AD Security Assessment Active Directory security is a hot topic. Some security professionals have made their living by uncovering vulnerabilities in directory services. Take for instance, Sean Metcalf at ADSecurity.org. He has an entire blog focused on Active Directory security. What tends to be lacking, however, is an easy-to-follow Security Assessment that highlights critical areas of concern in a Microsoft Active Directory and Windows environment. Most organizations aren’t aware they even have a problem—as issues in their directory and server…

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2017 – A New Hope Protecting your company in 2017 should start from the inside out. Organizations have spent the last decade securing the perimeter from external threats with a fair amount of success. However, in the last couple years one of the most serious threats to cybersecurity stepped to the fore: the Insider.  StaySafeOnline.org recently highlighted the importance of training more of your employees to become security aware. The idea is to have many eyes focused on securing an…

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The year 2016 is being called the Year of the Breach. A recent study by the Ponemon Institute shows that two-thirds of organizations affected by a cyber breach are unable to recover from the attack. Imagine these organizations – so many of them – ceasing to operate one by one as wanton and malicious cyber-attacks damage their critical infrastructure, reveal operational strategies or trade secrets to competitors, or even taint the public’s perception of an entire brand! Of course it’s…

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Active Directory Operations and Security As the primary authentication and authorization service for the majority of IT systems, the importance of Microsoft’s Active Directory (AD) cannot be understated. Over time, AD has grown increasingly complex, less secure, and more difficult to manage, resulting in a growing problem for organizations large and small. Given its importance, AD is often viewed from two main perspectives: operations and security. Operations The ultimate goal of an AD operations assessment is to determine what your…

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Can They Access Sensitive Data? Businesses are facing unique challenges related to “privileged accounts,” accounts that are built into applications or systems with privileges that normal users do not have. Privileged accounts can also be created by administrators to manage specific applications, run services, execute tasks, and control file systems. Such privileged accounts are necessary for day-to-day operations in environments containing Windows domain-joined systems, standalone Windows machines, and UNIX or Linux infrastructure.  These accounts become of particular importance when they…

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The 2016 Verizon DBIR is an all-encompassing look at a years’ worth of cyber related attacks. The most compelling statistic from the 2016 report states that in 93% of cases it only took an attacker minutes to compromise systems and networks, but weeks or months for the affected company to even realize that an incident had occurred. What does this say about our detection and mitigation strategies as an industry? What we do know is that attackers typically exploit the…

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