Identity Threat Detection and Response (ITDR) has arrived as a defining pillar of cybersecurity. Yet even as organizations strengthen their ability to detect and respond to identity-based threats, a critical gap remains in recovery. Too many ITDR solutions lack the ability to enable complete rollback and restoration of compromised identity systems. Recovery is the follow-through required after ITDR to achieve the desired and elusive goal of cyber resilience.
Gartner’s latest ITDR research “Enhance Cybersecurity and Resiliency by Extending the Discipline of ITDR.” highlights this disparity and recognizes Cayosoft in the Identity Threat Detection and Response (ITDR) landscape.
The ITDR Discipline: Beyond Detection
Core ITDR Functions
Gartner’s ITDR research emphasizes that “more mature organizations appreciate that no one product or vendor provides all of the ITDR tooling features that every organization needs and want to ensure that they deploy a set of tools that provide adequate coverage for all the elements of ITDR needed by their organization.” Mapping ITDR capabilities to the NIST Cybersecurity Framework 2.0 provides a structured way for an organization to identify areas that need to be covered by its ITDR program:
| Function | Purpose | Example Activities |
| Identify | Discover all identities and systems requiring protection | Asset inventory, identity mapping, shadow IT discovery |
| Protect | Implement controls to ensure infrastructure integrity | Configuration management, policy enforcement, access controls |
| Detect | Identify anomalies and potential threats | Behavioral analytics, threat intelligence, anomaly detection |
| Respond | Take action when threats are identified | Alert triage, containment, remediation, investigation, auto-rollback. |
| Recover | Restore normal operations after incidents | Backup restoration, configuration rollback, service continuity |
| Govern | Oversee and improve security processes | Risk assessment, continuous improvement, compliance |
aside
The Recovery Gap in Identity Security
Most ITDR vendors concentrate on the Detect and Respond functions. Gartner ITDR research reveals a critical market reality:
“Posture management, threat detection, and recovery evolved from different identity analytics heritages. The technology skill set is different. Therefore, for many organizations, full backup and Recovery requires a different tool than what is used for detection and response to identity threats.”
Gartner ITDR Research: “Enhance cybersecurity and resiliency by extending the discipline of ITDR”. Ruddy, M. (2025, October 24).
In our opinion, the research highlights a crucial distinction: responding to threats is not the same as recovering from them. For organizations managing Microsoft Active Directory and Entra ID, this gap can be catastrophic. When all domain controllers are encrypted by ransomware or critical group memberships are compromised, detection alone provides little value. Organizations need immediate recovery capabilities—not weeks-long restoration processes.
“Organizations should also assess whether their existing IAM rollback and recovery mechanisms are sufficient to meet the organization’s needs (to reduce potential outages, data loss or reputational damage), or if it is merely ‘disaster recovery theatre.’”
Gartner ITDR Research: “Enhance cybersecurity and resiliency by extending the discipline of ITDR”. Ruddy, M. (2025, October 24).
Why Recovery Matters for Identity Infrastructure
Identity infrastructure failures create cascading organizational impacts:
| Failure Scenario | Business Impact | Recovery Urgency |
| All domain controllers compromised | Complete authentication failure, no resource access | Critical (hours) |
| Critical group membership modified | Access disruptions, potential data exposure | High (minutes to hours) |
| Configuration policy corruption | Authentication failures, security control bypass | High (hours) |
| Individual user/service account deletion | Specific workflow failures | Medium (hours) |
When directory services become unavailable across an organization, most operations cannot function—employees cannot access data, applications, or business systems.
