Your CEO calls at 3 am. Every system is locked. Every user is blocked. Your Active Directory has been compromised.
This nightmare plays out across enterprises daily. The backbone supporting more than 90% of organisations globally[1] has become the primary target of cybercriminals. Unfortunately, most executives treat Active Directory like office furniture: essential but invisible.
An Australian law firm that fell victim to ransomware in 2023 allowed attackers to infiltrate the firm’s Active Directory, resulting in a cascade effect that exposed data from 65 government agencies and multiple ASX-listed companies. The firm spent $250,000 on immediate remediation and dedicated 5,000 staff hours to incident response.
Familiarity breeds complacency
Active Directory has just turned 25 and has been a stalwart performer in the enterprise technology stack. But that predictable and reliable performance has caused it to fade from sight for IT and security teams. In 2024, Microsoft said that its customers now face more than 600 million cybercriminal and nation-state attacks every day, ranging from ransomware to phishing to identity attacks[2].
“Active Directory has powered enterprise identity for over two decades, but that familiarity breeds risk,” explains Richard Kulkarni, Country Manager ANZ at Quest. “It’s the backbone of any organisation, and cyber criminals know it. In today’s landscape, overlooking Active Directory is like leaving the master key under the doormat.”
The issue is so critical that the Australian Signals Directorate (ASD) developed detailed guidance with Five Eyes agencies to detect Active Directory compromises[3]. The message couldn’t be clearer: this foundational technology has become the battleground for cyber warfare.
Costs that go beyond financial losses
Every major Active Directory breach follows a similar progression: initial credential compromise, privilege escalation through Active Directory misconfigurations, lateral movement using compromised credentials, and ultimately, widespread system compromise.
Attackers don’t need sophisticated zero-day exploits; they often succeed through basic security failures, such as missing multi-factor authentication and poor credential management.
Forrester calculates Active Directory downtime costs organisations A$1.11 million per hour. Even for large Australian enterprises, a successful attack could mean weeks of complete paralysis.
But the impact goes beyond costs. Australian hospitals, for example, have become prime targets, with one Melbourne hospital network forced to cancel elective surgeries and revert to paper processes for weeks after ransomware locked their systems. A Queensland healthcare provider experienced nearly two months of manual operations, with staff using whiteboards instead of digital patient management systems.
An active approach to Active Directory security
The good news is that there are tools in the market that can shave the weeks-long nightmare of Active Directory recovery to a minutes-long inconvenience.
“The Forrester Total Economic Impact report calculated that Quest Recovery Manager for Active Directory delivered US$19.7 million in benefits following a ransomware attack,” Kulkarni notes. “That’s the difference between business continuity and business catastrophe.”
Quest’s comprehensive approach addresses the three capabilities the ASD identifies as critical: real-time threat detection, deep visibility, and rapid recovery.
Quest Security Guardian uses Azure AI and machine learning to establish behavioural baselines and detect anomalies like unusual spikes in account lockouts, failed sign-ins, or permission changes.
It also clearly articulates key attack path risks before they’re exploited and offers the ability to prevent changes to critical AD assets, ultimately helping to reduce the risk of a cyber-attack. At the same time, it integrates seamlessly with Microsoft Security Copilot to provide AI-driven insights that help security teams respond faster.
But detection is only half the battle, and experienced security teams know that it is not whether a breach will occur, it is when. Being able to get the organisation back up and running quickly is equally important to preventative measures.
Quest Recovery Manager for Active Directory automates the entire forest recovery process, including the 40+ steps outlined in Microsoft’s best practices.
It offers multiple recovery methods, from phased recovery that restores critical domain controllers first to clean OS recovery that eliminates malware reinfection risks.
The solution can even restore Active Directory to Microsoft Azure virtual machines, ensuring you have a trusted, clean environment for recovery.
Quest’s Secure Storage feature provides air-gapped backup protection, regularly checking backup integrity and ensuring your recovery point remains uncorrupted.
This means even if ransomware destroys your domain controllers, primary storage and online backups, you still have clean air-gapped backups ready for rapid restoration.
The boardroom imperative
For C-suite leaders, Active Directory security directly impacts three boardroom priorities: operational continuity, regulatory compliance, and reputation protection.
Recent Australian breaches demonstrate how quickly public trust evaporates when core systems fail. Weeks of downtime mean lost revenue, regulatory penalties reaching $50 million or more, customer defection, and lasting reputation damage.
With the right systems in place to recover from a breach, recovery can be reduced to minutes. That’s a bad morning for staff and a brief inconvenience for customers, quickly forgotten.
Your Active Directory deserves the same security attention as your newest technologies, because in attackers’ hands, it remains your most dangerous vulnerability.
Discover how Quest solutions can protect your Active Directory and reduce recovery time from weeks to minutes here.
[1] Frost & Sullivan, Active Directory Holds the Keys to Your Kingdom, but is it Secure?, Mar 2020
[2] Microsoft, Microsoft Digital Defense Report 2024, Oct 2024
[3] Australian Signals Directorate, Detecting and Mitigating Active Directory Compromises, Jan 2025
Read More from This Article: Why hackers love Active Directory and what you need to do about it
Source: News