Since 2012, Jonathan Blackwell, an engineer and innovator, has provided engineering leadership that has put GroupID at the forefront of group and user management for Active Directory and Azure AD environments. His experience in development, marketing, and sales allows Jonathan to fully understand the Identity market and how buyers think.
In a world that has turned uncertain, the world of data security remains constant. The COVID-19 virus is wreaking havoc on the service industry, entertainment businesses, and the stock market. Still, many businesses have the flexibility to remain open despite closing their physical doors. As businesses remain open, attackers will continue to find ways to exploit them.…
Current research regarding cyberattacks shows that hackers target Groups in Active Directory, Azure AD and Office 365. Why are groups so attacker-friendly? The CrowdStrike 2019 Global Threat Report discusses how long it takes for attackers that have compromised a single endpoint to move laterally within your network. The Russians have the best average time at a little…
When “Shadow IT” no longer lives in the shadows, it’s time to embrace the technical value! Users can bring this value by utilizing the IT-sanctioned self-service tools. The advent of the cloud has invigorated the notion that users can do a lot of things themselves without the help of IT. Originally referred to as “Shadow…
There has been a lot of talk over the past few years on Just In Time provisioning. That is, using an SSO (Single Sign On) platform to create nearly real-time accounts in web-based applications the first time they are used. This increases productivity and reduces the amount of work required for IT workers to create…
The delegation of directory administration to those outside of IT is a concept whose time has come. But it can’t be done hap-hazardly; IT needs to define what is being delegated and to whom. We’re at a point in the evolution of our industry that two truths have come to fruition: IT no longer has…
Azure AD Gets on the Group Expiration Bandwagon I recently wrote about the need for group expiration as part of a comprehensive lifecycle approach to group management. It’s a necessary step, given the life of group objects in any of the directories you manage won’t last forever. The only exceptions, generally, lie around built-in administrative-type…
How is your Active Directory (AD) being managed? Do you have any orphaned groups (groups without owners)? Are there groups that have outlived their purpose? Do you have users that are members of groups and they no longer need to be part of these groups? An ongoing attestation of groups is key to answering these questions. Group objects in your directories tend to…
Many directories contain groups so old that even you don’t know why they exist, who uses them, and what they provide access to. It’s a more common problem than you’d think. “We should be deleting groups then, right?” might be your initial response. And while the answer is “yes” in the short run, the reality is…
The advent of cloud-based applications syncing their directories with source directories like Active Directory has forced organizations to think about the validity of the directory data. Some organizations look to users to self-service their account details (with no real incentive to do so, though), while others look to IT to keep the directory current (more…
Managing LDAP groups in the Enterprise Today’s enterprise-sized businesses have moved beyond the single on-premises directory. The need to leverage platforms and applications that reside outside the four proverbal walls of the organization have resulted in an uptick in the use of 3rd party LDAP directories within these environment, whether hosted on-prem, in a corporate…