Active Directory (AD) is the foundation of identity and access management (IAM) at most organizations and, as such, is probably the most crucial technology on the network. More and more systems and applications depend on AD and Azure Active Directory (AAD) for authentication, policy, entitlements, and configuration management. If AD is insecure, everything is insecure.

AD/AAD security, then, is crucial to controlling risk and ensuring compliance. But maintaining AD in a clean, organized, and secure state is a challenge for organizations. This is especially true with user accounts, which are both important for security and difficult to maintain.

This guide provides 10 steps that you can take to remediate user account problems in AD and to prevent them from occurring in the future.