Best Practices for Storage Reclamation – Part 3 of 3
In parts 1 and 2 of this blog series, we introduced the key elements of a storage reclamation program and dove deeply into 5 key capabilities that would be needed. In this last blog, we pull all of the guidance together and wrap up the discussion.
Putting It All Together
With the five key capabilities addressed in the earlier
blogs, any organization can be prepared to put together a comprehensive file
cleanup workflow. While no two
organizations are alike, a cleanup campaign…
Best Practices for Storage Reclamation – Part 2 of 3
In part 1 of this series, we explained that there are 5 key capabilities needed for a successful file cleanup project, and discussed Capability 1 – File Discovery, and 2 – Sensitive data discovery. In this second blog we pick up the discussion with Capability 3 – Activity and File Usage.
Capability 3 – Activity and File Usage
Understanding who is actively using files on file servers can offer tremendous insight into how to approach a cleanup effort. By monitoring activity, i…
Microsoft LDAP Channel Binding and Signing Patch
Discovery Solution for Microsoft’s March 2020 Update
Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) – How did we
get here?
20 years ago, I embarked on the
fantastical journey that was migrating from NT4 to Active Directory. This is
also when I began learning the power of LDAP. While it was technically
available, very few companies implemented secure LDAP in the early days. Most
enterprise applications or internal applications took advantage of the
directory (and in a wide variety of ways)…
Best Practices for Storage Reclamation – Part 1 of 3
Data Access Governance (DAG) has many different types of use cases, with most falling into three main categories: data security, regulatory compliance, and operational efficiency. There has been a lot written about security due to the increasing frequency of ransomware attacks, and a lot is being written about compliance, most recently around privacy – but we haven’t talked much about the operational efficiency use case.
A good DAG program allows organizations to manage more data wit…
What is SMBv1 and Why You Should Disable it
Eternally Affected
What is SMB?
Server Message Block (SMB) is a protocol used primarily for
sharing files, printer services, and communication between computers on a
network. The history of SMB is long, so I’ll try to keep this short and to the
point.
SMBv1
Back in the 1980s and 1990s IBM and Microsoft were working on implementations of SMB to improve and build upon the protocol. Microsoft actually pushed to rename SMB to Common Internet File System (CIFS) and added a bunch of…
Improve the Efficiency and Automation of AD Object Rollback and Recovery in StealthRECOVER 1.5
Why is Active Directory (AD) so Important to Protect?
The health
and operational integrity of AD has a direct impact on the overall security of
your organization. The capability to rollback and recover from unwanted changes
is a critical requirement for you to maintain the security and performance of
your network.
In fact – it’s never been more important.
90% of organizations use AD as their central hub of authentication and authorization. It literally holds the keys to the kingdom …
Improve AD Security – Block Unauthorized Activities & Strengthen Passwords with StealthINTERCEPT 7.0
Nearly
everyone uses Microsoft’s Active Directory (AD), over 90% in fact[1],
to manage user accounts and provide authentication and access to the majority
of organizational resources. Microsoft tells us that 95 million AD accounts are
under attack every day[2].
The latest Verizon Data Breach Investigations Report informs that 56% of
breaches in 2018 took a month or longer to discover[3].
Being under constant attack, and taking months to discover it, is a recipe for
disaster.
Many organizat…
ProTip – The Power of Character Substitution Checks in StealthINTERCEPT Enterprise Password Enforcer
I have had the benefit of visiting a number of customers to understand how they use our products. Specifically, how they use the breach password dictionary in StealthINTERCEPT Enterprise Password Enforcer. Many actively manage their breach password database to prevent breached passwords from use. In reviewing these password databases, I noticed many contained entries with multiple variations of a single word. Essentially, they were manually adding character substitution or “leetspeak.”
F…
An Oracle DBA’s Guide to Microsoft SQL Server Security
In today’s world, it is quite common for companies to use more than one type of relational database platform to host enterprise applications. If you are an old-time Oracle DBA like me and are asked to administer Microsoft SQL Servers in addition to Oracle databases, the task can be pretty daunting from a SQL Server security perspective. In this blog, I will try to explain the differences and similarities between the Oracle and SQL Server security models.
The difference in security mode…
Cleaning Up Unused Service Accounts Series – Part 1: Overview of the Process
What is a Service Account?
In this blog post, I won’t go too much into the details of service accounts but will class a service account as a user, Managed Service Account or a Group Managed Service Account which is used to run a process whether it be a Service, Task, IIS App Pools or used inside of an application.
The Problem?
A lot of organisations will have hundreds and maybe even thousands of service accounts that may be in use across their Active Directory environment. It can be …
