Start here: identity in a company

On her first morning, Priya types one password. Her laptop, the file shares and the HR app all know who she is. By lunch she can read the finance reports, but she cannot approve payments. This track shows the parts behind it, how attackers go after them, and how defenders keep them safe.

Why a company is different

Workforce identity is about a known group: employees, contractors, bots and machines. They get much more power than customers. They can read internal data and run servers.

Most companies run an old on-site directory built for Windows networks. Next to it they run a cloud identity provider built for web apps.

Large companies mostly use Microsoft's Active Directory and Microsoft Entra ID, so you should know their words. We also name open tools: OpenLDAP, FreeIPA, Samba AD and Keycloak. The ideas are the same.

If you join an IT services company, you will meet these early. You may fix accounts in Active Directory, approve access requests, guard admin logins and check that laptops are healthy. This track gives you the picture behind those tickets.

Good partners: the lifecycle lesson and Identity Operations.

The journey

1. Directories — the tree every login reads.
2. Kerberos & NTLM — proving who you are without sending your password.
3. Identity governance — requests, approvals and roles.
4. Privileged access management — guarding admin accounts.
5. Password policy that works — what NIST says now.
6. Device trust & ZTNA — the device helps decide each sign-in.
7. The big picture — one company, end to end.
8. Cheat sheet & pop quiz

Do one lesson at a time. Every content lesson has a lab. No lab makes a real network call.

Start with directories.