Quest Change Auditor vs. Barracuda Forensics and Incident Response

Quest Change Auditor is an IT auditing, vulnerability monitoring, and security threat detection platform designed for Active Directory and hybrid Microsoft environments. It provides real-time visibility into important user, administrator, configuration, and authentication changes to help organizations identify potentially malicious activity and investigate security incidents. Change Auditor extends monitoring across Active Directory, Azure AD, Office 365, Windows Server, Exchange, SQL Server, network-attached storage, SharePoint, and OneDrive for Business. The platform detects indicators of compromise across AD and Azure AD while auditing suspicious activity across file servers, Office 365, and Exchange to identify attackers that may already be operating within the network. It can also monitor lateral movement and post-attack activity to provide security teams with additional context about the progression of an intrusion. Preventive controls can block unauthorized changes to critical groups, Group Policy settings and links, sensitive mailboxes, and the Active Directory database regardless of privileges an attacker has compromised. Built-in alerts identify indicators of compromise, while exposure assessments help organizations uncover vulnerabilities across Active Directory, Azure AD, and authentication activity. Change Auditor can detect common Kerberos authentication weaknesses associated with Golden Ticket and Pass-the-Ticket attacks and can send critical change and pattern alerts to email and mobile devices. Its auditing engine captures change information without depending solely on system-provided audit logs and converts events into normalized records showing who changed what, when, where, from which workstation, and the relevant before-and-after values. Threat timelines and related searches connect individual changes with surrounding events to support forensic analysis and security incident response.

In this timeframe, threats can rapidly spread throughout the network, resulting in increased damage and soaring costs. It is vital to respond quickly to attacks, effectively stopping any harm within minutes by conducting thorough searches of delivered emails and promptly removing them from all inboxes. Identifying irregularities that may indicate potential threats is crucial, using knowledge derived from analyzing previously received emails. Utilizing intelligence from past threat mitigation efforts can prevent future emails from malicious sources while identifying your most vulnerable users. When email-based attacks bypass your security protocols and reach your users' inboxes, a swift and accurate response is essential to minimize damage and contain the attack's escalation. Relying solely on manual processes to tackle these threats is not only time-consuming but also ineffective, leading to further propagation and greater overall damage. Consequently, implementing automated solutions can greatly improve your ability to respond and protect the integrity of your network, ensuring that you can stay ahead of potential threats more effectively. Additionally, automation allows for a more proactive security posture, enabling continuous monitoring and timely interventions that are crucial in today's rapidly evolving threat landscape.