Active Directory as an Attractive Attack Vector

Active Directory is 25 years old - are you still managing it like it's 1999? Richard talks to Liz Tesch about her excellent blog post on the subject and the challenge many sysadmins have with Active Directory today. Liz talks about how WAN bandwidth was a concern in the early 2000s, so we organized Active Directory into Organizational Units to minimize the amount of AD traffic over the WAN - today, that is irrelevant. The challenge today is ensuring AD is not a vector for blackhats to attack the organization. Raising your functional level and utilizing some great free tools (check the links in the show notes) are all you need to use Active Directory like it's 2025!

Links

• Active Directory is 25 Years Old. Do you still manage it like it's 1999?
• mimikatz
• Windows Local Administrator Password Solution
• Microsoft Entra Privileged Identity Management
• Kara Lawson - Handle Hard Better
• Endpoint Detection and Response

Recorded April 4, 2025