Introducing the World's Finest "Active Directory Security Services"

Folks,

It is my privilege to share that earlier today we launched our unique and innovative Active Directory Security Services offering to empower organizations worldwide to be able to quickly, efficiently and above all trustworthily secure their foundational Active Directory deployments.

Our unique Active Directory Security Services portfolio is comprised of six unique high-value cyber security services that are designed to empower organizations to attain and maintain a sound Active Directory Security posture -

1. Our unique Active Directory Executive Briefing service is designed to provide an organization's C-Suite unequivocal clarity on the foundational role of Active Directory and the paramount importance of its security, so that they can adequately support the organization's Active Directory security initiatives. 


2. Our unrivaled Active Directory Privileged User Audit service is unique in its ability to instantly provide organizations accurate (Active Directory Effective Permissions based) insight into exactly who has what privileged access in Active Directory. This service delivers mission-critical privileged access insight to organizations within hours.


3. Our comprehensive Active Directory Security Assessment service is unique in its ability to empower organizations to comprehensively assess the security afforded to every aspect of their foundational Active Directory deployment, including an accurate assessment of exactly who has what privileged access in their Active Directory.


4. Our unrivaled Active Directory Security Hardening service is unique in its ability to empower organizations to adequately strengthen and formidably harden Active Directory security, and do so quickly and efficiently.


5. Our unique Active Directory Privileged User Lockdown service is designed to empower organizations to leverage our authoritative expertise to quickly, efficiently and reliably lock down privileged access in their Active Directory.


6. Finally, our novel Active Directory Security Consulting service is intended to help organizations quickly, easily and trustworthily fulfill any custom Active Directory security needs that they may have, by leveraging and availing of our Active Directory security expertise. 

Each one of our six unique Active Directory Security Services can be performed remotely or onsite, and do not require any special or privileged access to perform. Finally, most of them do not require more than a week to perform.


To learn more about our unique and innovative services, please feel free to review - Active Directory Security Services.

You can also download our Services brochure from here, or download brochures for all our services from here.


Over the last decade, we have had thousands of organizations from across the world request us to consider introducing a services offering, and we're happy to introduce these services to help them trustworthily enhance Active Directory Security.

Best wishes,
Sanjay.

Coming soon - "Active Directory Security for Cyber Security Experts"

Folks,

I trust this finds you doing well. I wanted to share with all of you that starting May 05, 2020, we will begin sharing our advanced insights on Active Directory Security and on Privileged Access in Active Directory, right here on this blog.

We intend to share our advanced insights on topics of relevance to organizations and cyber security experts worldwide, such as Privileged Access, Privilege Escalation, Active Directory Effective Permissions, Privileged User/Access Audits, Privileged Account Discovery, Privileged Access Management, Common Active Directory Attack Vectors and Mitigation Techniques and numerous other topics concerning Active Directory Security.

Save the date - May 05, 2020.

Best wishes,
Sanjay.

The World's Most Advanced Active Directory Security Insights

Folks,

As the world's #1 cyber security company in two vital areas of security i.e. Active Directory Security and Privileged Access, in days and weeks to come, you can expect us to share advanced security insights on these two vital areas on this blog.

Today, we just wanted to share a few advanced cyber security insights on Active Directory Security -

1. A Letter to Benjamin Delpy Regarding Mimikatz and AD Security


2. How to Mitigate the Risk Posed by Mimikatz DCSync


3. Active Directory Beyond the MCSE


4. How to Discover Stealthy Admins in Active Directory


5. How to Correctly Discover Shadow Admins in Active Directory


6. Active Directory Access Control Lists - Actual Attack and Defense


7. How to Easily Solve the Difficult Problem of Active Directory Botnets


8. How to Easily Identify and Thwart Sneaky Persistence in Active Directory


9. A Simple Trillion Dollar Active Directory Privilege Escalation Example


10. Active Directory Effective Permissions - Paramount to Global Security

You see, the key to all of the above lies in this.

Best wishes,
Sanjay.

Active Directory Security - An Executive Summary for CISOs

Folks,

Over the last few years, we've had thousands of organizations reach out to us to request our assistance on numerous aspects of Active Directory Security, predominantly on how to correctly audit privileged access in Active Directory.

