Detecting & Mitigating Cyber Attacks
Identity systems continue to be a prime attack vector for cyber criminals despite well-known vulnerabilities, especially in Active Directory, the core identity store for 90 percent of businesses worldwide. Indeed, Mandiant FireEye researchers have reported that 90% of the incidents they investigate involve Microsoft's Active Directory in some way.
Since the surge in identity-related attacks and vulnerabilities like the Colonial Pipeline breach there has been a lot more expert advice available and now the identity protection experts at Semperis have released their Active Directory Security Halftime Report. This is the first in a periodic series of insights and practical skill-building resources for preventing and mitigating identity-related cyber-attacks.
“Cybersecurity programs, big and small, are on the front lines of a new war that has virtually no boundaries and no rules of engagement,”said Mickey Bresman, CEO at Semperis. “If you think about hospitals that can’t access their systems to save a life, or cities that get held hostage, we have a responsibility to help organizations take back control. That’s what drives us... Active Directory remains the beating heart of identity management, the core of the identity platform for most organisations, but everything around it has changed rapidly.”
“AD secure configuration was not as much of a concern 15 years ago, and many recommendations that were provided at the time turned out to be insecure and have been completely revised since, so a lot of the mistakes that were made then are the problems organisations now need to address,” Bresman said.
Bresman also calls out lagging skill sets at a time when conversations about protecting the business from cyber attack are converging for identity and security teams.
“You have people that know AD extremely well, but their thinking is more operationally related,” said Bresman. “Or you have people that know red-teaming and security extremely well, but they are not AD experts. It's not that simple to find that combination of skills in a single person.”
The Semeperis Report highlights the essential areas of focus for identity and access management (IAM) teams, security teams, and CISOs responsible for guarding organisations’ identity systems. More than two-thirds of the Halftime Report provides how-to guidance from highly experienced identity experts (including longtime recognized Microsoft MVPs) for preventing, mitigating, and recovering from identity system cyber-attacks.
With an emphasis on fast-track skills-building for identity and security professionals, the Active Directory Security Halftime Report consolidates:
- Practical guidelines for hardening AD security by closing common gaps that can be uncovered with the free security assessment tool Purple Knight, built by Semperis identity and access management (IAM) experts
- New perspectives on building a cyber-resilient organisation by breaking down silos between identity and security teams
- Tips for managing security in increasingly complex hybrid identity systems, particularly across on-premises Active Directory and Azure Active Directory environments
- Trends in cyber criminals’ tactics for compromising identity systems, as highlighted in the monthly Semperis Reports.
- The Active Directory Security Halftime Report, will be updated on a periodic basis to serve as a timely, concise index of resources for organisations that have prioritised hardening their Active Directory and Azure Active Directory defenses against escalating cyber-attacks.
Although the threat landscape is continually expanding, organisations can improve their security posture by methodically identifying and addressing the well-known identity-related vulnerabilities covered in the Semperis Active Directory Security Halftime Report.
“Regardless of the particular mix of on-premises and cloud systems and assets, every organisation will need to protect the identity store,” said Bresman. “Identity is going to continue to play a huge role in the protection game that we are playing against the adversaries.”
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