Hybrid Identity Protection comes in many shapes; Meet Azure AD Connect Health
Information protection consists of three pillars: confidentiality, integrity and availability. Hybrid Identity is no different; the three pillars still apply. However, availability is hard for Azure AD Connect. As a key link in the Hybrid Identity chain, it should be the focus, but not the only focus. High availability for Azure AD Connect explained About […]
Group Policy Security– Tinkering with External Paths
If you’ve been following this blog, you know that about 2 and half years ago, I started talking about Group Policy’s precarious role in the typical enterprise’s security posture. Many, if not most, AD shops use GP to perform security hardening on their Windows desktops and servers. This includes everything from tweaking OS settings to […]
Your Active Directory was compromised, is it all lost?
Following a 10-year stint in virtualization technologies, I joined Semperis and dove into the world of Active Directory. Over the last three years, which included some of the most vicious malware attacks ever documented, I think I have finally come up to speed on this part of the IAM world. Here are a couple of […]
Azure AD Connect Confirmation
Keeping directory sync in sync with security best practices With Azure AD Connect, synchronizing directory data from on-premises Active Directory to Azure AD is both easy and efficient. But is it possible to have too much of a good thing? Security best practices limit sharing to a strict need-to-know basis. However, Azure AD Connect synchronizes […]
Should you upgrade to Active Directory 2016…or stay where you are?
Should you upgrade your existing AD forest to Windows Server 2016 Active Directory (aka AD 2016), or should you leave it where it is? Despite the focus and activity around adopting cloud services today, the fact remains that Active Directory continues to underpin it all. In addition to longstanding dominance as the on-premises identity source, […]
Security Playbook in Azure Security Center
Keeping your cloud-based IT infrastructure secure is a constant effort. The people who want access to your data are always working on ways they can get in, so both you and Microsoft need to be working on ways to keep them out. Microsoft is aware of this responsibility, and since you are reading this blog […]
Portrait of a 21st Century Active Directory Attacker
It’s been almost 30 years since the movie “Hackers” was released and many of us, when we think of a cyberattacker, still picture a guy wearing a hoody, hanging in his basement while hacking away at a keyboard to gain notoriety. However, a lot has changed in the past three decades and the portrait of […]
Protect your Active Directory from the Azure AD Connect Vulnerability
In recent blog posts, I’ve been talking a lot about new Active Directory attack methods where attackers are compromising user accounts that lead to increasing levels of privilege in AD. Well, unfortunately, now it seems a recently discovered Azure AD Connect configuration option is making it a little easier for attackers to take control over […]
Hiding in Plain Sight — Discovering Hidden Active Directory Objects
At our recent Hybrid Identity Protection Conference, several of us spoke about the increasing use of Active Directory as a subject of interest in malware attacks. Whether it’s mining AD for information about privileged access, compromising user accounts that lead to increasing levels of privilege in AD, or purposefully targeting AD domain controllers with ransomware, […]
Maintaining Information Security Compliance Through Active Directory Services
Now more than ever, technology and compliance teams need to work together to protect the integrity of their organizations. Sensitive information is stored and transferred in digital form and associated regulations are becoming increasingly strict and complex. While compliance is responsible for identifying the regulations which pertain to information security, technology teams must identify and […]
