ADAudit Plus empowers Ithala with robust security monitoring

Business challenges

• Access to comprehensive, insightful logs: The absence of comprehensive logs made it challenging for Ithala to keep up to date with activities across its digital environment.
• Effective user monitoring: Ithala needed a robust system that could show the precise logon activities of all domain users.
• User behavior analytics (UBA): Ithala found it crucial to have a system in place that could effectively track users who exploit privileges or attempt unauthorized activities.
• Robust reporting: The organization needed efficient reporting with a variety of options to view data from multiple perspectives.

The problem

As a financial corporation tasked with providing critical services to underserved communities, Ithala holds the responsibility of managing extensive digital assets. Ensuring the security of these assets is paramount, particularly in a landscape where IT security threats are becoming increasingly sophisticated.

Ithala's system needed to deliver comprehensive logs detailing activities within the digital environment to strengthen the organization's security monitoring and digital forensics. The lack of such logs posed a challenge as Ithala struggled to keep a close eye on system activities, a crucial part of preventing breaches and unauthorized access.

Moreover, the corporation found it difficult to implement effective user monitoring. With an expanding user base accessing its domain, there was an urgent need to maintain a robust system that could show the precise logon activities. Without such a system, managing access and keeping track of users had turned into a daunting task.

Another significant challenge was UBA. In an extensive digital ecosystem, there is always a risk of users exploiting privileges or engaging in unauthorized activities. However, without a competent tracking system in place, identifying such users was a considerable challenge for Ithala.

Lastly, the IT team at Ithala needed a more robust reporting system. It sought an efficient solution capable of delivering insightful reports from various perspectives. A system that could not only capture data but also present it in a meaningful, actionable manner was missing. Ithala's old reporting system did not offer the desired variety, leaving a gap in the analytical capabilities of the IT team.

These pressing challenges propelled the corporation to seek a solution that could enhance its security posture, improve user monitoring, provide effective UBA, and present comprehensive reports. In its quest for such a system, Ithala turned to ManageEngine ADAudit Plus.

The outcome

Upon implementing ADAudit Plus, Ithala experienced a significant improvement in its security monitoring and digital forensics. Thembekile Ndlovu, ICT security officer at Ithala, praised the product's efficiency, saying, "The visibility of logs in our environment has improved our security monitoring and digital forensics. [The reports] are absolutely well-designed, with a variety of options to choose from. We are able to report on a lot of perspectives."

In addition to the software's capabilities, Ndlovu was especially pleased with the support Ithala received from ManageEngine, saying, "They have been very helpful and dedicated to troubleshooting and resolving the issues reported."

Looking at ADAudit Plus as a whole, Ndlovu said, "I would recommend it to other IT teams. The visibility of domain activities is stunning." Giving the software an overall experience rating of 10 out of 10, Ithala recognizes ADAudit Plus as an exceptional asset for its IT security needs.

As an integral part of the ManageEngine AD360 suite, ADAudit Plus continues to provide organizations like Ithala with robust IT security and monitoring capabilities, empowering them to safeguard their systems and improve their operational efficiency.

About ADAudit Plus

ADAudit Plus is a real-time Active Directory change auditing solution that features file and folder monitoring, plus access and permission change capabilities. With more than 200 event-specific reports and real-time email alerts, it provides in-depth knowledge about changes made to both the content and configurations of Active Directory, Azure AD, and Windows servers. Additionally, ADAudit Plus provides thorough insights on workstation and file server access (including NetApp and EMC). For more information about ADAudit Plus, visit https://www.manageengine.com/products/active-directory-audit/.