Jim Zierrich, of financialrisks.com, says The Goldilocks Principle is the Principle of Least Privileges because end users in a least privileges environment “are neither given too much, nor too little, but just enough to do their jobs well.”   Jim is referring to the access users are given within the workforce, that allows them to do what is required for the job.  It is important to remember that the Principle of Least Privileges is not limiting access but rather it is managing the access to approved IT systems and applications on the basis of employee roles and their requirements to fulfill their job duties.

The added layer of protection offered through least privileges further protects companies from unwanted incidents. Companies are turning to Viewfinity for a privilege management solution that creates a least privileges environment, adding an extra layer of IT security protection. Our privilege management and default-deny application control helps with the practice of enforcing consistent policies for endpoint access to enterprise applications and desktop functions by controlling user rights on PCs.  Our solution manages and executes an end-to-end automated and non-disruptive move to least privileges through a series of automated processes.  You can read more about this on our website.

Mike Vizard, an editor and columnist in the IT space for over 25 years, recently provided an excellent recap related to Viewfinity’s newest capabilities.  In particular, Mike’s article address issues such as:

·         A lot of the trouble with IT security these days comes down to the simple fact that no one is sure who has the right to access what within the IT environment

·         A lot more users than anyone realizes have privileged user rights to access elements of the system that they shouldn’t

·         Having a set of policies in place that are flexible enough to allow people to get their work done without having to give away the keys to the digital kingdom would seem to be a rational approach to balancing security versus productivity

You can read his entire article “Finding the Right Balance Between Access and Security here: http://www.itbusinessedge.com/cm/blogs/vizard/finding-the-right-balance-between-access-and-security/?cs=48101. 

Find out what's new at Viewfinity.

No one wants to have to deal with the threat of malware, and having an anti-virus solution or an alert system like Google’s is not enough.  Layer up on your defense against IT security threats by removing administrator rights from end users and managing approved applications and privileges with a reliable privilege management solution.  After all, if a user doesn’t have the proper rights to install an application, neither does the malware.  No malware means no warnings or alerts and a peace of mind for companies.

Viewfinity wraps-up its sponsorship of the Gartner Security & Risk Summit with a great deal of success.  The show was professional, well organized and packed with interesting sessions and trends on IT security topics from notable Gartner analysts and industry CIOs and CISOs. 

Viewfinity had over 350 booth visitors in 3 days!  The IT security professionals, who when asked about “dealing with administrator rights for end users”, were all on common ground about the pain administrator rights can cause. Some agreed it is painful to support a least privileges environment and others agreed it is a painful security risk when users have administrator rights.  Visitors went on to express their views related to the careful considerations that need to be made when dealing with the subject of removing administrator rights.  Is an all or nothing approach effective? 

We were able to shed some light on this question by showing how the Viewfinity Privilege Management solution can help companies move to a least privileges environment in a non-disruptive manner.  They were impressed with the ease of use of our solution and its ability to negate the all or nothing approach in a seamless manner. Nice work as Viewfinity secured multiple projects just within the first hour on the first day of the show! 

A noteworthy session on “Cloud Performance Security” was covered in-depth by Gartner Analyst, Neil MacDonald, who put into light, that “By 2013 more than 50% of in-line security devices deployed in live networks will be virtualized.” I would like to thank Neil MacDonald for taking time out of his busy schedule to stop by the booth and speak with me on trending IT topics. 

There were plenty of other professionally delivered, smart lectures from Gartner analysts, such as by Gregg Kreizman, who did a great job lecturing about SSO; Dan Blum, who lectured adeptly on Developing a Cloud Computing Strategy, and Peter Firstbrook who intelligently addressed “Securing Web Gateways.”

Signature-based anti-malware solutions are losing effectiveness, thus protecting your organization by implementing multiple layers of security is necessary to mitigate risk. 

A smart, effective move for an adding another layer of protection against malware is eliminating administrator rights. You already know that widespread administrator rights are an administrative nightmare for IT. Users with administrator privileges install inappropriate applications, run bad software, change system settings, and crash their computers. That’s a bad thing for IT. But were you aware that widespread administrative privileges are also a huge vector for malware attack? By eliminating administrator rights, you can prevent many forms of malware from completing their mission – all without ever needing to update an anti-virus signature. Even some forms of the dreaded zero-day attack can be prevented, with the right approach such as eliminating administrator rights and managing policies to elevate privileges with a solution such as Viewfinity’s Privilege Management solution.

