads got disapproved with "Compromised site" but your website looks fine? Here is what Google found, how to confirm and remove the malware, and how to appeal so your ads are back within days: with exact menu names and realistic timelines.
- [Is My Website Hacked? 12 Signs and How to Check for Free](https://protego.me/blog/how-to-check-if-website-hacked): Check whether your website is hacked in about ten minutes, free. Three fast checks (remote scan, Google Safe Browsing status, site: search), 12 warning signs explained in plain language, and exactly what to do if you find something.
- [Ousaban Banking Trojan Targets Spain and Portugal](https://protego.me/blog/ousaban-banking-trojan-spain-portugal-2026): A July 2026 Ousaban campaign uses phishing PDFs, geofencing, VBS, MSI, DLL side-loading, and process injection against Windows users in Spain and Portugal.
- [WordPress Site Keeps Getting Hacked? The 7 Real Reasons Why](https://protego.me/blog/wordpress-site-keeps-getting-hacked): Cleaned your WordPress site and it got hacked again? You are not being targeted. Backdoors (found on 49% of hacked sites), rogue admin users, stolen hosting passwords, and unpatched plugins bring attackers back. Here is how to break the loop for good.
- [How to Fix the Deceptive Site Ahead Warning from Google](https://protego.me/blog/fix-deceptive-site-ahead-warning-google): The red Deceptive Site Ahead warning blocks nearly all your visitors across Chrome, Firefox, Safari, and Edge. Here is exactly how to find the phishing content Google flagged, clean it, request a Safe Browsing review, and get delisted in days.
- [Japanese Keyword Hack: How to Find and Remove It (2026)](https://protego.me/blog/japanese-keyword-hack-removal-guide): Google shows Japanese spam pages on your domain but your site looks normal? That is the Japanese keyword hack. Step-by-step removal: confirm the infection, find the backdoor, clean Search Console, and recover your rankings.
- [WooCommerce Credit Card Skimmers: Detect and Remove Magecart](https://protego.me/blog/woocommerce-credit-card-skimmer-removal): Credit card skimmers on WooCommerce checkouts steal customer card data silently for months. Learn where Magecart-style skimmers hide, how to detect them with DevTools and integrity checks, how to remove them, and how CSP, SRI, and a WAF keep them out.
- [Best Cybersecurity Certifications in 2026 (Ranked by Role and ROI)](https://protego.me/blog/best-cybersecurity-certifications-2026): A role-based ranking of the best cybersecurity certifications for 2026: CompTIA Security+, Microsoft SC-200, SC-300, and AZ-500, AWS Security Specialty, and CISSP, with cost, difficulty, study time, and where to study each one.
- [OAuth Device Code Phishing: How EvilTokens and Kali365 Bypass MFA and What Microsoft 365 Teams Must Do Now](https://protego.me/blog/oauth-device-code-phishing-mfa-bypass-microsoft-365): OAuth device code phishing exploits a legitimate Microsoft authentication flow to steal persistent tokens, bypassing MFA entirely. With a 37x surge in 2026 and the FBI warning about Kali365, here is the definitive M365 defense guide.
- [Securing AI Agents in Microsoft Environments: Prompt Injection, Shadow Agents, and the New Attack Surface](https://protego.me/blog/securing-ai-agents-microsoft-environments-2026): Microsoft Build 2026 shipped a coordinated set of controls to discover, govern, protect, and verify AI agents. Here is how they map to the real attack surface: prompt injection, shadow agents, MCP abuse, and SearchLeak-style data theft.
- [CVE-2026-50751: Check Point VPN Authentication Bypass Explained](https://protego.me/blog/check-point-vpn-cve-2026-50751-authentication-bypass): A critical zero-day in Check Point Remote Access VPN (CVSS 9.3) lets unauthenticated attackers bypass certificate validation by flipping two bits in an IKEv1 Vendor ID payload. Exploited since May 7 by a Qilin ransomware affiliate. Patch, detect, and respond.
- [CVE-2026-20253: Splunk Enterprise Unauthenticated RCE Explained](https://protego.me/blog/splunk-enterprise-cve-2026-20253-unauthenticated-rce): CVE-2026-20253 is a critical 9.8 CVSS flaw in Splunk Enterprise that lets an unauthenticated attacker create or truncate arbitrary files through an exposed PostgreSQL sidecar service, a chain that researchers extended into full pre-auth remote code execution. Here is how the flaw works, which versions are affected, and exactly what to patch first.
- [Microsoft Sentinel vs Defender XDR: Which Does Your Security Team Actually Need?](https://protego.me/blog/microsoft-sentinel-vs-defender-xdr-2026): Microsoft Sentinel and Defender XDR now share the same portal, but they solve different problems. This guide cuts through the confusion: what each product does, when to run both, and how to plan for the Defender portal transition before the March 31, 2027 Azure portal support deadline.
- [The Vercel Breach Explained: How a Game Download Led to a Supply Chain Attack on 580 Employees](https://protego.me/blog/vercel-breach-2026-supply-chain-attack-analysis): On April 19, 2026, Vercel disclosed a sophisticated breach traced back to Lumma Stealer malware on a third-party AI vendor's machine. Here is the full attack chain, what was compromised, the IOCs you need, and what every developer deploying on Vercel must do right now.
- [OWASP API Security Top 10 2023: Complete Developer Guide with Real Examples](https://protego.me/blog/owasp-api-security-top-10-complete-guide-2026): APIs are the fastest-growing attack surface. The OWASP API Security Top 10 2023 defines the most critical risks. This guide breaks down each risk with real attack examples, vulnerable code patterns, and concrete fixes.
- [Ransomware Protection: The Complete Defense Guide for 2026](https://protego.me/blog/ransomware-protection-complete-defense-guide-2026): Ransomware attacks cost organizations $20B+ annually. This guide covers the full defense stack: prevention, detection, backup architecture, and incident response, with practical controls you can implement this week.
- [SIEM vs SOAR vs XDR: What's the Difference in 2026? (Complete Guide)](https://protego.me/blog/siem-vs-soar-what-is-the-difference): SIEM, SOAR, and XDR are the three pillars of a modern SOC - but each solves a different problem. This complete guide explains what each technology does, how they compare across 8 criteria, which vendors lead each category, and how to decide what your organization actually needs.
- [What is Zero Trust Security? Complete 2026 Implementation Guide](https://protego.me/blog/what-is-zero-trust-security-complete-guide): Zero Trust Security is a cybersecurity framework that eliminates implicit trust and requires continuous verification for every user, device, and application. Learn how to implement Zero Trust in your organization with practical steps and real-world examples.
- [GitHub Copilot for DevOps Engineers: Practical Tips and Tricks](https://protego.me/blog/github-copilot-for-devops-engineers): GitHub Copilot can speed up your DevOps workflows significantly. Learn how to use it effectively for scripts, pipelines, and infrastructure code.
- [Getting Started in IT Security: A Realistic Career Guide](https://protego.me/blog/getting-started-with-it-security-career): Thinking about a career in IT security? This guide covers the real path: what to learn first, which certifications matter, and how to get your first role.

