A Farewell to Viral Tenants
Microsoft announced that after October 31, 2021, viral Azure Active Directory tenants would no longer be created for B2B collaboration.
Identifying Inactive Users in a Remote Hybrid World
Inactive accounts that aren’t disabled in a timely manner threaten your AD environment. Cleanup of these accounts is crucial to keeping an…
Enhancing Your Zero-Trust Security Strategy with Conditional Access Authentication Context
Deciding who can access data is a key part of zero-trust. With Azure AD authentication contexts and other tools, you can do exactly this.
Fun with ADSI: Shortcuts for Binding to Active Directory Objects
Shortcuts for when you’re building scripts to work with AD or working on servers with limited access to tools.
Password Spray Attack Defense with Azure AD
Until passwordless authentication is a more viable option, we must take steps to defend against password spray attacks. Azure Active…
Azure Active Directory Connect Installation with Granular Permissions
Azure Active Directory Connect (AADC) installation creates a set of permissions that in most cases does not follow the concept of least…
AD Roles: Enterprise Admins and Schema Admins
The first domain in an AD forest is unique. There are two groups in this domain that we must be aware of: Enterprise Admins and Schema…
Protect Your Windows Network from the PetitPotam Exploit
The PetitPotam exploit can be used to completely own an environment, with very few prerequisites—but mitigation is within reac
Azure AD Connect Installation Strategies
If organizations don’t properly plan the synchronization solution for their cloud identities, which Microsoft calls Azure AD Connect, users…
Where to Host Active Directory FSMO Roles
The size and complexity of the organization are critical factors when determining how and where to host FSMO roles.
4 Essential Practices for Automating the Termination of Hybrid Users
When an identity from Active Directory (AD) is synchronized with a cloud-based identity platform such as Azure AD, those identities are…
Components of a PKI, Part 5: Hardware Security Modules
Not all organizations require their own PKI solution; however, most leverage Microsoft Active Directory Certificate Services because it…
Components of a PKI, Part 4: Active Directory Certificate Services
Not all organizations require their own PKI solution; however, most leverage Microsoft Active Directory Certificate Services because it…
Components of a PKI, Part 3: Certificate Revocation
One important function of Certificate Authorities that’s mentioned briefly in Part 2 of our “Components of a PKI” blog series is the…
Components of a PKI, Part 2: Certificate Authorities and CA Hierarchies
In Part 1 of our “Components of a PKI” blog series, we defined several PKI terms that are useful for understanding Certificate Authorities…
Components of a PKI, Part 1: Digital Certificates
Digital certificates (most commonly represented by the X.509 public key certificate standard) are signed data objects that associate a…
4 Best Practices for Hybrid Identity Attributes in Active Directory
User attributes are important metadata that should be treated with care. Some organizations do not take user attributes seriously enough,…
Microsoft Information Protection, Part 2: Planning Sensitivity Label Deployment
Planning for a Microsoft Information Protection deployment can seem complicated at first; however, the recommendations in this article can…
Microsoft Information Protection, Part 1: Understanding Sensitivity Labels
There are a few key terms that are critical when understanding and deploying Microsoft Information Protection (MIP). For example,…
How to Effectively Manage Microsoft Intune Application Assignments with PowerShell and the Microsoft Graph API
In large-scale Microsoft Intune deployments, you’ll typically find both production and development tenants. For effective application…
Authentication Options for Automated Azure PowerShell Scripts, Part 3: Additional Considerations
In Part 3 of this blog series, we discuss some other important considerations when taking this approach to automation.
Authentication Options for Automated Azure PowerShell Scripts, Part 2: Create and Configure an App Registration
Part 2 of this blog series gets into the details of how to create and configure an app registration for use with an automated PowerShell…
Authentication Options for Automated Azure PowerShell Scripts, Part 1: Service Account vs. App Registration
Automation is a fundamental requirement for good systems administration, no matter what the platform. Being able to automate tasks ensures…
Benefits of Air-Gapped Active Directory Backups
Several high-risk events have recently highlighted the importance of a fully functional and secure Active Directory environment to a…
5 Things to Watch for When Migrating SaaS Applications from AD FS to Azure AD
Migrating your Active Directory Federation Services (AD FS) integrated SaaS applications to Azure Active Directory (Azure AD) provides many…
How to Protect Organizational Data on Mobile Devices
Do you know how to protect organizational data on mobile devices without affecting personal data? Are you aware of the policies required to…
How to Mitigate Privilege Escalation with the Tiered Access Model for Active Directory Security
One of the most important security controls in an Active Directory (AD) forest is the prevention of privilege escalation paths. The tiered…
Use Privileged Access Workstations to Mitigate Security Threats in Your Active Directory
The workstation an administrator uses to perform privileged tasks such as managing Active Directory (AD) is a high-value target for a…
What Is an Active Directory Health Check?
Our automated AD DS health check process looks at hundreds of configuration settings, including DNS, FSMO roles, replication, sites and…
How To Get the MIM Synchronization Service Groups
Learn how to find out what security groups grant access to the MIM Synchronization Service
Reduce Help Desk Calls with Self-Service Password Reset
Forgotten passwords are a key driver of Help desk calls for many organizations. They are also a major cost factor. Azure Active Directory…
Three Things to Plan for When You Add Single Sign-On
Enabling single sign-on (SSO) for SaaS applications adds convenience for end users, as well as reduces security risks and enables you to…
Secure Anywhere Access to Business Applications without a VPN
With the Azure AD Application Proxy, you can provide remote access to web applications and Remote Desktop Services (RDS) farms without…
Automated Office 365 License Assignment with Azure AD Premium
Without a license, end users will not be able to use Office 365 services like Exchange Online or OneDrive for Business, so it’s critical…