A distribution group is a mail-enabled Active Directory group used to send a message to a group of recipients who are members of that group. Administrators can manage some of the properties and permissions of distribution groups using the Exchange Administration Center (formerly Exchange Management Console). However, this article explains how to perform many common distribution group management tasks using the Exchange Management Shell cmdlets Set-DistributionGroup and Add-DistributionGroupMember.

Active Directory Administrative Center (ADAC) is a Microsoft tool that admins can use to manage objects in Active Directory. ADAC is available in Windows Server 2008 R2 and higher. ADAC is a graphical interface on top of Windows PowerShell. This means that every time an action is carried out through ADAC, Windows PowerShell cmdlets are executed in the background.

Back in the early 1990s, website managers decided they needed a way to remember data about users, and the cookie was born. Browser cookies, also known as http cookies, are small text files that are deposited on your computer while you are visiting a website. Depending on your internet activity, you could have dozens or even hundreds of them stored on your computer. These computer cookies have been a center of controversy since their introduction.

The Get-ADComputer cmdlet retrieves a single computer or several computers from Active Directory.

The Get-ADGroup cmdlet enables IT admins to retrieve information about one or more Active Directory groups in the following ways: Get-ADGroup searches some of the default properties of a group. To search for specific properties, use the Properties parameter.

Administrators often need to find out which Active Directory groups a certain user (or machine, group, or service account) is a member of. They have several options for discovering this information, including.

RID hijacking is a persistence technique used by adversaries who have compromised a Windows machine. In a nutshell, attackers use the RID (relative identifier) of the local Administrator account to grant admin privileges to the Guest account (or another local account). That way, they can take actions using the Guest account, which is normally not under the same level of surveillance as the Administrator account, to expand their attack while remaining undetected.

When I try to join a new Windows workstation or server to an Active Directory (AD) domain, I sometimes encounter the following error: “An Active Directory Domain Controller (AD DC) for the domain ‘domainname’ could not be contacted.” This error can occur due to any of several reasons, from a simple incorrect DNS server IP address to a much more complex issue.

Attackers use a variety of tactics to spread laterally across on-premises Windows machines, including Pass-the-Ticket, Pass-the-Hash, Overpass-the-Hash and Golden Tickets attacks. But similar techniques are also effective in moving laterally from a compromised workstation to connected cloud resources, bypassing strong authentication measures like MFA. This article explains how attackers can perform lateral movement to the cloud with an attack called Pass-the-PRT.

Configuration drift seems inevitable — the gradual but unintentional divergence of a system’s actual configuration settings from its secure baseline configuration. Proper configuration of your infrastructure components is vital for security, compliance and business continuity, but setting changes are often made without formal approval, proper testing and clear documentation.

Active Directory groups are sets of Active Directory (AD) objects — such as users, computers, and even other groups. Using AD groups helps simplify IT administration and ensure accurate delegation of rights and dissemination of information. Active Directory has several built-in groups, and organizations create many additional groups.

The Get-ADUser PowerShell cmdlet is very helpful for Active Directory user management. But what if you try to use Get-ADUser and get the error below? The term ‘Get-ADUser’ is not recognized as the name of a cmdlet, function, script file or operable program. This error simply means that the Active Directory module for PowerShell is not available on your machine.

Using Active Directory security groups is a best practice for quickly and accurately assigning permissions to users, computers, and groups. But how can you get a list of all the members of a security group? While you could use the PowerShell cmdlet Get-ADGroup, group members will be identified by their distinguished names, making the results difficult to read. A better option is to use the Get-ADGroupMember cmdlet. This article provides the syntax of this cmdlet and lots of useful examples.

Despite the popularity of the cloud, Microsoft Active Directory (AD) remains a crucial component of the IT infrastructure for many organizations. Indeed, Active Directory often serves as the central identity repository and provides vital authentication and authorization services — so keeping it clean and well organized is vital. Discover exactly why regular AD cleanup is critical — and the key signs of a poorly maintained AD environment.

Active Directory security groups are used to grant users permissions to IT resources. Each security group is assigned a set of access rights, and then users are made members of the appropriate groups. Done right, this approach enables an accurate, role-based approach to user management and reduces IT workload.

One important way of securing your organization against attacks and other cyber threats is to implement a Zero Trust security model for groups (distribution lists, security groups, Microsoft 365 groups) in on-premises Active Directory and Azure AD. After all, these groups control access to your IT assets, from sensitive data to vital communications channels and tools like Microsoft Teams and SharePoint.