## Networking

- [FortiBleed: FortiGate Hardening After Credential Exposure](https://protego.me/blog/fortibleed-fortinet-fortigate-compromise-2026): FortiBleed is a mass credential harvesting campaign associated with tens of thousands of internet-facing FortiGate devices in June 2026. This guide covers the attack chain, how to audit your FortiGate now, and the hardening steps that would have stopped it.
- [Networking Basics Every Cloud Engineer Should Know](https://protego.me/blog/networking-basics-for-cloud-engineers): Networking fundamentals for cloud engineers with a security lens: IP addressing, subnets, and DNS, plus segmentation design, security groups vs NACLs, private endpoints, and the misconfigurations that turn into breaches.

## Identity Security

- [I Ran BloodBash Against an Old, Abandoned Azure Tenant: An Honest Review](https://protego.me/blog/bloodbash-azure-entra-honest-review): I pointed BloodBash, a free offline BloodHound alternative, at an old company tenant I still control but stopped watching years ago. It found 4 standing Global Administrators nobody remembered, but only after I worked around an undocumented licensing wall, and it completely missed a real privilege path I had to find by hand.
- [Identity Debt: The Security Problem AI Agents Just Turned Into a Detonator](https://protego.me/blog/identity-debt-ai-agents): From Twitter’s admin tools to the AI agent that wiped a production database in 9 seconds: how identity debt builds up, and the exact controls that would have stopped each breach.
- [SyncJacking: Protect Privileged Entra Identities from AD Sync Takeover](https://protego.me/blog/syncjacking-entra-connect-privileged-identity-risk): SyncJacking is an attack technique that exploits Entra Connect Sync hard-matching to let an on-premises AD attacker take over cloud-privileged Entra ID accounts. Microsoft enforced hard-match blocking for role-assigned users on June 1, 2026, but most tenants still have gaps. Here is how to audit your hybrid environment and lock down privileged identities before attackers exploit the window.
- [JWT Complete Guide: Structure, How It Works, and Security](https://protego.me/blog/jwt-json-web-token-complete-guide): JWT (JSON Web Token) is the token format that powers modern API authentication, OAuth 2.0, and enterprise SSO. This guide explains exactly what a JWT contains, how the three-part structure works, its relationship to OAuth 2.0 and OIDC, how to generate tokens securely, and the attacks that break insecure implementations.
- [NHI (Non-Human Identity) Governance: Beyond the Basics](https://protego.me/blog/non-human-identity-governance-beyond-basics): A leaked service principal secret with Contributor access caused a lateral movement chain that took three days to contain. Most organizations have more non-human identities than users, but fewer than 10% have a credential rotation policy that actually runs. This guide covers credential lifecycle automation, ownership attribution, workload identity federation, and the KQL queries that surface your riskiest NHIs before they become incidents.
- [Entra ID External Identities Security: Governing B2B Guest Access at Scale](https://protego.me/blog/entra-id-external-identities-b2b-guest-access-security): The average enterprise Entra ID tenant has a guest-to-member ratio approaching 1:1, and most of those guest accounts predate the conditional access policies built for employees. This guide covers Cross-Tenant Access Settings, invitation restrictions, CA policy gaps, Azure RBAC cleanup, Entra ID Access Reviews with auto-deny, and the KQL queries needed to find stale guests before they become incidents.
- [Entra ID Workload Identity Federation: Replacing Secrets with Certificates at Scale](https://protego.me/blog/entra-id-workload-identity-federation-scale): Most Azure tenants accumulate hundreds of client secrets across service principals, with no owner tracking and no rotation discipline. Workload identity federation eliminates this category of risk entirely by replacing stored credentials with OIDC token exchange. This guide covers the migration playbook from secrets to federation across GitHub Actions, Terraform, and AKS at scale.

