Data Security & Compliance Blog

Active Directory (AD) is pretty much the go to domain authentication services for enterprises all over the world and has been since its inception in Windows Server 2000. Back then, AD was pretty unsecured and had some flaws that made it particularly difficult to use. For example, if you had multiple domain controllers (DCs), they would compete over permissions to make changes. This meant that you could be making changes … Read more

A few questions we get asked on a regular basis are “how do we compare with Varonis?” and “are Lepide a Varonis competitor?” To answer this question, I’ve created this blog and, whilst I’ve tried to be as unbiased as I can, clearly, I have a favorite. It’s also important to know this blog is in many places anecdotal, created from information obtained either from direct customer feedback or publicly … Read more

1) UIDAI (Unique Identification Authority of India) Date Disclosed: January 3, 2018 Records Breached: 1.1 billion Details: Using a service promoted on WhatsApp, hackers were able to access personal data belonging to Indian citizens by entering a 12-digit unique identity number – assigned to all residents based on their biometric and demographic data. 2) Exactis (Florida-Based Marketing Firm) Date Disclosed: June 26, 2018 Records Breached: 340 million Details: A database … Read more

You may think that information security and cybersecurity are the same thing, and I wouldn’t blame you as there is a lot of crossover. However, there are some key differences between the two that differentiate the terms. Many believe that cybersecurity and information security are completely inseparable, and one will not work without the other. Whilst this isn’t completely true, I recommend ensuring that your information security and cybersecurity strategies … Read more

It’s that time of year when you might be expecting many of your employees (some of which will be privileged users) to take some well-earned holidays. In their absence, much of the work is delegated to other members within the organization or even to contractors in some cases. In the case of your privileged users, for this to happen, often temporary access needs to be provided. Managing this privileged access, … Read more

Active Directory has long been a go-to platform for many organizations for centralized user account information. Because of its wide adoption, it has become a high value target for attackers – often attempting to steal credentials and elevate their privileges for access to the most sensitive data. As per a recent Forrester report on the State of Microsoft Active Directory 2018, there are a few key areas in which Active … Read more

Advanced Persistent Threats (APTs) rely on our inability to detect, alert and respond to any indicators that may suggest that our system has been compromised. Such indicators include; unusual account activity, traffic patterns, registry changes, and anomalous file and folder activity. Below are the top 10 different ways to tell if your system has been compromised. 1. Suspicious Privileged Account Activity Should an attacker gain access to a user account … Read more

Apart from the obvious difference in on-premise vs cloud location, there are many more nuanced differences between Windows Active Directory and Azure AD. Due to the changing nature of how organizations interact with data, Microsoft were pretty much forced to create a cloud-based directory, using completely different code bases and with completely different purposes. This means that you cannot simply assume that Azure AD is the same as Windows Active … Read more

Having a strong password policy is your first line of defence. Many users are aware of the security risks associated with having an easy-to-guess passwords, yet often they choose one anyway. We understand that it can be frustrating to be asked to memorize complex passwords, only to be asked to change them every 90 days. It is therefore necessary for sysadmins to reason with staff members and make sure that … Read more

Through Active Directory, administrators can assign and enforce the security policies of the entire domain and manage them from a central location. A big part of dealing with both external and internal attacks is tracking logon activity. Most organizations need to work on increasing log on control measures and proactively tracking the logon activities of all users. However, Active Directory logon and logoff controls have some major limitations which make … Read more