How do organizations today handle Active Directory (AD) cybersecurity, and where do they struggle the most?

To answer this question, the State of Hybrid Active Directory (AD) Cyber Resilience survey was conducted in September 2023 via The Experts Conference (TEC), with more than 430 responses from IT professionals and IT executives. The main takeaway is eye-opening: IT pros overwhelmingly know where they should be focusing and how they can better secure their organizations — they just don’t always have the resources and support to do it.

This report explores key findings from the survey, including:

  • IT teams say their top struggle is identifying and limiting security risks, including improper configurations.
  • IT teams know that a security model that prioritizes Tier Zero assets (the control plane) is effective for protecting their organization’s most critical IT assets, but this model is largely unutilized.
  • IT organizations aren’t sufficiently staffed to support all their AD security needs, and shrinking budgets are not the only reason.