Tag: Password security

Tighter data protection regulations have forced businesses to put data security at the top of their priority list. However most companies still lack a strong cybersecurity culture among their employees. In fact, a recent paper by Osterman Research reports that less than half (42%) of organizations...

Automation is the key to streamlining Active Directory management tasks. In this article, I’ll show you how to create, change and test user passwords with PowerShell scripts. Installing the AD PowerShell module Before you can use PowerShell to manage Active Directory, you need to install the...

One post thread on Spiceworks caught my eye.  The Spicehead wanted to know what to do about passwords when it came to DR plans.  Was he supposed to put the passwords into it, or just what was he supposed to do with them.  Well, the first thing you don’t want to do is put them in the Disaster...

Any number of unknowns can threaten the security of your environment, but the leading common denominator in threat scenarios is how your team manages their passwords within your environment. Creating and maintaining secure passwords within a team environment comes with unique challenges. You...

Passwords remind me a bit of the Coyote. Not the one that chases the Road Runner, but the one that lives in my native South-West and howls at the moon. No matter how hard humans have tried to get rid of it, it hangs in there, and in most cases, even manages to gain ground back. Why do I compare...

Proving the old adage that “criminals never sleep,” a new piece of malware is making headlines. The aptly named Skeleton Key malware, detected in mid-January, bypasses the password authentication protection of Active Directory. Just as skeleton keys from the last century unlocked any door in a...

The first time I really felt like I was a system administrator was when the Unix systems administrator in the IT unit I worked for at an Australian University went on leave for three months. During this time I was responsible for all of the servers that he had managed, which included all minor...

Recently a discussion on Spiceworks induced me to think about password policy, how we should approach it and what are the best practices. I summarized IT Pros’ comments and hereby I suggest my point of view on how password policy should be organized. Managing access to any system usually...

In a recent download poll performed by NetWrix, an encouraging 54.3% of administrators expressed their need to reset passwords in-bulk reflecting the growing need to clear old passwords that for some may have not changed in years. This type of action indicates that password security is a concern...

Strong passwords are better than weak ones: While most will agree with this statement, there are some who disagree. Users dislike strong passwords because they are cumbersome and easily forgotten. Many users (and managers) feel it’s unnecessary because perceived risk is very low. Managing lost...