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Security In Context

BeyondTrust’s blog tackles important issues for your company including network and data security.
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Least Privilege is the Cure for Enterprise Injury

Post by admin May 5, 2011

Have you ever really hurt yourself? Maybe broken a bone or torn a ligament? If your answer is yes, you’ll understand (all too well) when I say these injuries can hurt, cost a TON of money to fix, and sometimes happen in really embarrassing ways. Not surprisingly, bodily injuries aren’t the only wounds that can cause those consequences. Enterprise injury, specifically those caused by the misuse of privilege, can also be quite damaging in the exact same ways.

Enterprise injuries can hurt! Whether it’s someone accidentally downloading malware while running as an administrator to an employee with malicious intentions to depart with precious company information, pain can disrupt the fragile balance within your environment.

The misuse of privileges can cause an enterprise injury that costs a TON of money to fix!Physical injuries require treatment, sometimes extensive in nature, in order to heal properly. Your company is the exact same. Audits, investigations, and even loss of employment are all IT “surgeries” that are necessary to treat the damage caused by this type of wound.

Enterprise injuries can happen in embarrassing ways! Sometimes it’s a begrudged former employee. Other times it’s an indirect breach. Any time an individual can hack your security measure and access sensitive information, it becomes an embarrassment.

So what can be done to prevent such an injury to your company? It’s actually quite simple. Just like we can avoid injury to our physical bodies, steps can be taken to avoid damage to our enterprises, too. Instead of vitamins, exercise, and proper diet, however, your company needs a healthy dose of least privilege. If you eliminate the misuse of privilege by delegating administrator rights, rest assure that your company will be free from enterprise injury.

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Additional articles

2

Organizing your PowerBroker Desktops Rules

When tackling a project to remove administrator privileges from users, it is critical to understand what applications and tasks will be impacted. Some things just break or won’t function properly when users are no longer administrators. Of course, PowerBroker Desktops is designed to elevate those apps and tasks that require administrator privileges so that there…

Post by admin October 20, 2012
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Don’t say “Lockdown”!

Here at BeyondTrust, we have been fortunate to be able to speak with thousands of security professionals in dozens of industries, and it is astonishing how differently organizations assess risk and approach computer security. Some organizations are very strict about security and are able to completely lock down desktops. Others are significantly more lax about…

Post by admin October 15, 2012
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PowerBroker for Windows – Solution Deployment

PowerBroker for Windows (PBW) is designed to integrate directly into your corporate Active Directory (AD) structure without modifying your existing schema. In the asset labeled “1” below, an administrator simply loads a Group Policy Option (GPO) snap-in onto an asset that uses the Microsoft Management Console (MMC).  The administrator can then create policies and rules…

Post by Morey Haber October 11, 2012
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