Chances are you’re running Microsoft Active Directory and utilizing its built-in safeguards. However, even with native AD security, your operations might still be jeopardized by unintentional or malicious actions. Here are two ways to augment Active Directory’s onboard auditing capabilities and keep your business up and running to its maximum potential:
1. Ensure Security and Compliance by Tracking Changes
Do you have an explicit plan to audit, alert and recover from inadvertent AD changes? If not, you may be wasting time and money trying to determine what was modified or deleted and by whom, because native AD auditing tools don’t consolidate audit data across Domain Controllers. On the other hand, the right AD Auditing solution can track who performed each change, when the change occurred, and what changed – and then consolidate that data into a centralized database so that you can pinpoint changes that introduce security risks and compliance violations.
2. Minimize Downtime and Outages with Continuous Backup + Recovery
It’s clear that the wrong Active Directory change can bring operations to a halt – and every minute counts when AD is preventing other applications and business functions from operating. Unfortunately, native Active Directory auditing makes it difficult to match specific transactions with the “before” data and the “after” data of an errant change. Therefore, look for AD auditing solutions with integrated recovery capabilities, which will save you crucial minutes.
If you rely on scheduled backups and manual change logs, locating and recovering from errors can waste even more time. An Active Directory Recovery solution with continuous backup capabilities will allow you to instantly roll back specific unwanted changes to a previous state. You can therefore roll back just the selected objects that were changed in error rather than the entire set of changes – most of which you still probably want!
The most effective way to avoid AD headaches and delays is to embrace an Active Directory security solution that enables consolidated and proactive change management. If your current Active Directory auditing approach doesn’t meet these challenges, your bottom line is on the line.
Next Steps:
- Read this data sheet for a quick overview of BeyondTrust’s AD Auditing and Recovery solutions.
Scott Lang, Sr. Director, Product Marketing at BeyondTrust
Scott Lang has nearly 20 years of experience in technology product marketing, currently guiding the product marketing strategy for BeyondTrust’s privileged account management solutions and vulnerability management solutions. Prior to joining BeyondTrust, Scott was director of security solution marketing at Dell, formerly Quest Software, where he was responsible for global security campaigns, product marketing for identity and access management and Windows server management.