Category Archives: Best Practices
Passing Microsoft Exam 70-742: Identity with Windows Server 2016
There is a good and free way to prepare for Microsoft exam 70-742: Identity with Windows Server 2016. In the past years, I conducted webinars that can serve as a primer on Active Directory in terms of forests, domains, trusts, security and on Group Policy. They are not and were never intended as the sole […]
Assessing the impact that the new Baseline Policy for Admins in Azure AD might have
Microsoft is working hard to further harden Azure Active Directory tenants, so the roughly 13 million organization depending on it, don’t get disappointed by Azure AD-based security breaches and don’t have to worry about attacks on their infrastructure. One of the newest technologies Microsoft is developing is Baseline Policies. Using baseline policies, fields of attention […]
Pictures of our Security session at Graafschap College
As I mentioned a couple of weeks ago, Raymond Comvalius and I were scheduled for an ‘Inspire Me’ session at Graafschap College last week. Our challenge was to inspire their High School students in their 3rd year for their future as systems administrators with information security. For me, this presentation followed on a flight from […]
Do you know all the objects, attributes and configured settings in your Azure Active Directory Tenant?
The role of Azure Active Directory in an Hybrid Identity environment seems hard to understand. Azure AD is not a 100% slave to Active Directory. There are objects and attributes in Azure AD that have no relationship with on-premises objects or attributes in Active Directory Domain Services. We’ve come across many admins in organizations, who […]
I’m presenting an Active Directory 101 course with Netwrix
I know from my own experience – the importance of Active Directory and its security can never be overestimated. So, I’ve teamed up with Netwrix to bring you an easy yet extensive update for your knowledge of Active Directory management and security principles. Therefore, this September, I’m hosting three consecutive webinars on Active Directory Domain […]
Azure’s Access Control Service is retiring in three months time
One of Azure’s oldest Identity-related services, Azure’s Access Control Service (ACS) will cease to exist soon. There are replacements. If your organization is still using ACS, you will need to migrate this functionality to Azure AD, Azure AD B2C, AD FS and/or 3rd party solutions. About the Access Control Service The Microsoft Azure […]
Azure AD Connect version 1.1.880.0 is now available
Last Friday, Microsoft released Azure AD Connect version 1.1.880.0. This release of Microsoft’s free Hybrid Identity bridge product to synchronize objects and their attributes from on-premises Active Directory Domain Services (AD DS) environments and LDAP v3-compatible directories to Azure Active Directory. What’s Fixed SQL Deadlock Issue The Azure AD Connect team fixed a bug […]
Configuring Account Lockout throughout a Hybrid Identity Environment
Denial of Service attacks on identity and access systems are common place. When you think you’re done when you’ve covered all the bases with account lock-out in your on-premises Active Directory Domain Services (AD DS) environment, you’re wrong. Hybrid Identity requires more effort and Microsoft only made the tools you need generally available this month. […]
Azure AD Connect Custom Settings vs Express Settings
Azure AD Connect is Microsoft’s free Hybrid Identity bridge product to synchronize objects and their attributes from on-premises Active Directory Domain Services (AD DS) environments and LDAPv3-based identity platforms to Azure Active Directory. During installation, Azure AD Connect offers a choice. This is the first choice and also the most fundamental choice for Azure AD […]
Pro Tip! Use the claim rules from ADFSHelp for your ‘Office 365 Identity Platform’ Relying Party Trust
Whenever I talk about the claim rules in Active Directory Federation Services (AD FS) for the ‘Office 365 Identity Platform’ Relying Party Trust (RPT), between the on-premises AD FS implementation and Azure AD, I get the following question: How do we manually set up the advanced claim rules that Azure AD Connect configures automatically? Let’s […]
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