CrowdStrike Enhances Active Directory Auditing in Falcon Identity Protection

Identity is the new battleground in today’s rapidly evolving cyber threat landscape. Microsoft Active Directory (AD), a cornerstone of enterprise identity management, is a frequent target for attackers. For organizations, protecting these critical environments without adding complexity is essential.

Many organizations struggle to get full visibility into changes made within Active Directory. Missing key details can leave security teams with unknown gaps in their security posture, exposing them to risks such as privilege escalation.

CrowdStrike Falcon® Identity Protection empowers organizations to consolidate capabilities such as Active Directory auditing into a single unified cybersecurity platform. This eliminates the need for a fragmented system of identity protection point products and helps security teams operate with greater efficiency and effectiveness.

Today, we’re excited to introduce enhanced AD auditing functionality within Falcon Identity Protection. These updates, designed to provide comprehensive visibility into AD changes, help security teams quickly identify who made changes, what changes were made, when they occurred and where they originated — all from the same AI-native CrowdStrike Falcon® platform trusted by thousands of organizations worldwide.

Let’s explore how these new capabilities enhance visibility, streamline security operations and address gaps in Active Directory auditing.

Close Critical Gaps in AD Auditing

CrowdStrike’s newest Active Directory Auditing capabilities provide a complete view of critical changes to ensure that the organization’s security posture remains strong. Security teams can use this contextual data to understand and quickly respond to risky activity while maintaining alignment with organizational policies.

Receive Automated Alerts and Reporting

Falcon Identity Protection now takes the guesswork out of AD monitoring with real-time security alerts and flexible reporting. Users can configure notifications to stay ahead of risky changes, automate responses and enrich existing detections with actionable insights.

Need historical insights? Schedule daily reports for routine review or generate on-demand reports for the past week. Whether security teams require instant visibility into critical changes or a comprehensive historical view, Falcon Identity Protection seamlessly integrates into their workflows to meet their needs.

By embedding these innovations directly within the Falcon sensor, Falcon Identity Protection eliminates the need for standalone auditing solutions. Organizations can consolidate tools, simplify security operations and reduce operational overhead — all while benefiting from a unified approach to identity security. 

How Active Directory Auditing Works

Active Directory Auditing, provided with Falcon Identity Protection, enhances security visibility by enabling organizations to monitor and collect critical Active Directory management actions. Activation of this capability allows the Falcon sensor to monitor and capture Active Directory change events in real time. With Active Directory Auditing, organizations gain:

1. Event Collection and Centralized Visibility: The Falcon sensor collects important AD event details such as modifications to users, groups and permissions. These events are made accessible through CrowdStrike Falcon® Next-Gen SIEM, providing a centralized and granular view of AD activity for enhanced visibility and investigations. 

2. Enriched Detections and Automated Alerts: Security teams can use AD Auditing data to enrich existing detections, get additional context when privilege escalations occur, monitor for risky or unexpected changes and configure automated alerts for high-risk activities.

3. Automated Response Actions: CrowdStrike Falcon® Fusion SOAR workflows enable teams to automate response actions and improve existing SOC by providing the ability to revoke privileges and active sessions, and isolate compromised accounts, or by triggering further investigation actions, ensuring swift and efficient mitigation of potential threats.

By streamlining AD monitoring and response, CrowdStrike’s AD auditing capabilities empower security teams to proactively detect and address risks, safeguarding the integrity of this critical infrastructure.

Built for Today’s Identity Security Challenges

The Active Directory Auditing capability is just one example of how CrowdStrike continues to lead the charge in identity security. Recently recognized as the leader in Identity Threat Detection and Response (ITDR), CrowdStrike remains committed to delivering innovative features that help security teams stay ahead of identity-based threats — whether they’re external attacks or insider risks.

Interested in seeing how Falcon Identity Protection can help secure your AD and Entra ID environment? Schedule a free Identity Security Risk Review to learn more.

Additional Resources

• Read our eBook: The Complete Guide to Building an Identity Protection Strategy
• Check out this customer’s story: TDK Electronics Goes from Complexity to Confidence with CrowdStrike
• Visit our Identity Protection webpage