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Downtime Is Dangerous: Why Identity Resilience is Now Mission-Critical for Healthcare

Beyond Access: How Healthcare IT Can Cut Costs, Shrink Attack Surfaces, and Protect Patient Data with Smart Automation

In healthcare, behind every login is a nurse, a physician, and—most importantly—a patient in need. When identity systems fail, care delivery comes to a halt. That reality has been underscored by recent breaches, where stolen credentials, dormant admin accounts, and lateral movement across hybrid systems have caused not just IT outages, but also treatment delays, patient diversions, and canceled surgeries.

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NTLM Relay Attack Prevention: A Checklist for Active Directory Security

TL;DR Active Directory environments face severe risks from an NTLM relay attack, which exploits the lack of mutual authentication in legacy protocols to intercept credentials and gain unauthorized network access. Organizations can mitigate these vulnerabilities by phasing out NTLM in favor of Kerberos, enforcing SMB signing, and implementing strict privilege

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Cayosoft joins the Microsoft Intelligent Security Association

Enhanced Windows LAPS Password View and Management

Introduction  In our commitment to provide robust Active Directory, Entra ID, and M365 security, monitoring, and recovery Cayosoft Guardian is rolling out new features designed to make your security processes more streamlined and secure. With the latest update, we’re introducing modern LAPS management capabilities directly in the product.  Feature Highlights 

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Enhanced Security and Deployment with gMSA and AD Connector

In our commitment to provide robust Active Directory, Entra ID, and M365 security, monitoring, and recovery Cayosoft Guardian is rolling out new features designed to make your security processes more streamlined and secure. With the latest update, we’re introducing Group Managed Service Account (gMSA) integration and the AD Connector feature,

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Active Directory Security Best Practices: Key NSA Guidelines

Most global businesses run hybrid AD environments, and following active directory security best practices is critical when combining on-premises and cloud services to secure both Active Directory (AD) and Microsoft Entra ID (formerly Azure AD). Both systems manage identity and access control, making them prime targets for attackers aiming to

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K-12 Ransomware Protection: Securing Schools’ AD & Entra ID

As K-12 schools increasingly rely on digital services and key infrastructure such as Active Directory and Entra ID for authentication and access to support education services. We continue to see an increase with being targeted by Ransomware groups and falling victim to ransomware attacks, putting sensitive data and education services

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Qilin Ransomware: How to Detect & Protect Against This Exploit

Qilin ransomware has emerged as a significant threat to organizations, particularly those relying heavily on Active Directory for managing their IT infrastructure. Qilin ransomware has adopted a new method for stealing credentials from Google Chrome browsers by leveraging Active Directory Group Policy. In this guide, we will explore how Qilin

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FSMO Roles: The Hidden Key to Resilient Active Directory

At the heart of every well-functioning Active Directory (AD) environment lies a set of unsung heroes: Flexible Single Master Operation (FSMO) roles. These specialized roles hold the keys to your AD’s resilience, stability, and recoverability. While they may not be the most glamorous aspect of AD management, understanding and safeguarding

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Mastering Microsoft 365 Governance: Active Directory Guide

TL;DR Effective Microsoft 365 governance relies on strategic Active Directory management to secure user identities, enforce role-based access control, and automate the user lifecycle in hybrid environments. By utilizing automation and centralized reporting, organizations can mitigate security risks, streamline administrative tasks, and maintain strict regulatory compliance across all group types.

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Managing Active Directory in a Zero Trust World

Applying a Zero Trust strategy to Active Directory management reduces your identity threat landscape, enhances access controls and segmentation, enforces just-in-time access, and improves monitoring and incident response. Overall, this approach strengthens your identity platform and makes it more resilient. In this blog, learn how Zero Trust strategy and principles

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Securing Active Directory Against DCSync Attacks

DCSync attacks remain a persistent threat to Active Directory (AD) security. These attacks cleverly exploit normal AD replication processes, allowing hackers to secretly extract sensitive password hashes. This access can pave the way for widespread exploits across your network. Given the prevalence of DCSync attacks, IT professionals must be equipped

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Active Directory Best Practices for Management in 2026

TL;DR Modern organizations must prioritize Active Directory best practices by transitioning from manual management to automated workflows to mitigate risks like human error and sophisticated cyberattacks. Implementing strategies such as the principle of least privilege, automated user lifecycle management, and continuous auditing ensures a secure and resilient IT infrastructure. In

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Securing SYSVOL: Threats, Protection, and Recovery

What is SYSVOL and Why is it Important? For many IT professionals, the system volume (SYSVOL) might seem like just another shared folder. However, if not properly protected, it represents a critical security vulnerability within every Active Directory domain controller. SYSVOL stores the essential files and scripts that govern user

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Active Directory Software: Top 7 Enterprise Requirements

Understanding the Complexities of Enterprise IT Security The Microsoft Digital Defense Report reveals a concerning trend: 93% of Microsoft’s ransomware incident response engagements uncovered insufficient controls on privilege access and lateral movement. This illustrates that companies need to strengthen their user management and security in 2024. The growing trend underlines

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Active Directory Authentication Explained

Getting Smart with Active Directory Authentication Let’s talk about Active Directory authentication, a key player in your IT environment’s security. In simple terms, it’s like the main gatekeeper of your organization’s IT environment, deciding who gets in and what they can do. This isn’t just about keeping bad guys out,

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Active Directory Cleanup: Top 8 Best Practices

TL;DR Regular Active Directory cleanup optimizes system performance and strengthens security by removing obsolete objects, inactive accounts, and unoptimized Group Policy Objects. Implementing automated monitoring and metadata maintenance ensures long-term regulatory compliance while reducing the risks associated with unauthorized access and replication errors. Top Best Practices for Optimal Performance |

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Active Directory Schema: Essentials & Backup Strategy

Understanding Active Directory Schema Before we dive into the backup, let’s clear up what an Active Directory schema is. Simply put, the Active Directory schema is a set of definitions that outline what kinds of objects and information about those objects can be stored in Active Directory. Think of it

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Why You Need to Recover Active Directory Forest

Essential Considerations to Recover Your Active Directory Forest Active Directory isn’t just a part of your IT infrastructure, it’s the forgotten central hub that keeps everything running smoothly. But with great power comes great responsibility – and vulnerability. It’s a primary target for attackers and any disruption will send ripple

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Enhancing IT Agility with Automated User Provisioning in Active Directory

Understanding Automated User Provisioning in Active Directory In the world of IT, manual management of user provisioning and deprovisioning feels as outdated as a floppy disk. Just imagine trying to juggle countless user profiles across diverse on-premise and cloud environments—it’s a logistical nightmare. Enter the era of automated user provisioning

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Selecting the Right Tools to Manage Active Directory in 2024

How to Choose the Best Tools to Manage Active Directory In the changing world of IT management, choosing the right tools to manage Active Directory is very important. Active Directory is the main system for managing identities and access in your organization. It needs a strong solution that simplifies operations,

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Is it Time for your Microsoft Enterprise Agreement Renewal?

Resources to Optimize Microsoft 365 (Formerly Office 365) License Management and Reduce Costs For organizations with 500 or more users or devices, that want a more manageable volume licensing program, the Microsoft Enterprise Agreement (EA) provides the ability to buy cloud services and software licenses under one agreement. These enterprise agreements are

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Useful Microsoft Teams Resources For Administrators

As newly remote workers flock to collaborate, and Microsoft Teams daily users surges beyond 44 million, both IT professionals and individual users are trying to quickly master the application.  We’ve pulled together some helpful resources for Microsoft Teams administrators to use and share. Go right to the source… Microsoft There

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Microsoft Extends MCSE, MCSA, and MCSD Certifications

Due to current COVID-19 prevention tactics, Microsoft Certified Solutions Associate (MCSA), Microsoft Certified Solutions Developer (MCSD), Microsoft Certified Solutions Expert (MCSE) certifications will be retired on January 31, 2021 rather than the June 30, 2020. With testing centers closed, it’s nearly impossible for most to obtain these certifications within the

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Microsoft making Teams available for everyone

Earlier this week, Microsoft announced access to Teams for everyone, as COVID-19 continues to impact people and countries around the world.  How Individuals can get started with Microsoft Teams:  If you have an email address through work or school, sign in  using this link. We’ll get you into Teams in no

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Racing to Microsoft Office 365? Leverage the Power of Automation

Many organizations are rushing to the cloud and exploring new ways to manage remote employees. Office 365 automation tools have always been important for the purposes of productivity and efficiency, and they can be vital if you’re moving to the cloud faster than you’d originally planned. Here’s how Active Directory

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PowerShell 7: the latest major update to PowerShell

Powershell 7 is here On March 4, 2020, Microsoft announced the release of Powershell 7. In case you didn’t know, Powershell is the automation platform and scripting language developed by Microsoft for simplifying and automating the management of Windows and Windows Server systems.  In addition to the usual release of new

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5 Things You Should Know About Hybrid IT in Microsoft Environments

The hybrid IT model can play an important role in your digital transformation and data management, and this includes hybrid Microsoft environments.  Simply stated, the hybrid IT strategy employs a mix that begins with resources in house. Nearly every organization has legacy on-premises computing resources. The second ingredient is cloud

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Introducing Microsoft’s Powershell Module for Graph

At the Microsoft Ignite 2019 conference, Microsoft announced a beta version (V0.11) of the Microsoft Graph PowerShell module (available in the PowerShell gallery). The idea being to allow administrators to use PowerShell to call the Microsoft Graph API  to interact with Exchange, Azure Active Directory, and other sources. Being able to use PowerShell with the Graph exposes

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Microsoft Teams is Experiencing Issues—Working to fix

If you’re experiencing issues with Microsoft Teams this morning, don’t worry you’re not alone. Currently, Microsoft teams is going through some glitch & outage in several locations. We’re investigating an issue where users may be unable to access Microsoft Teams. We’re reviewing systems data to determine the cause of the

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Microsoft Launches new Edge Chromium Browser

On January 15, 2020, just over a year after Microsoft revealed its plans to switch to Chromium, the new Microsoft Edge Chromium browser was launched across both Windows and macOS. Microsoft is gradually bringing the new Edge to groups of Windows 10 users through Windows Update before it’s fully rolled out to

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Office 365 Hybrid Exchange Migration | What is it

Are you interested in taking advantage of Microsoft’s Office 365 Offering, without losing your on-premises infrastructure? You may need Office 365 Hybrid Exchange deployment. Through a hybrid deployment, you can integrate online Microsoft Exchange with its on-premises counterpart. Without 3rd party software tools there will be more to manage, but

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