Darren Siegel

Active Directory

Compliance

Password Management

Darren Siegel is a cyber security expert at Specops Software. He works as a lead IT engineer, helping organizations solve complex challenges within IT security. Darren has more than 15 years’ experience within Active Directory, IT security, servers, storage, virtualization, cloud, and identity and access management.

Articles written by Darren Siegel

May

27

Scripting new user onboarding with First Day Password

One common question we have received regarding Specops First Day Password is how to bulk enroll users. Many of the organizations or industries we work with, for example education, onboard several new users or employees at specific intervals. The good…
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Mar

23

PowerShell scripts to force password change for all users after a security incident

There's plenty to do in the aftermath of your organization suffering a security incident. Anything that can make your job quicker without compromised security is a bonus. After a confirmed or even suspected security breach, it's often advised to to…
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Mar

29

Using Major League Baseball team names as passwords is a homerun for hackers

The Cincinnati Reds, America’s oldest baseball team, may have one of Major League Baseball’s (MLB) worst pre-season odds to win the World Series, but the team sits alone in first place on Specops’ breached password list. This is according to…
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Jul

20

How to manage Active Directory password requirements

Password policies are a foundational element of any organization's security posture, especially in environments managed by Active Directory (AD). These policies help ensure that user credentials meet baseline complexity requirements, reducing the risk of unauthorized access. However, understanding and verifying…
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Jul

15

Resetting the clock on Active Directory password expiration

I recently worked with a customer who was implementing Specops Password Policy with Length-Based password aging. Usually we see customers use this to extend their maximum password age, for example: the current Active Directory maximum password age is 90 days; Specops…
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Apr

15

How to configure Specops Password Notification

In this blog post we will review some common configurations for Specops Password Notification. Password Notification is a tool for configuring and sending password expiration reminders to your users. This tool is especially useful for communicating with remote users who…
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Feb

12

How to configure password expiration notifications

In many organizations, password expiration notifications are not just a recommendation but a necessity to comply with internal policies or regulatory requirements. They help ensure that end users adhere to these rules, maintaining both personal and organizational security standards. Password…
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Sep

16

How to enforce password complexity in O365?

As organizations continue migrating data and services to the cloud, management and enforcement of strong password policies has never been more important. When it comes to Office 365 cloud-only users (not synchronized with a corresponding to an Active Directory account)…
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Jul

17

Password length best practices

When it comes to making strong passwords, the single most important factor is the length of the password. As long as a password isn’t easily guessable by other means (e.g. use of common words, username, repeating characters) length is your…
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May

24

Finding users who have not changed their password recently

One of the primary challenges with implementing a new password policy in Active Directory is ensuring users have changed their passwords to be compliant with that new policy. As we cannot view users’ current passwords in plain text to confirm…
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