The Importance of Active Directory!

In today's day and age, uptime is everything. If the internet or critical system is down for even a couple of minutes, it can cost your company thousands! However, some of the most critical vulnerabilities actually occur while everything is up and running. 

Active Directory (and it's cloud-based counterpart Azure Active Directory) is one of the most mission-critical systems for most - if not all - companies. Active directory controls group policies, delegated access, individual permissions, passwords, access to file shares, and related emails, it can be used to manage machines and users via OUs, it can integrate with LDAP services as well as many other things not mentioned here! 

Proper Active Directory management can make or break internal IT productivity and onboarding as well as be a gaping hole in security if not managed accordingly! 

So what are the risks of an improperly managed Active Directory? It can quickly be summarized into one word: 'Permissions'. If users and machines are not properly managed, you can end up with users not having enough access to complete tasks or - in the worst-case scenario - too much access. While too much access isn't immediately noticeable, all it takes is someone with malicious intent to find a stray account with domain admin and you have a full-blown security breach! 

With that said, how can you make sure that your Active Directory is properly managed? 

Managing Active Directory starts early with creating OUs that can serve as different buckets for permissions. Make sure users have the minimum access necessary to complete their tasks. Also, be conscious of the level of access you provide the users on their machines as well. There is nothing more frustrating than being so locked down you can't even add a network printer! 

Make sure that you regularly audit your active directory for stale users and machines and delete any objects that are no longer in use. This will keep your Active Directory instance necessarily lean and accounted for. 

These responsibilities should be handled by a system administrator. Since Active Directory is so critical, it is very realistic to have the day-to-day maintenance of this system be someone's top priority.

Active Directory is a vital tool in the IT world and it's easy to neglect. By keeping a watchful eye on your active directory, you can head off a lot of permissions issues before they even start!

If you have any additional questions on the importance of Active Directory, feel free to reach out to me. Discussing how companies can make sure their systems are secure is one of my deepest passions!