So far in this chapter, we have talked about protecting identities. While this is the most valuable thing in the infrastructure, it is not the only valuable thing. In Chapter 1, Active Directory Fundamentals, we looked at how data is becoming the new oil. Some data types have a higher value than others, and these high-value data types are confidential/sensitive for a person, group, company, organization, or country. Adversaries are after identities because compromised identity infrastructure allows them to access different types of data. Identity and access permissions decide what sort of data a person should have access to.
As an example, a director of a company has more access to confidential data about the company than a receptionist does. The protection of sensitive/confidential data not only depends on the protection of identity infrastructure, but it also depends on...