We thus have substantial insights on just how much organizations worldwide know about Active Directory Security and how well their security leadership (CISOs) understand the paramount importance of Active Directory Security today.

In our vast experience, we have found that the IT and cyber security leadership at thousands of organizations worldwide may still not yet understand the paramount importance of securing and defending their foundational Active Directory.


To help the CISOs of all organizations worldwide understand the paramount importance of Active Directory Security,  earlier today we released a simple two-page Executive Summary on Active Directory Security -

This Executive Summary (PDF) can be downloaded from here - Active Directory Security.

Today, virtually every aspect of organizational Cyber Security, whether it be Identity and Access Management, Privileged Access Management, Network Security, Endpoint Security, Data Security, Intrusion Detection, Cloud Security, Zero Trust etc. ultimately relies and depends on Active Directory (and consequently, on Active Directory's security.)

In the interest of their organization's foundational cyber security, we highly recommend that all CISOs worldwide read it.

Best wishes,
Sanjay.

What is Active Directory Security, and Why is it Paramount ?

Folks,

Today, we just wanted to take a few moments to shed some light on a paramount area of organizational cyber security.


As you may know, Microsoft Active Directory is the very foundation of IT, cyber security and privileged access worldwide.

Given the foundational role that Active Directory plays in IT, cyber security and privileged access today, its own security i.e. the security afforded to an organization's mission-critical Active Directory deployment is of paramount importance.

Should an organization's foundational Active Directory be compromised, the very foundation and bedrock of its cyber security would have been compromised, and the entirety of its IT resources would be at risk of compromise.

Factually, the compromise of an organization's foundational Active Directory is tantamount to a system-wide compromise.

Active Directory Security

Active Directory Security is the area of cyber security that covers the adequate protection (security and defense) of an organization's foundational Active Directory deployments, and it usually includes the following seven (7) areas -

1. Active Directory Logical Structure - Ensuring that Forest, Domain and Trust relationships are logically sound


2. Domain Controller Security - Ensuring the adequate physical, system and network security is afforded to all DCs


3. Privileged Account Security - Ensuring that all privileged users are accurately identified, reduced and protected


4. Delegation of Administration - Ensuring that all access is delegated based on the principle of least privilege


5. Active Directory Configuration Security - Ensuring the security of AD Schema, Backups, FSMOs, Replication, etc.


6. Secure Administrative Practices - Ensuring admin-workstations, alt admin-accounts, trustworthy-tooling etc.


7. Active Directory Threat Intelligence (to actively detect attacks against AD) and Active Directory Auditing

Active Directory Security must be a top organizational cyber security priority today because it has a direct bearing on the organization's foundational security, and thus directly impacts the foundational security of the entirety of its IT resources.



Recommended Reading

Active Directory Security is a vast subject and its adequate protection requires that organizations possess a sufficient understanding of its attack surface, and all of its components, so here's some recommended reading to get started -

1. Begin with this simple Active Directory Security - An Executive Summary to understand its paramount importance.


2. Next, use this simple, effective Active Directory Security Checklist to identify what areas to provide coverage for.


3. Finally, use this Microsoft guide titled Best Practices for Securing Active Directory for prescriptive guidance.

Finally, you may want to review these this.



Highest Priority

It is a less known fact that virtually all major cyber security breaches including JP Morgan, Sony Hack, Target, Snowden, OPM Breach, Anthem, Avast etc., all involved the compromise/misuse of a single Active Directory privileged user account.

Consequently, the accurate identification of privileged users in Active Directory is of the highest (paramount) importance, because as evidenced above, the compromise of a single Active Directory privileged user could result in a colossal breach.

Unfortunately Microsoft's guidance on this paramount area of Active Directory Security seems insufficient and light, so we highly recommend that organizations refer to this guidance - How to Correctly Audit Privileged Access in Active Directory.




Summary

In summary, as the bedrock of an organization's IT, cyber security and privileged access, today Active Directory Security is paramount to cyber and organizational security, and thus must be an organization's highest cyber security priority.

We recommend that all organizations to learn more about and adequately implement Active Directory Security.

Best wishes,
Sanjay.