Ensure No Auditing for 'Audit Policy: Account Management: Security Group Management' This subcategory reports each event of security group management, such as when a security group is created, changed, or deleted or when a member is added to or removed from a security group. If you enable this Audit policy setting, administrators can track events to detect malicious, accidental, and authorized creation of security group accounts. Note: This setting also audits queries as well as changes in group membership. Events for this subcategory include: - 4727: A security-enabled global group was created. - 4728: A member was added to a security-enabled global group. - 4729: A member was removed from a security-enabled global group. - 4730: A security-enabled global group was deleted. - 4731: A security-enabled local group was created. - 4732: A member was added to a security-enabled local group. - 4733: A member was removed from a security-enabled local group. - 4734: A security-enabled local group was deleted. - 4735: A security-enabled local group was changed. - 4737: A security-enabled global group was changed. - 4754: A security-enabled universal group was created. - 4755: A security-enabled universal group was changed. - 4756: A member was added to a security-enabled universal group. - 4757: A member was removed from a security-enabled universal group. - 4758: A security-enabled universal group was deleted. - 4764: A group's type was changed. Refer to the Microsoft Knowledgebase article 'Description of security events in Windows Vista and in Windows Server 2008' for the most recent information about this setting: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/947226. Counter Measure: Enable Audit policy settings that support the organizational security policy for all the computers in your organization. Identify the components that you need for an audit policy that enables your organization to hold users accountable for their actions while using organizational resources and enables IT departments to detect unauthorized activity efficiently and then track those events in log files. Potential Impact: If no audit settings are configured, or if audit settings are too lax on the computers in your organization, security incidents might not be detected or not enough evidence will be available for network forensic analysis after security incidents occur. However, if audit settings are too severe, critically important entries in the Security log may be obscured by all of the meaningless entries and computer performance and the available amount of data storage may be seriously affected. Companies that operate in certain regulated industries may have legal obligations to log certain events or activities.

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(1) GPO: Computer ConfigurationWindows SettingsSecurity SettingsAdvanced Audit Policy ConfigurationAudit PoliciesAccount ManagementAudit Policy: Account Management: Security Group Management