
You can automate cleanup to help prevent security problems. This process-based approach isn’t all you need, however. Fortunately, there are a number of ways to manage this digital detritus.Īs both types of objects represent physical entities, clear communication between the HR team (regarding staff movements, hiring, and firing) and procurement or facilities teams (regarding equipment movements, acquisitions, and disposals) will go a long way towards keeping your Active Directory clean. In both cases, it’s important to remove these stale objects as they could become attack vectors that compromise your network’s security. User objects have associated passwords so the user can log their account into the network, while computer objects have access to other information in Active Directory. 'Stale' user objects and computer objects are user accounts and physical devices that are no longer part of the network.

These can pose a security risk, especially if old objects are forgotten and left in place instead of being deleted or disabled when no longer necessary.

However, as your network evolves, the Active Directory database accumulates a lot of user and computer objects, each of which has various access privileges to different services and different parts of your network.

Active Directory is a powerful way to organise network users and computers and to handle authentication and administering policies for security, upgrades, and other tasks in Windows.
