Most of the organizations have Linux and Mac systems but most of those systems are stuck in the early 90's in terms of identity and authentication. They are like Windows way back in time before you had Windows NT domains. Each system has its list of users and groups. Each human user has an account and password on each system they access – or they tend to share accounts and passwords. I'm sure I'm preaching to the choir when I say all this is bad for security, creates compliance violations and is just inefficient. Some organizations that run specific versions of Unix and have a strong set of system administrators to support them have implemented NIS or NIS+ but there are security issues with those too. Generic LDAP is another option for some, but again come with its own set of challenges, not least is that of on-going maintenance to keep such a system functioning.

And let's face it, Active Directory is where it's at. “It's“ being your users, groups and other directory information.

The good news is that Linux and Mac OS X have support for AD and in this webinar, Security Expert Randy Franklin Smith will demonstrate step-by-step how to configure Macs and CentOS (think RedHat) to use AD. He'll also explore what the major differences are between Mac OS X and CentOS/RedHat's support for AD and other popular distros of Linux.

Randy will also dive into the details of how Mac and Linux’s native support for AD compares to a Windows system that is a member of an AD domain. There are some big differences. One of the biggest of course is that, on Windows, with AD membership comes configuration management via Group Policy. And then there's Windows built-in capability to find the nearest domain controller and automatically find another DC if the preferred one goes down. He'll show you what works and what doesn't in OS X and Linux's native support for AD.

Finally, Randy will show you how to take that to the next level and make a Linux or Mac system a full-fledged member of Active Directory – comparable to a Windows system – using AD bridge technology from BeyondTrust.

Photograph of Randy Franklin Smith

Randy Franklin Smith, CEO, Monterey Technology Group, Inc. CISA, SSCP, Security MVP

Randy Franklin Smith is an internationally recognized expert on the security and control of Windows and Active Directory security who specializes in Windows and Active Directory security. He performs security reviews for clients ranging from small, privately held firms to Fortune 500 companies, national, and international organizations.

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