What should you do to ensure that an Azure Storage account meets security policies requiring encryption at rest?

Enabling Storage Service Encryption (SSE) on the storage account is the correct action to ensure that the storage account meets security policies requiring encryption at rest. Azure's Storage Service Encryption automatically encrypts your data when it is written to Azure Storage and decrypts the data when it is accessed, ensuring that sensitive information is protected while stored. This process is transparent to the user, meaning no changes to applications or workflows are necessary to take advantage of the encryption, satisfying the requirement for security policies.

Other options, while important for different aspects of security, do not address the specific requirement of encryption at rest. Configuring a firewall limits network access to the storage account, but it does not prevent unauthorized access to data that is stored in plaintext. Using private endpoints enhances data privacy and security by bringing your storage service into your private virtual network but does not provide encryption by itself. Encrypting data manually before uploading, while a viable method to secure data, can introduce additional complexity, is not automatic, and does not guarantee compliance with policies requiring native encryption solutions. Therefore, enabling SSE is the most appropriate and effective solution for ensuring encryption at rest within Azure Storage.