## Security Tools

- [Is This Email Phishing? Check for Free in Under a Minute](https://protego.me/blog/how-to-check-if-an-email-is-phishing): Phishing is behind 16% of breaches and 44% of AI-assisted attacks. Here are the signals you can check yourself in under a minute, and a free tool (forward to harry@protego.me) for the parts you can’t.
- [Free Website Vulnerability Scanner: Check Your Security Headers, SSL, and More](https://protego.me/blog/free-website-vulnerability-scanner): Protego's free vulnerability scanner checks your website for missing security headers, SSL/TLS issues, cookie misconfigurations, CORS problems, and more in under 15 seconds. No signup required. Get an A-F security grade with one-click fix code for Nginx, Apache, Next.js, and Cloudflare.

## Cloud Engineering

- [Auto-Tagging Azure Resources at Creation Time: An Event-Driven Governance Solution](https://protego.me/blog/azure-auto-tag-event-driven-governance): Azure doesn't stamp resources with a CreatedBy tag, but it can. This guide wires Event Grid, an Azure Function with Managed Identity, and Bicep to automatically tag every resource the moment it's created, across the entire tenant.

## Tools

- [Password Generator](https://protego.me/tools/password-generator): Cryptographically secure password generation with entropy scoring
- [SSL Certificate Checker](https://protego.me/tools/ssl-checker): Verify SSL/TLS certificate validity, expiry, and chain
- [DNS Lookup](https://protego.me/tools/dns-lookup): Query DNS records (A, AAAA, MX, TXT, CNAME, NS, SOA)
- [Email Security Checker](https://protego.me/tools/email-security): Validate SPF, DKIM, and DMARC records
- [Phishing Email Checker](https://protego.me/tools/email-verifier): Forward a suspicious email to harry@protego.me and get an automated risk report covering authentication, look-alike domains, links, QR codes, attachments, and scam language. Free, no signup, original email deleted after the check.
- [Domain Report](https://protego.me/tools/domain-report): Full domain security posture: WHOIS, DNS, SSL, headers
- [Vulnerability Scanner](https://protego.me/tools/vulnerability-scanner): Free website security scanner. Checks 9 HTTP security headers, SSL/TLS, cookies, CORS, WAF detection, and server disclosure. Deep Scan mode probes 30+ sensitive paths, detects vulnerable JS libraries, mixed content, and supply chain risks. Returns an A-F grade with fix code for Nginx, Apache, Next.js, and Cloudflare.
- [IP Lookup](https://protego.me/tools/ip-lookup): Geolocation, ASN, and threat intelligence for any IP
- [JWT Decoder](https://protego.me/tools/jwt-decoder): Decode and inspect JSON Web Tokens
- [Prompt Injection Tester](https://protego.me/tools/prompt-injection-tester): Test LLM prompts for injection vulnerabilities
- [HTTP Headers Analyzer](https://protego.me/tools/http-headers): Inspect security response headers
- [Conditional Access Gap Analyzer](https://protego.me/tools/conditional-access-analyzer): Paste exported Entra ID Conditional Access policies and get an A-F grade against 18 Microsoft best practice checks (MFA coverage, legacy auth, device code flow, break-glass exclusions). Runs entirely client-side, nothing uploaded.
- [Password Breach Check](https://protego.me/tools/password-breach-check): Check if a password appears in a known data breach (Have I Been Pwned, 800M+ passwords). Client-side k-anonymity, the password is never sent or stored.
- [CVE Lookup](https://protego.me/tools/cve-lookup): Search current NVD vulnerability records by CVE ID or keyword
- [Cloud Security Recon](https://protego.me/tools/cloud-recon): Passive cloud exposure checks for public websites and endpoints
- [Agent Skill Validator](https://protego.me/tools/skill-validator): Analyze agent skill repositories for prompt injection, unsafe scripts, and exposed secrets
- [Document Sanitizer](https://protego.me/tools/document-sanitizer): Upload a PDF, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, or image file and get back a flattened PDF that removes document-level macros, scripts, OLE objects, and clickable annotations. Visible URLs and QR codes may remain; files are not retained after conversion.
- [Security Workspace](https://protego.me/tools/security-workspace): One entry point for phishing-email review, document sanitization, and passive website scanning. Includes a guarded MCP private beta for website scans and saved reports.