Sign up for one of our weekly demos on “Getting Started: Removing Administrator Rights & Setting up Policies to Elevate Privileges for Standard Users”

Protecting your company’s bottom line and reputation after a data breach can be very difficult and costly.  So it is a good practice to have a data breach response strategy in place just in case you have to answer all those daunting questions from “how does this breach affect the company’s financial situation” or “how did this breach occur?”  It’s best to have a response strategy in place so your company is not scrambling to find answers.   

In an article on “How to develop a data breach response strategy” written by Kim Getgen and John W. Woods for Searchsecurity.com, both bring forth the reality that most security professionals are aware of how commonplace cyber threats are becoming.  Kim and John suggest ways to develop a data breach disclosure strategy in case your company becomes a victim of a breach. The guide should help your company respond timely and wisely to a data breach.

Lathrop & Gage LLP is a prestigious law firm with over 700 desktops and laptops running 400 plus applications.  As any IT team can imagine, this poses many challenges, especially related to its staff that works in various remote locations. So what steps did Lathrop take to secure its distributed computing environment?  

Lathrop made the decision to move to a least privileges PC environment.  With this decision, Lathrop decided that Viewfinity’s Privilege Management solution was the best solution for their needs because of its ability to manage and control mobile endpoints over a secure internet connection.  Among the challenges, IT needed a way to efficiently and immediately install custom applications needed by an attorney at a remote site.  The Lathrop IT team is able to push a policy that is immediately propagated on the endpoint (no logoff/logon cycle is needed), elevating privileges for the specific application requested by the attorney, allowing it to be installed and executed, without having to invoke a remote terminal session and use a RUNAS function. Thus the attorney’s focus is on the client’s requirements instead of having to take on the role of an IT support person. With Viewfinity, Lathrop has been able to manage user access privileges effectively and efficiently. 

Ben Weinberger, CIO, of Lathrop & Gage said, “With Viewfinity, we have a method for securing the endpoint client by elevating privileges on the application level, or for desktop functions, rather than providing blanket administrative permissions at the end user level. Being able to control lockdown policies and elevate privileges on the fly, regardless of the end user’s location, and do that cleanly, is very powerful. This has proactively alleviated many IT concerns.” 

Read the full Lathrop & Gage Case Study

Viewfinity’s Privilege Management solution integrates directly with SCCM to provide extended visibility into privilege management policy usage status and information regarding privilege requests from end users. 

Many organizations use Microsoft SCCM for centralized PC life cycle management (deployment, inventory, and software management functions) but SCCM features do not provide application level privilege elevation controls, which are required in locked down environments.   

Viewfinity recognized the need to close the gap between desktop management and endpoint security through policy management.  Desktop administrators that are already using SCCM for desktop and systems management functions are able to leverage their existing SCCM infrastructure for privilege management reporting from one management console.  Using Viewfinity, IT Administrators are able to create detailed policies that control when and how least privilege users access applications and desktop functions. The integration allows IT Administrators to monitor the privilege policies in addition to the base configuration management features that are provided in SCCM. These SCCM reporting capabilities are beneficial for tracking which policies are active, which applications are running with elevated rights, which are blocked, and for applications that users are requesting additional permissions. 

Viewfinity’s Privilege Management solution integrates directly with SCCM to provide extended visibility into privilege management policy usage status and information regarding privilege requests from end users. 

Read more on the solution by following the link below:

http://www.viewfinity.com/Products/PrivilegeManagement/SCCM.aspx

Download the software for evaluation and testing in your environment.

Elevating security rights to administrative levels on a per application basis

An important and challenging problem for IT Administrators to maneuver around is managing administrative privileges on the desktop. Many applications that are developed in-house as well as some commercial products, such as Visual Studio, require running the application as an administrator. If the user doesn't have administrative privileges, the application components will not function or even worse, the application will not run at all. A typical situation facing IT administrators is where an end user needs to run such an application and must either grant full local administrative rights to the user account or utilize the native Windows command "RunAS" and provide the administrator password. Allowing users to have administrative rights or exposing the administrator password is risky and creates a less secure environment, which opens the door for desktop problems to occur.

This problem is especially challenging for IT Administrators working for the government as the recent US Government Federal Desktop Core Configuration (FDCC) mandate stipulates that administrative rights cannot be granted to end users and may not be made available on federal desktops and laptops.

Granting administrator rights at the application level and removing privileges from end users is the best approach for optimum desktop security. With this approach, the desktop operates within the least privileges mode except for applications flagged for elevated privileges.

Here's a 70 second video clip demonstrating Viewfinity Elevate Privileges. Feedback is welcome.