Beware the tools that can bring risk to a Windows network

Limit access and federation between on-prem and cloud

One should limit access and federation between on-premises and cloud assets where one can. Yes, we’ve built up reliance on this ability to share data and authentication between cloud assets and on-premises, but too often it’s also introducing weaknesses.

A recent ProPublica article claims that a whistleblower pointed out these risks to Microsoft years before attacks based on them occurred. While the SolarWinds supply chain attacks were the entry points, it was misuse of Active Directory Federation Services that allowed attackers to gain more access. Thus understand the risk involved and add more monitoring resources to review authentication processes.

Finally, if you’ve been a customer of Microsoft 365 for a while, and you haven’t reviewed your security defaults and settings, it’s now time to review those settings. From Microsoft to the Center for Internet  Security, various entities have updated and revised benchmarks over the years. Some benchmarks have more manual steps and some are more automated.