## Free Courses (Video + Lessons)

- [AZ-500 Exam Prep](https://protego.me/courses/az-500): Free exam prep for the Microsoft Azure Security Engineer Associate certification. 18 lessons, each with an explainer video.
- [SC-500 Exam Prep](https://protego.me/courses/sc-500): Free exam prep for the Microsoft Cloud and AI Security Engineer Associate (SC-500) certification. 18 lessons covering identity, storage, networking, compute, AI security, and Sentinel.
- [SC-200 Exam Prep](https://protego.me/courses/sc-200): Free exam prep for the Microsoft Security Operations Analyst Associate certification. 18 lessons on Defender XDR, Sentinel, KQL, and threat hunting.
- [SC-300 Exam Prep](https://protego.me/courses/sc-300): Free exam prep for the Microsoft Identity and Access Administrator Associate certification. 18 lessons on Entra ID, Conditional Access, and PIM.
- [AZ-400 Exam Prep](https://protego.me/courses/az-400): Free exam prep for the Microsoft DevOps Engineer Expert certification. 18 lessons on CI/CD, source control strategy, security in pipelines, and monitoring.
- [AZ-900 Exam Prep](https://protego.me/courses/az-900): Free exam prep for the Microsoft Azure Fundamentals certification. 18 lessons on cloud concepts, Azure services, and pricing.
- [AWS Security Specialty Exam Prep](https://protego.me/courses/aws-security-specialty): Free exam prep for the AWS Certified Security - Specialty (SCS-C02) certification. 18 lessons on IAM, data protection, incident response, and compliance.
- [AWS Cloud Practitioner Exam Prep](https://protego.me/courses/aws-cloud-practitioner): Free exam prep for the AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner (CLF-C02) certification. 18 lessons on AWS global infrastructure, compute, storage, and pricing.
- [Google Cloud Digital Leader Exam Prep](https://protego.me/courses/gcp-digital-leader): Free exam prep for the Google Cloud Digital Leader certification. 18 lessons on GCP infrastructure, AI/ML, and business applications.
- [AI Security for Security Architects](https://protego.me/courses/ai-security): Full-spectrum AI security course covering threat landscape, model attacks, prompt injection, governance frameworks, and cloud AI security controls.
- [CompTIA Security+ Exam Prep](https://protego.me/courses/security-plus): Free exam prep for the CompTIA Security+ (SY0-701) certification. 20 lessons across all five exam domains.
- [Kubernetes Security](https://protego.me/courses/kubernetes-security): Practical course on securing Kubernetes clusters for security engineers and DevSecOps teams. 18 hands-on lessons.
- [Linux Security Administration](https://protego.me/courses/linux-security-admin): Practical Linux security course for professionals who need Linux skills on the job. 21 hands-on lessons.
- [PowerShell Zero to Hero](https://protego.me/courses/powershell-zero-to-hero): Beginner-to-admin PowerShell course for IT, cloud, and security professionals. 10 lessons.

## Printable Security Resources

- [AI Security Risk Assessment](https://protego.me/downloads/ai-security-assessment): Six-domain assessment template for AI and LLM deployments
- [Cloud Security Hardening Checklist](https://protego.me/downloads/cloud-security-checklist): 20 checks for AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud
- [IAM Best Practices Cheatsheet](https://protego.me/downloads/iam-cheatsheet): Entra ID, AWS IAM, and Google Cloud IAM comparison
- [Zero Trust Implementation Guide](https://protego.me/downloads/zero-trust-guide): Phased enterprise zero trust rollout plan