Daily Defender News
Aboutmerill.net
Microsoft Defender for Cloud
Cloud and workloads

Cloud Security Reporting in Microsoft Defender Portal - Microsoft Defender for Cloud | Microsoft Learn

29 September 2026Doc update+41 / −40 lines

In brief

The article title, portal terminology, prose, list punctuation, emphasis, and screenshot formatting were revised.

What Defender admins need to know

Administrators can use the updated article for current terminology and reporting guidance; no action is required.

Summaries are generated from the documentation change itself.

Documentation change

View full page diffView on Microsoft Learn

The comparison below shows only the changed extract. Use the full-page view for complete context.

Cloud security reportingSecurity Reporting in Microsoft Defender portalPortal - Microsoft Defender for Cloud | Microsoft Learn

MicrosoftThe Defender portal provides integrated reporting capabilities for cloud security data, enabling youdata. You can use it to create, customize, and share security insights acrosswith your organization.

You can view built-in reports, create custom reports tailored to your needs, and export reports to PDF for sharing with stakeholders. Built-By using built-in reports, custom reports, and PDF export enableexport, you tocan generate and manage reports based on cloud security data and tailor them to your organization's needs.

Cloud security reporting capabilities

Cloud security reporting enables you to:

  • View built-in cloud security reports such as CNAPP Executive Summary and Cloud Posture.
  • Customize existing reports by duplicating and modifying sections, cards, and layoutlayout.
  • Create custom reports from scratch by defining sections and selecting relevant cardscards.
  • Customize cards in custom reports to display data that matches your reporting needsneeds.
  • Export reports to PDF for sharing with stakeholdersstakeholders.
  • Control report access by using visibility settings (Private, Tenant-level access, or Public).
  • Filter and organize reports by type (built-in or custom) and visibilityvisibility.

Prerequisites

Before using cloud security reporting, ensuremeet the following requirements are met:requirements:

Environment requirements

The following environment requirement must be met:

  • A Microsoft Defender for Cloud paid plan is enabledenabled.

Required roles and permissions

Cloud security reporting is available in the following cloud environments:

  • Available in commercial clouds (Azure,clouds: Azure, AWS, and GCP)GCP
  • Not available in sovereign clouds

Access cloud security reports

  1. Go to the Reporting page in the Microsoft Defender portal.

  2. Select the Cloud tab.

    Screenshot of Microsoft Defender Reports page with the Cloud tab selected, showing Unified security summary and Query resources reports.

Screenshot of Microsoft Defender Reports page with the Cloud tab selected, showing Unified security summary and Query resources reports.

View built-in reports

Microsoft Defender for Cloud includes built-in reports that provide predefined views of cloud security data. These reports help security teams and stakeholders quickly understand risk, coverage, and compliance across environments.

To view a built-in report:

  1. From the Reporting page, select the Cloud tab.
  2. Select a report such as CNAPP Executive Summary or Cloud Posture.

CNAPP Executive summary report

The CNAPP Executive summary report provides a consolidated, high-level summary of cloud-native application protection platform (CNAPP) signals across your environment. It is's designed for security leaders and stakeholders who need a quick, holistic view of cloud risk, coverage, and trends.

Overview

Security recommendations

This section displays detected security recommendations across the environment, highlighting configuration gaps and best practice deviations that you can be remediatedremediate to reduce risk.

Investigation & response

You can create custom reports to address specific reporting needs.

To create a custom report:

  1. From the Reporting page, select Create report.

  2. Enter the report details:

    • Name: ProvideEnter a descriptive namename.
    • Description: Add context about the report purposepurpose.
    • Visibility: Configure the visibility settingssettings.

  3. Add content to your report:

    • Create sections to organize informationinformation.
    • Add cards to display specific datadata.
    • Customize cards that are labeled Customizable to configure additional optionsoptions.
    • Edit card titles as neededneeded.
    • Adjust card sizes for optimal layoutlayout.

    Screenshot of Add card panel in a report showing secure score charts, filter options, and a search bar.

  4. Select Save.

Customize cards in a custom report

When buildingyou build or editingedit a custom report, you can browse the card catalog and configure each card before addingyou add it to your report. Cards labeled Customizable support additional configuration options, such as filters for workload or recommendation category.

To add and customize a card:

  1. In your custom report, select + Add card.

You can duplicate existing reports and customize them to create variations.

To duplicate and edit a report:

  1. From the Reporting page, select a report.
  2. Select Duplicate.

You can export reports to PDF for sharing or archival purposes.

To export a report:

  1. Open the report you want to export.
  2. Select Export to PDF.
  3. Wait for the export to complete.
  4. TheDownload the PDF file downloads to your local device.

Screenshot of an Export to PDF dialog in a report, showing upload logo option, Export to PDF and Cancel buttons.

You can filter the reports list to find specific reports.

To filter reports:

  1. From the Reportingpage, use the filter options:

    • Report type: Select Built-in or CustomCustom.
    • Visibility: Select Private, Tenant-level access, or PublicPublic.

  2. The reports list updates to show only matching reports.

Manage report visibility

Update report visibility

To change a report's visibility:

  1. Open the report.
  2. Select Settings or Edit.