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One of the many features of an Active Directory Password Policy is the  maximum password age . Traditional Active Directory environments have long using password aging as a means to bolster password security. Native password aging in the default Active Directory Password Policy is relatively limited in configuration settings. Let's take a look at a few best practices that have changed in regards to password aging. What controls can you enforce in regards to password aging using the default Active Directory Password Policy? Are there better tools that organizations can use regarding controlling the maximum password age for Active Directory user accounts? What password aging best practices have changed? Password aging for Active Directory user accounts has long been a controversial topic in security best practices. While many organizations still apply more traditional password aging rules, noted security organizations have provided updated password aging guidance. Microsoft has...

Password security has long been an issue for businesses and their cybersecurity standards. Account passwords are often the weakest link in the overall security posture for many organizations. Many companies have used Microsoft's default password policies for decades. While these can be customized, businesses often accept the default values for their organization. The Windows default password policy is a good start, but are there security vulnerabilities associated with it? Let's look at the current recommendations from leading cybersecurity authorities and see how they measure up against the Windows default password policy. Windows default password policy settings Many, if not most, business environments today use Microsoft Active Directory as their identity and access management solution in the enterprise. Active Directory has served organizations in this capacity for decades.  One of the built-in capabilities provided by Microsoft Active Directory Domain Services (ADDS)...

End-user passwords are one of the weakest components of your overall security protocols. Most users tend to reuse passwords across work and personal accounts. They may also choose relatively weak passwords that satisfy company password policies but can be easily guessed or brute-forced. Your users may also inadvertently use  breached passwords  for their corporate account password. The  National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST)  has a cybersecurity framework that helps organizations address common cybersecurity pitfalls in their environment, including weak, reused, and breached passwords. This post will take a closer look at the NIST password guidelines and see how you can effectively audit your password policies to ensure these meet the standards recommended by NIST. NIST Password Guidelines and Best Practices Specific guidance around passwords is addressed within the chapter titled  Memorized Secret Verifiers . NIST has several recommendations...

In today's digital world, password security is more important than ever. While biometrics, one-time passwords (OTP), and other emerging forms of authentication are often touted as replacements to the traditional password, today, this concept is more marketing hype than anything else. But just because  passwords aren't going anywhere anytime soon  doesn't mean that organizations don't need to modernize their approach to password hygiene right now.  The Compromised Credential Crisis As Microsoft's  security team put it , "All it takes is one compromised credential…to cause a data breach." Coupled with the rampant problem of password reuse, compromised passwords can have a significant and long-lasting impact on enterprise security. In fact, researchers from Virginia Tech University found that over 70% of users employed a compromised password for other accounts up to a year after it was initially leaked, with 40% reusing passwords that were leaked over three years a...

While passwords remain the first line of defense for protecting user accounts against unauthorized access, the methods for creating strong passwords and protecting them are continually evolving. For example, NIST password recommendations are now prioritizing password length over complexity. Hashing, however, remains a non-negotiable. Even long secure passphrases should be hashed to prevent them from being completely exposed in the event of a data breach – and never stored in plaintext. This article examines how today's cyber attackers attempt to crack hashed passwords, explores common hashing algorithms and their limitations, and discusses measures you can take to protect your hashed passwords, regardless of which algorithm you are using. Modern password cracking techniques Malicious actors have an array of tools and methods at their disposal for cracking hashed passwords. Some of the more widely used methods include brute force attacks, password dictionary attacks, hybrid attacks...

Bolstering password policies in your organization is an important part of a robust cybersecurity strategy. Cybercriminals are using compromised accounts as one of their favorite tactics to infiltrate business-critical environments; as we've seen in recent news, these attacks can be dangerous and financially impactful. Unfortunately, account compromise is a very successful attack method and requires much less effort than other attack vectors. One of the essential types of password protection recommended by noted cybersecurity standards is  breached password detection . Hackers often use known breached password lists in credential stuffing or password spraying attacks. Here are some critical criteria to consider when your sysadmins are evaluating breached password protection solutions.  Breached password recommendations In the last few years, password security recommendations have evolved past the traditional recommendations regarding password security.  Businesses h...

As cybersecurity researchers continue to piece together the sprawling  SolarWinds supply chain attack , top executives of the Texas-based software services firm blamed an intern for a critical password lapse that went unnoticed for several years.  The said password " solarwinds123 " was originally believed to have been publicly accessible via a GitHub repository since June 17, 2018, before the misconfiguration was addressed on November 22, 2019. But in a  hearing  before the House Committees on Oversight and Reform and Homeland Security on SolarWinds on Friday, CEO Sudhakar Ramakrishna testified that the password had been in use as early as 2017. While a preliminary investigation into the attack revealed that the operators behind the espionage campaign managed to compromise the software build and code signing infrastructure of SolarWinds Orion platform as early as October 2019 to deliver the Sunburst backdoor, Crowdstrike's incident response efforts pointed to a...

90,000 Military Email Accounts Leaked in Latest #AntiSec Attack In latest tweet by AnonymousIRC , Hackers leaks  90,000 Military Email Accounts from Booz Allen Hamilton is a massive American consulting firm for #AntiSec. Anonymous call it " Military Meltdown Monday: Mangling Booz Allen Hamilton " . The Leak include 90,000 logins of military personnel—including personnel from US CENTCOM, SOCOM, the Marine Corps, various Air Force facilities, Homeland Security, State Department staff, and what looks like private sector contractors. They Release it via Torrent of 130.5 MB archive file. Press Release by Anonymous is : Hello Thar! Today we want to turn our attention to Booz Allen Hamilton, whose core business  is contractual work completed on behalf of the US federal government, foremost  on defense and homeland security matters, and limited engagements of foreign  governments specific to U.S. military assistance programs. So in this li...