Quest Change Auditor vs. Microsoft Purview Audit

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.

Evaluate the severity of any security breach while thoroughly examining audit logs to support investigative efforts. Utilize these logs effectively to gain valuable insights and enhance the evaluation of the breach. In addition, implement a flexible bandwidth allocation to ensure you can readily access vital auditing data. This will assist in investigations by providing critical information about events, including the timing of email interactions such as openings, responses, and forwards, along with user activity on platforms like Exchange Online and SharePoint Online. It’s essential to create customized audit log retention policies that cater to the specific services involved, the types of activities being monitored, or the identities of the users engaged in those activities. Organizations typically start with a default capacity of 2,000 requests per minute, which can be adjusted based on user seats and the licensing agreements in place. Furthermore, with the right additional licensing, audit logs can be archived for periods extending up to 10 years, promoting thorough documentation practices. By adopting this comprehensive strategy, organizations significantly improve their capacity to manage security incidents and conduct detailed investigations when required, ultimately strengthening their overall security posture.