Enhancing Data Security in Microsoft’s Speech Service: A Guide to the 'restrictOutboundNetworkAccess' Feature

1. **Summary**: Microsoft’s Speech Service offers speech-to-text and text-to-speech capabilities, enhancing cognitive services. The “restrictOutboundNetworkAccess” property is crucial for data loss prevention, allowing connections only to specified endpoints. This feature can be enabled or disabled through ARM, PowerShell, or Terraform, ensuring secure data handling.2. *:

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Understanding Microsoft’s Speech Service Updates

Microsoft has recently introduced significant updates to its Speech Service, enhancing security and functionality. This blog post dives into the key features and implications of the restrictOutboundNetworkAccess property.

What’s New?

The Speech Service now includes a crucial property called restrictOutboundNetworkAccess. This feature is designed to bolster data loss prevention measures. When enabled, it ensures that the Speech Service only connects to specified endpoints.

“When this property is enabled, the Speech service will connect only to the allowed endpoints.”

For instance, if you need to transcribe data from a blob, the fully qualified domain name (FQDN) of your storage account must be included in the allowed endpoints list.

Major Updates in Functionality

Previously, deploying Speech Services with the restrictOutboundNetworkAccess property was not straightforward. Now, users can deploy the service using ARM, PowerShell, or Terraform with this property set to true or false.

To enable or disable this property, users must utilize the Azure CLI or PowerShell. This flexibility allows for better control over network access and enhances security.

How to Enable or Disable the Property

It’s important to note that you cannot manually deploy your Speech Service from the Azure Portal with the restrictOutboundNetworkAccess property set. Instead, deploy it using ARM templates or other scripting methods.

Here’s a sample code snippet for deploying the Speech Service with the property enabled:

{"$schema": "https://schema.management.azure.com/schemas/2019-04-01/deploymentTemplate.json#",
 "contentVersion": "1.0.0.0",
 "parameters": {
   "cognitiveServiceName": {"type": "String", "metadata": {"description": "Name of the Cognitive Service account"}},
   "location": {"defaultValue": "[resourceGroup().location]", "type": "String", "metadata": {"description": "Location for the Cognitive Service account"}},
   "sku": {"defaultValue": "F0", "allowedValues": ["F0","S0"], "type": "String", "metadata": {"description": "The pricing tier of the Cognitive Service account"}}
 },
 "resources": [{
   "type": "Microsoft.CognitiveServices/accounts",
   "apiVersion": "2022-12-01",
   "name": "[parameters('cognitiveServiceName')]",
   "location": "[parameters('location')]",
   "sku": {"name": "[parameters('sku')]"},
   "kind": "SpeechServices",
   "properties": {
     "restrictOutboundNetworkAccess": true,
     "disableLocalAuth": true,
     "allowedFqdnList": ["microsoft.com"]
   }
 }]
}

What’s Important to Know

To check whether the restrictOutboundNetworkAccess property is enabled, users can view the JSON representation of the deployed resource. This transparency allows for better management of network access.

“With restrictOutboundNetworkAccess property, we are also using allowedFqdnList which will include a list of URLs.”

In summary, these updates to Microsoft’s Speech Service significantly enhance security and control over data access. Stay informed to leverage these features effectively.

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The Speech Service is a part of Microsoft’s Cognitive Accounts, focusing on audio processing.

“restrictOutboundNetworkAccess” enhances data security by limiting network access to approved endpoints.

Deployment of Speech Services with this property requires tools like ARM, PowerShell, or Terraform.

Users can verify the status of “restrictOutboundNetworkAccess” by checking the JSON view of the deployed resource.

Documentation and sample codes are available for implementing and testing this property effectively.

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From the Microsoft Developer Community Blog