Active Directory (AD) is a goldmine for cybercriminals because it covers your entire IT infrastructure. Cybercriminals exploit vulnerabilities and conduct attacks on AD to gain access to your network resources. With inadequate security measures, your AD environment can be compromised allowing cybercriminals to steal sensitive information. So, there's no doubt that protecting your AD is important.
The following eight practices can help protect your AD and mitigate data breaches in your organization:
1. Reduce the attack surface of your Active Directory
An attack surface contains various points through which malicious actors can gain unauthorized access to your network. Since AD hosts various critical resources such as domain controllers (DCs), security groups, and data such as user account credentials and backups, reducing the AD attack surface is essential to defend against cyberattacks. To reduce the attack surface, start by reducing the number of domains in your catalog. Identify and remove duplicates and other unnecessary groups. Create accounts with expiration dates for temporary employees and limit their permissions.
2. Secure your domain controllers
To protect your DCs from attacks, don't move them from the default domain controller organization unit (OU). Only allow access to DCs from a secure computer without an internet connection. Minimize the groups and users with DC administrator or login rights. Keep your DCs free of unwanted programs to prevent attackers from exploiting known vulnerabilities. Patch critical security updates on your DCs as soon as possible to reduce exposure to attacks.
3. Follow the "least privilege" principle
Use an effective access management strategy to limit unauthorized access to resources. The least privilege model gives domain users sufficient access to necessary resources when performing their tasks. This provides a safer working environment for employees and prevents them from accidentally or intentionally abusing their privileges. Many vulnerabilities cannot be exploited by cybercriminals as they need higher privileges.
4. Managing your security groups
Security group membership determines the permissions a domain user has. Unauthorized changes to security groups can lead to a large-scale data breach, so constantly monitor high-privilege groups such as domain administrators and organization administrators for changes in permissions.
5. Implement a strong password policy
Weak passwords make it easier for attackers to perform password guessing attacks. A strong password policy that requires users to create passwords with at least 8-12 characters can protect accounts from such attacks. Also, deploy granular password policies for users with elevated privileges and keep track of password changes on their accounts.
6. Keep an eye on local administrators
It's common for local administrator accounts to be configured with the same password on all computers in the domain. If an intruder gains the local administrator rights for a compromised computer, that user has the same rights on all domain-joined computers. To prevent this from happening, use the Local Administrator Password Solution (LAPS). LAPS ensures that each local administrator account has a unique password stored in AD.
7. Educate users about security
When all security measures are adequately configured, cybercriminals resort to social engineering with a focus on human interaction. Unaware users fall for phishing and spear phishing scams allowing attackers to introduce malware into systems. To avoid this, educate users on recognizing these attacks and that they should alert the IT security team if they suspect their account is hacked.
8. Monitor your AD for indicators of intrusion
Finally, always keep an eye on any changes in your AD environment. Track all creation and deletion of AD objects in your catalog. Carefully examine any changes to your user or computer accounts, security groups, organizational units, and GPOs for any signs of a breach.
Strengthen the security of your AD
Without an Active Directory security tool, you'll struggle to keep track of everything happening in your AD environment. ADAudit Plus - is a User behavior Analytics (UBA) AD audit solution from ManageEngine that provides you with fully customizable reports for auditing changes to users, computers, groups, OUs, and GPOs. These reports help you monitor logins to DCs, password setting changes, security group changes, LAPS activity, and much more.
