FierceGovernmentIT reported that Government Core Baseline (GCB), formerly known as FDCC, violations were found at a large energy company, along with other least privilege violations.  The company responded swiftly and remediation tactics underway, but are they enough to become compliant and reduce exposure to security risks?  They've started with the layered approach with patch management and password controls however our Energy & Utility clients have completely removed administrative privileges and are using Viewfinity Privilege Management to elevate privileges on the application level, closing down the loophole presented when users have administrator accounts. 

"The report also criticizes the power administration for not following the Government Configuration Baseline (formerly known as the Federal Desktop Core Configuration) on only two of its four server operating systems.

Viewfinity Privilege Management earned high marks in an independent product review by Wayne Rash, President and Analyst, of Wayne Rash & Associates. 

 “The single greatest security threat to most enterprises is the lack of control over administrative rights on client computers. By allowing employees administrative rights, you are opening the door to worms, Trojans and a host of other security problems. The security improvements in Windows 7 and third party privilege management solutions make the OS refresh the perfect time to remove rights. However, this issue is so critical that the removal of administrative privileges should be made as soon as possible,” says Wayne Rash, president and principal analyst of Wayne Rash & Associates.”

Here are some highlights of the Viewfinity review:

• “You can also use the Policy feature to block applications, so if a user has a peer to peer movie downloading package already installed, for example, you can prevent it from operating.

• “You can implement Viewfinity on any network using Windows machines, regardless of whether it Active Directory is in place."

• “With Windows 7, users are presented with a message from the User Account Control system when they attempt to invoke a function that requires administrative rights.” “Because Viewfinity is controlling the administrative rights, you can also control the UAC message.” 

 Click the picture to read the entire review: