Active Directory Security Best Practices That Actually Work SWIPE www.know-all-edge.com ISO 27001:2022 Certified 10 01 Apply Least Privilege Give people only the access they truly need. NOT "just in case" permissions. RBAC makes it enforceable and auditable, and shrinks the attack surface instantly. www.know-all-edge.com ISO 27001:2022 Certified 02 Admins should never check email or browse on privileged credentials. A separate low- privilege account for daily work keeps high-value logins out of phishing range. Separate Admin Accounts www.know-all-edge.com ISO 27001:2022 Certified 03 Use a Tiered Admin Model Tier 0 → Domain Controllers, AD FS, schema masters Tier 1 → App & server admin Tier 2 → User workstations Contain the blast radius instead of letting one breach spread everywhere. www.know-all-edge.com ISO 27001:2022 Certified 04 Enable MFA Where It Matters MFA removes the easiest attacker path: a single stolen password. Start with privileged accounts, remote access, and admin tools. www.know-all-edge.com ISO 27001:2022 Certified 05 Retire Inactive Accounts Set a threshold (e.g. 90 days) and make cleanup a routine. Back up AD first. Keep a short record of what was removed and why. www.know-all-edge.com ISO 27001:2022 Certified 06 Rethink Local Admin Accounts Shared local admin passwords mean one compromise unlocks many machines. Disable where possible, or move to managed accounts with auto-rotated passwords. www.know-all-edge.com ISO 27001:2022 Certified 07 Patch Domain Controllers Fast DCs are the crown jewels. One unpatched flaw (see CVE-2022- 26923) can hand an attacker domain admin. Scan regularly. Prioritize by real business risk, not just severity scores. www.know-all-edge.com ISO 27001:2022 Certified 08 Watch for Privilege Escalation Centralize logs in a SIEM. Add identity threat detection to catch odd group changes or Kerberoasting early. Extend visibility across endpoints and identity with XDR. www.know-all-edge.com ISO 27001:2022 Certified 09 Segment Domain Controllers Isolate DCs on their own VLAN with tightly restricted access. Even if the rest of the network falls, reaching the DCs stays hard. www.know-all-edge.com ISO 27001:2022 Certified 10 Maintain a Security Baseline Use the Microsoft Security Compliance Toolkit or CIS Benchmarks as your measuring stick. Review often — "secure" two years ago rarely holds up today. www.know-all-edge.com ISO 27001:2022 Certified ISO 27001:2022 Certified Was this helpful? Don't forget to like, share and drop a comment. www.know-all-edge.com