Active Directory (AD) is the cornerstone of any on-premises or hybrid Microsoft environment. It stores information about users, computers and other objects, and provides vital services that enable employees to be productive and business processes to run. This article covers the Active Directory basics you need to know.

Group Policy is a feature of Microsoft Windows operating systems that helps administrators manage and secure users and computers in Active Directory environments. Group Policy settings are grouped into Group Policy objects (GPOs) and applied to computer and user objects within the scope of the GPO. For example, Group Policy objects can be used to manage: This guide explains the key elements of Group Policy management.

Zero Trust and the Principle of Least Privilege are security models designed to improve security posture by restricting unnecessary access to systems and data. Both models are a reliable way to limit access to resources and tighten your security measures.

Linux and Unix admins are accustomed to using Open Secure Shell (OpenSSH) to connect to servers because it has been included in those systems for decades. Windows users, on the other hand, have traditionally had to download third-party tools like Putty or WinSCP to utilize SSH capabilities. However, that changed when OpenSSH became available as an optional feature in Windows 10 and Windows Server 2019.

Organizations today store enormous amounts of data. To protect their business and comply with strict modern regulations, they need to manage and secure it properly. Ideally, every document would receive equal protection, but this approach is unrealistic both financially and operationally. Accordingly, organizations need to classify data so they can prioritize their critical and sensitive content.

Organizations today are highly dynamic, with employees, contractors, and other users constantly joining. Accordingly, IT administrators often need to create user objects in Active Directory (AD) or Entra ID (formerly Azure AD). While manually creating a single user is easy, repeating that process for multiple users is tedious and time-consuming. Moreover, it is highly prone to errors that can put security and productivity at risk.

Accounts with administrative and elevated privileges are necessary for both business and IT functions, but they represent a significant risk to your organization. In the hands of a careless or malcontent insider or an adversary, privileged credentials open the door to data breaches, infrastructure outages and compliance violations.

Organizations worldwide use Active Directory (AD) as their primary identity service, which makes it a top target for ransomware attacks. This article explains how adversaries exploit Active Directory during ransomware attacks and provides strategies and tools for defending against this modern menace.

Active Directory domain consolidation is the process of restructuring an organization’s Active Directory setup to reduce the number of domains. Consolidation is often performed as part of a company reorganization, merger or acquisition, but it is also used to simplify an AD infrastructure that has become unwieldy over time.