During Microsoft Patch Tuesdays, there are numerous vulnerabilities involved as outlined in the security bulletin that Microsoft issues during the patch releases.  Firewalls, web filters, anti-spam, NAC, and anti-virus solutions do help to protect against IT security threats and the more layers of security protection a company adds, the more they reduce the risk of a costly and embarrassing IT security breach.  Another very effective method for mitigating vulnerabilities is for companies to remove administrator rights from users.   

“A locked down endpoint is less susceptible to malware that exploits the vulnerabilities that are highlighted every month on Patch Tuesday,” said Dwain Kinghorn, Partner at SageCreek Partners and author of the white paper. 

A review of all the software updates that Microsoft released in 2010 demonstrates that month after month there are vulnerabilities in Windows, Internet Explorer, and Microsoft Office that are mitigated when the user is not running with administrator privileges, specifically:  

• 9 months in which there was at least one update for Microsoft Windows that addressed issues that were less significant when users didn’t have administrative rights
• 7 months in which there was at least one update for Internet Explorer that addressed issues that were less significant when users didn’t have administrative rights
• 11 months in which there were updates for Microsoft Office that addressed issues that were less impacted when users didn’t have administrative rights

Click here to download the full analysis. 

Viewfinity’s Privilege Management balances the rigidity of locking down end points with the needs of user customization. It provides IT security professionals with a method for further securing the end-point by elevating privileges at the application level, or for desktop functions, rather than providing total administrative privileges. Systems are less at risk without sacrificing user productivity or increasing support call volume.

Do you know who has administrator rights on your Windows domain?  If you aren’t sure then download our Local Admin Discovery tool to find out. This tool is provided at no cost to your organization. After the analysis is run, IT Administrators can take action, if needed, by removing the users or suspicious groups from the Administrators group.