Protecting Active Directory (AD) is a critical focus for security teams due to its central role in numerous vulnerable functions, including authentication, authorization and network access. Each time users, applications, services and IoT devices access enterprise systems, they rely on Active Directory.
Adversaries exploit weaknesses in AD security not only to gain access to a network but also to escalate their privileges, move laterally between endpoints and other systems, deploy malware payloads, and more. To thwart attackers at every step, use the following Active Directory security best practices checklist.