This article discusses protected accounts and groups in Active Directory, providing examples and screenshots to illustrate key concepts. In this article, I'll cover the following topics: * Protected accounts in Active Directory * Protected groups in Active Directory * How to create and manage protected accounts and groups I'll also provide some examples and screenshots to help illustrate key concepts. Please note that all screenshots and text examples were captured on a Windows Server 2008 R2 virtual machine for testing purposes. I logged onto the VM (a DC) as the built-in Administrator. I did the same thing with each of the test accounts and groups I created. I did several things that you should never do (unless you're just trying to get a blog post finished and are going to shut down the virtual machine as soon as you're done). I admit it. I am a terrible blogger when it comes to timeliness and consistency of post intervals. I actually have a half-dozen posts queued up for publication, but each needs to be scrubbed and fleshed out before I post them, so even though I may be slow to get them out, please know that there are definitely more in this series. In the "Don't do as I do" category...
FEATURES
ALTERNATIVES
Akamai MFA is a cloud-based multi-factor authentication solution using FIDO2 standard to secure workforce logins across various applications through smartphone push notifications.
AWS IAM Access Analyzer is a tool for implementing and maintaining least privilege access in AWS environments through automated analysis and validation of IAM policies and permissions.
Akamai Account Protector is a cybersecurity tool that prevents account abuse by detecting and mitigating fraudulent activities through user behavior analysis and real-time risk scoring.
A tool for privilege escalation within Linux environments by targeting vulnerabilities in SUDO usage.
PINNED

InfoSecHired
An AI-powered career platform that automates the creation of cybersecurity job application materials and provides company-specific insights for job seekers.

Mandos Brief Newsletter
A weekly newsletter providing cybersecurity leadership insights, industry updates, and strategic guidance for security professionals advancing to management positions.

System Two Security
An AI-powered platform that automates threat hunting and analysis by processing cyber threat intelligence and generating customized hunt packages for SOC teams.

Aikido Security
Aikido is an all-in-one security platform that combines multiple security scanning and management functions for cloud-native applications and infrastructure.

Permiso
Permiso is an Identity Threat Detection and Response platform that provides comprehensive visibility and protection for identities across multiple cloud environments.

Wiz
Wiz Cloud Security Platform is a cloud-native security platform that enables security, dev, and devops to work together in a self-service model, detecting and preventing cloud security threats in real-time.

Adversa AI
Adversa AI is a cybersecurity company that provides solutions for securing and hardening machine learning, artificial intelligence, and large language models against adversarial attacks, privacy issues, and safety incidents across various industries.