Traditional Recovery Limitations
Enabling fast recovery, that supports the continuity of business processes, with just the native tools, has proven to be challenging:
Active Directory Recovery Challenges:
- Forest Recovery Complexity
- Recovery may take days or weeks
- High risk of unsuccessful recovery due to backup failures
- Requires deep AD recovery expertise
- Native tools are “all or nothing”, leading to recovery of compromised configurations
- Reinfection risk due to persistence in Active Directory
- Object-Level Recovery Issues
- Authoritative restore process: 1-6 hours minimum
- Command-line only (ntdsutil)
- Requires Directory Services Restore Mode
- No granular rollback capability
- Recycle Bin has limitations
- Entra ID Recovery Gaps
- Limited coverage, if you rely on soft-delete
- No native configuration rollback
- Manual restoration, that requires the knowledge of Graph API
- Time-limited recovery windows
Cayosoft Guardian: Closing the Recovery Gap in ITDR
Cayosoft Guardian approaches ITDR from a recovery-first perspective, recognizing that prevention and detection must be paired with rapid restoration capabilities. The platform covers Microsoft identity infrastructure (both Active Directory and Entra ID), combining full forest recovery automation for Active Directory with granular object-level rollback for both platforms.
Cayosoft Guardian transforms your identity resilience program from a complex, error-prone manual process into an automated, tested, always-on directory:
Feature | Description | Benefit |
Built-in Threat Detection | Automated identification of malicious changes | Mitigates the risk of reinfection, when restoring from backup. |
Automated Recovery Plans | Pre-configured, tested recovery procedures | Eliminates manual error, ensures consistency |
Cloud Recovery Sites | Pre-provisioned domain controllers in AWS/Azure | Zero-downtime failover option |
Standby Forests | Parallel environment updated on a scheduled basis | Instant switchover capability |
Regular Testing | Automated validation of recovery procedures | Confidence in recovery capability |
Recovery Plan Execution | One-click recovery initiation | Minutes instead of days |
This approach allows the organizations to establish resilient and reliable identity infrastructure, and enable the business processes to run with minimal disruption, unlike traditional disaster recovery approaches:
Scenario | Native Tools | Cayosoft Guardian |
All DCs encrypted by ransomware | Days to weeks | 0 hours (standby) or 1-6 hours (plan execution) |
Forest-wide corruption | Days to weeks | 0 hours (standby) or 1-6 hours (plan execution) |
Domain controller failure | Hours to days | Minutes |
Entra ID objects modified | Up to 3 hours | Minutes |
This holistic approach and the ability is why identity pros around the world choose Cayosoft to protect their business:
“The all-in-one interface, which included instant forest recovery, hybrid change monitoring, and hybrid AD object recovery, made Cayosoft an easy decision”
Conclusion: Recovery as ITDR Foundation
As ITDR matures as a cybersecurity discipline, the importance of recovery capabilities becomes increasingly clear. While threat detection and response are essential, organizations cannot achieve true cyber resilience without proven ability to rapidly restore identity infrastructure after incidents.
Key Takeaways
- Recovery Requires Different Technology: Backup, versioning, and restoration capabilities stem from different technical roots than threat detection analytics
- Unified Platforms Offer Advantages: Solutions that integrate recovery with detection/response enable faster incident resolution and better operational efficiency
- Daily Testing Is Essential: Recovery capabilities are only valuable if regularly validated through daily automated functional testing to ensure Active Directory is usable if switched over. Security testing is equally critical to confirm the recovered environment is clean and uncompromised.
- Hybrid Environments Need Specialized Support: Organizations with both Active Directory and Entra ID require coordinated recovery approaches
- Minutes Matter: The difference between hour-long and minute-long recovery times has material business impact
Gartner does not endorse any vendor, product or service depicted in its research publications, and does not advise technology users to select only those vendors with the highest ratings or other designation. Gartner research publications consist of the opinions of Gartner’s research organization and should not be construed as statements of fact. Gartner disclaims all warranties, expressed or implied, with respect to this research, including any warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose. GARTNER is a registered trademark and service mark of Gartner, Inc. and/or its affiliates in the U.S. and internationally and is used herein with permission. All rights reserved.
Want to See Cayosoft in Action?
Cayosoft is recognized by Gartner as an ITDR solution provider and provides solutions that make identities more resilient to attacks and guarantee a fast forest recovery, if needed. Learn how Cayosoft Guardian facilitates granular change tracking, post-breach analysis, and long-term AD security improvements. Schedule a demo to see the capabilities in depth.