Admin privileges are an important part of maintaining a secure network environment. In order to protect sensitive data, it is important to restrict admin privileges so that only those with the appropriate level of access can make changes to the system.
As a business owner, you need to carefully consider which of your employees should have admin privileges. With a strict policy in place, your business can ensure that only authorised personnel have access to sensitive data to mitigate risk and ensure accountability.
What is the Essential Eight?
The Australian Cyber Security Centre (ACSC) developed Essential Eight as mitigation strategies organisations should implement in order to reduce the likelihood of cyber-attacks.
The eight strategies cover prevention, limitation, and recovery – and are ranked on four levels of maturity, from Level 0, which signifies weaknesses in the organisation’s overall cyber security posture, to Level 3, which focuses on mitigating adversaries that are skilled in exploiting their target’s weaknesses.
The Essential Eight mitigation strategies are:
- Implementing application control
- Assessing security vulnerabilities and patching applications
- Configuring Microsoft Office macro settings
- User application hardening
- Restricting administrative privileges
- Patching operating systems
- Multi-factor authentication
- Daily backups
What are administrative privileges?
Administrative privileges are the highest level of access any user can have on a computer system. It allows users to perform tasks such as installing programs, changing system settings, and accessing all files and folders on the computer. These privileges are usually reserved for only a few authorized users, such as the system administrator and other privileged accounts.
However, administrative privileges must be monitored and managed carefully to prevent abuse.
Why should admin privileges be restricted?
Restricting admin privileges ensures a system is more stable, predictable, and easier to manage and support, as fewer users are able to make significant changes.
For example, a malicious actor with unrestricted admin privileges could easily delete important files, alter system configurations, and install malicious software. This could lead to data loss, system outages, and other security risks that could cost an organisation a lot of money and resources. It could also put the organisation’s confidential data at risk, as well as the data of its customers.
How to restrict admin privileges
The ACSC recommends restricting admin privileges by:
- Identifying tasks that require admin privileges.
- Identifying the team members are needed to carry out these tasks as part of their duties.
- Creating separate accounts for team members with admin privileges and ensure each account has the least amount of privileges to perform their duties.
- Re-evaluating team members’ duty requirements that involve privileged accounts frequently, based on when they change duties, leave the business, or are involved in a cyber security incident.
Only minimising the number of privileged accounts, or implementing shared, non-attributable privileged accounts, do not meet the restriction needs that reduce risk to your business’s network.
Implement the Essential Eight mitigation strategies with expert help
Admin privileges are an important part of your business’ network security posture. Unfortunately, admin privilege abuse is rife in organisations of any size. It’s important to restrict access to sensitive data to only those with a need to know, and you can do that by implementing the ACSC’s Essential Eight mitigation strategies.
The cyber security experts at Itopia specialise in helping businesses bring their cyber security strategies in line with the Essential Eight and increasing their security posture. Talk to them today and ensure you’re prepared.
